Licensed plumbers & gasfitters · Cairns & the Northern Beaches
Plumbing built for the wet.
Burst pipe at 3 am, a gas cooktop that won’t light, or a drain the fig tree has moved into. Fourteen plumbers, nine stocked vans, and a phone that a real person answers — day or night.
- Since 2009locally owned
- ~25 minaverage emergency arrival
- Fixed pricebefore the tools come out
What we fix
Six things we do every single day.
Open a card for what’s involved, how long it takes and what it usually costs. No surprises on the invoice — that’s the whole point.
Blocked drainsRoots, wipes, fat — found on camera, cleared with a jetter.
Cairns sewer lines are old clay and the fig trees know it. We run a CCTV camera down first, show you the footage on the tablet, then clear it with a 4,000 psi jetter. If the pipe is cracked we can reline it without digging up the driveway.
- CCTV inspection with footage emailed to you
- High-pressure jetting and root cutting
- Pipe relining — no trenches
TypicalMost blockages cleared in under 90 minutes · from $240
Hot waterElectric, gas, heat pump and solar. Same-day swaps.
Every van carries a 250 L and a 315 L system, so a dead unit at breakfast is usually a hot shower by dinner. In our humidity a heat pump runs beautifully and costs about a third of an electric tank to run — we’ll tell you honestly if it suits your house.
- Same-day replacement on most systems
- Heat pump and solar rebate paperwork handled
- Valve, element and thermostat repairs
TypicalLike-for-like swap in 2–3 hours · quoted on the spot
Gas fittingLPG and natural gas: cooktops, BBQs, hot water, leaks.
Most of Cairns runs on bottled LPG, and most of the gas faults we see start at a tired regulator. We install and service cooktops, outdoor kitchens, bayonet points and gas hot water, leak-test the whole line and leave you the compliance certificate.
- Licensed gasfitters on every shift
- Pressure and leak testing on every job
- Compliance certificate issued same day
TypicalCooktop swap in about 90 minutes · from $320
Leak detectionWater bill doubled? We find it without ripping out tiles.
Thermal imaging, acoustic listening gear and tracer gas let us pinpoint a leak under a slab or behind a wall to within a few centimetres. You get one small, neat hole instead of a demolished bathroom — and a report for your insurer.
- Thermal, acoustic and tracer-gas detection
- Written report with photos for insurers
- Repair on the same visit where we can
TypicalFound in 1–2 hours · fixed-fee detection from $390
Bathroom renosStrip-out to final tile, waterproofed to standard.
One crew, one point of contact, one timeline. We run the plumbing, waterproofing, tiling and electrical partners ourselves and give you a fixed price and a start date. Accessible and ageing-in-place bathrooms are a specialty.
- Fixed price and a written schedule
- Waterproofing certified and photographed
- Walk-in showers, grab rails, step-free floors
TypicalA standard bathroom in about three weeks
Backflow testingAnnual tests, council paperwork lodged for you.
Cafés, gyms, strata and anything with irrigation usually has a testable backflow device that must be checked every year. We test it, repair or replace it if it fails, lodge the report with council and set a reminder for next year so you never think about it again.
- Accredited backflow testers
- Report lodged with council for you
- Automatic reminder before the next test is due
TypicalAbout 30 minutes per device · from $165
About Saltwater
A Cairns business, run from a Portsmith workshop since 2009.
Dale started Saltwater with one ute and a phone that never went to voicemail. Seventeen wet seasons later there are fourteen of us — licensed plumbers, gasfitters and three apprentices we train ourselves — and the phone still doesn’t go to voicemail.
We know which suburbs have old clay sewers, which streets flood first in a king tide, and what the salt air does to a hot water system in Machans Beach. That local knowledge is most of the job.
- Plumbers & gasfitters
- 14
- Stocked vans on the road
- 9
- Workmanship guarantee
- 12 mo
How a job goes
Four steps. No guesswork.
The same way every time, whether it’s a dripping tap in Edge Hill or a burst main at a Smithfield café.
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You call. A person answers.
Weekdays it’s Mel in our Portsmith workshop. After hours it rings straight through to the plumber on call — never a call centre in another state.
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A window, then a name.
We text a two-hour arrival window, then your plumber’s name and van. They ring 30 minutes out so you’re not stuck waiting at home.
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A fixed price before the tools come out.
We find the fault, explain it in plain English and quote the job. Say yes and we start. Say no and you only pay the call-out.
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Fixed, tested, photographed.
Before-and-after photos, compliance paperwork lodged and the invoice in your inbox before we’ve reversed out. Twelve-month workmanship guarantee.
Where we go
Palm Cove to Gordonvale, and every street between.
Nine vans leave the Portsmith workshop each morning and stay spread across the city, so one is rarely more than twenty minutes away.
Northern Beaches
- Palm Cove ~35 min
- Clifton Beach ~32 min
- Kewarra Beach ~28 min
- Trinity Beach ~25 min
- Yorkeys Knob ~25 min
- Smithfield ~22 min
- Holloways Beach ~18 min
- Machans Beach ~16 min
City & inner suburbs
- Cairns City ~6 min
- Manunda ~8 min
- Earlville ~10 min
- Edge Hill ~12 min
- Whitfield ~12 min
- Freshwater ~18 min
- Redlynch ~22 min
Southside
- Woree ~10 min
- Mount Sheridan ~15 min
- White Rock ~15 min
- Bentley Park ~18 min
- Edmonton ~20 min
- Gordonvale ~28 min
Typical drive times from the Portsmith workshop. Further out? Ask — we often are.
Word around town
Locals say it better than we can.
★★★★★
“Hot water died at 6 am on a Monday — three kids and a school run. Dale had a heat pump in by lunch and explained exactly why the old tank cooked itself.”
★★★★★
“Found a leak under our slab with a listening gadget in about forty minutes. The last mob wanted to jackhammer the kitchen floor.”
★★★★★
“Gave me a price and stuck to it. Cleaned up after themselves. Showed me the camera footage of the roots in the drain, which was gross but fair.”
★★★★★
“Rang at 11 pm on a Saturday with sewage coming up the shower. Someone actually answered, and he was here in twenty minutes.”
★★★★★
“We manage 140 rentals. Saltwater is the first plumber our tenants have ever bothered to compliment.”
★★★★★
“Backflow test done, council paperwork lodged, reminder set for next year. I didn’t have to think about it once.”
Sample reviews written for this example design.
The paperwork
Licensed, insured, and happy to prove it.
Ask any of our plumbers to show you their licence card at the door. They will, and they won’t be offended.
- Contractor licence
- QBCC 1234567 (example)
- Gas work
- Licensed gasfitters for LPG and natural gas
- Backflow
- Accredited testers for testable devices
- Public liability
- $20 million cover
- Guarantee
- 12 months on all workmanship
Get a quote
Tell us what’s going on.
Non-urgent jobs get a call back within two business hours with a price or a time to come and look. If water is coming through the ceiling, skip the form.
Call 0491 570 156Or email hello@example.com