Australia’s Leading Sewer Vent Shaft Design, Fabrication & Installation Company
SVSR designs, fabricates and installs sewer vents across regional NSW, with many existing shafts situated on residential property. Given the need to traverse homes, backyards and farms, there can be some special circumstances to navigate… as we discovered on a recent trip to Grenfell in the NSW central west.
David Beness has worked for SVSR for close to 20 years – as a boilermaker, driver, labourer and general hand – so he knows the sewer vent industry exceptionally well. And he sees one major requirement when working on private land.
“We’re working in people’s homes, so we need to work efficiently, safely and above all, respectfully to the owners.” And that means paying particular attention when a vent shaft is located as it was in Grenfell… adjacent to a beloved horse’s grave.
Visiting Grenfell
Grenfell is a popular weekender town with a rich and eclectic history. It thrived after gold was discovered on a local outcrop in 1866, is renowned as the birthplace of Australian poet Henry Lawson and was home to notorious bushranger Ben Hall.
The atmospheric main street is dotted with heritage architecture… and when David visited recently, he spotted a horse and cart ambling along.
Grenfell is part of Weddin Shire Council, which SVSR services with vent shaft inspection, removal and replacement.
As David explains, “Council generally does an initial inspection and determines which sewer vents should take priority. We visit for a week at a time and do up to five vent shaft replacements.”
A family project
On our most recent trip to Grenfell we visited an elderly couple who had a dead tree leaning on an aging vent shaft earmarked for replacement.
To add to the equation, the vent was positioned very close to the burial spot of the family’s horse.
“There was also an electric fence adjacent, which was keeping the other horses away from the animal’s grave,” explains David. “We first organised permission for the electric fence to be shut off before working to remove the tree. We cut the entire tree into logs for the couple to use in their fireplace… and they were extremely grateful.”
David explains the service is not unusual. “Our crew agrees we should treat each property as if it were our mother’s. We are going onto people’s private land, we may need to use some of their power and water… so as a thank you we want to go above and beyond.”
Storm damage solutions
SVSR has worked extensively for Weddin Shire – and it’s a collaborative process across multiple projects.
“They had a major electrical storm there a while ago and a couple of vent shafts had been hit by lightning,” David explains. “They have reo bar (reinforcing bar) through the concrete. Once exposed it becomes a lighting conductor and it can potentially get blown apart if struck.
We visited one which was close to collapse and too dangerous to bring down using our usual method. We spoke to Shahab Khaled, Contracts Engineer, at the council who went out of his way to organise the equipment for us that day. He was incredibly helpful and we were able to complete the job just as needed.”
Service a SVSR specialty
David enjoys working in regional areas, and he finds rural customers very hospitable.
“Usually, customers have been contacted by the council to let them know we’re coming. We may need to rearrange times to best suit them however, or even organise with neighbours to set up cranes or access vent shafts through their property. We negotiate with our customers to make sure everyone is happy.”
SVSR provides full project management in sewer vent shaft inspection, design, fabrication, removal and replacement.
We started as a family business and now have a fantastic team who, like David, have overarching expertise in the sewer vent shaft industry.
So please contact us if you need outstanding sewer vent solutions across regional NSW… from a team that really knows customer service.
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