The Investment We Thought We'd Made
When you live in tropical Far North Queensland, dealing with heavy rain and managing rising stormwater isn't a minor detail - it's everything. Our region has some of the nations highest recorded rainfall, 700mm over a 24 hour period during our last weather event - water level rise quickly. So, ahead of an upcoming wet season in Port Douglas, you could imagine doing some routine drain maintenance would be prudent.
We've had enough sleepless nights and stress filled days due to rising stormwater to be completely sold on prioritising as many solutions as possible and until recently we were completely confident in our setup. After all, we had engaged a plumber at a cost of $13,000, with a large portion of that budget dedicated specifically to upgrading our stormwater capacity from 90mm pipe to a higher volume 100mm line - at the plumbers suggestion.
The newly completed Art Shouse has a roof that makes for an ominous rain water catchment, so there was an opportunity here or a dilemma... depending on your take. You may be getting that we've had some close calls with rising rainwater flooding - water lapping at the back door type thing - the Art Shouse roof could redirect a significant amount of that volume away from the property... or into it😬. So we had resolved to address it immediately... and do it right.
Routine Maintenance, Shocking Discovery
Fast forward to wet season preparation, the stormwater had been upgraded and in place for a few seasons and we were performing some annual maintenance, clearing out the stormwater where it exits onto the street. We had hired an expensive drain cleaner to clear any build up of debris in the drains - but the machine continued to jam on something. We did what we could then returned it and continued over the coming days with whatever we could find to try and dislodge or expose the cause of the blockage. This is when we uncovered a heartbreaking case of home improvement fraud... well, tradie fraud to be accurate.
The "Blind Man's Upgrade" Explained
Our plumber had pulled a "cosmetic cover-up", something we've since learned is common enough to have a term, the "Blind Man's Upgrade".
We eventually discovered he had swapped out the visible component of the stormwater - where it meets the street - with a short piece of 100mm pipe, so the job appears to have been completed, but a few metres back and underground, he left the 90mm original infrastructure intact (the pipe he had advised to upgrade to a larger gauge). He literally shoved the new pipe into the old one - not even an appropriate connector, with nothing but daylight and dirt to fill the gaps, this is what was causing the drain cleaner and anything else finding its way into the system to jam. The major stormwater capacity upgrade we paid thousands for was entirely redundant, leaving us with a hidden, hydraulic choke point.
A Midnight DIY Rescue Mission
Discovering we’d been completely ripped off over a routine stormwater line clearing - just days before flying to Tokyo for a long-planned art trip - was a total gut punch. We’ve gone "all in" on our independent arts business, constantly pushing to diversify our income and stay creatively economic. Art sale margins are razor-thin, and living in the tropics means there are certain infrastructure investments where you simply cannot cut corners. Taking a financial hit of this scale, especially when it is inflicted by a fraudulent fellow small business owner, hurts deeply. Instead of packing our bags for Tokyo, we spent our final night at home chasing down an underground bottleneck by the glare of car headlights, desperately trying to salvage our property before the heavy rains arrived... all too aware that apathy at this point could mean returning from our trip with bigger problems.
What to Look For Before You Pay
If you are a homeowner doing your own wet season property maintenance, navigating costly plumbing scams, or trying to protect your land from contractor shortcuts, this is our raw, unfiltered story of what happens when a $13,000 investment turns into a dusk DIY rescue mission so if you want to see the "Blind Man's Upgrade" with your own eyes, we caught the whole shocking discovery and the aftermath on camera.
Head over to The Art Shouse Studios YouTube Channel to watch the full video breakdown and see exactly what our plumber left behind!