Why Endeavour Hills homes need similar work
One generation of houses
Victorian Places says about half the suburb was under residential development by the end of the 1970s and most of it was finished in the 1980s. The population went from 1,916 in 1976 to 23,938 in 1991.
Big brick family homes
Most homes are single, double or triple-level brick houses on large blocks, with few units and no high-rise. At the 2021 Census, 87.5% were separate houses and 43.9% had four or more bedrooms.
Mostly owned
42.0% of homes were owned with a mortgage, 37.0% owned outright and 18.6% rented.
Foothills and a creek
The suburb climbs from level ground at Hallam into the Lysterfield foothills, with Eumemmerring Creek along its boundary with Hallam and Doveton. It's in the City of Casey.
What that means for the wiring
A house finished in the late 1970s or the 1980s has a switchboard that's about four decades old. Some were built with circuit breakers, others with rewireable fuses, and many have one safety switch or none. Since the Asbestos Hub says homes built or renovated before 1990 likely contain asbestos, treat an original meter board with care and leave it closed.
Smoke alarms are the other common job. By Victorian law, homes built before 1 August 1997 only need standalone battery alarms, so plenty of Endeavour Hills houses still have them. They're fine while they work, but Fire Rescue Victoria advises replacing every alarm after ten years, and in a two-storey house hardwired, interconnected alarms are worth asking about.
What you can do, and what needs a sparky
You can
- Press the test button on each smoke alarm, and change batteries in battery models.
- Press the test button on each safety switch a few times a year to check it trips.
- Note which circuit trips and what was running, so the electrician starts with facts.
Leave to a licensed electrician
- Swapping fuses for circuit breakers or adding safety switches.
- Installing or replacing hardwired smoke alarms.
- Anything inside the meter box beyond resetting a switch, especially on an old board.
If it were our house
We'd get the switchboard and the smoke alarms looked at in one visit. In a suburb where most houses went up in the same few years, the same problems come up again and again, and an electrician who does a lot of older-board work will know where to look.
Want a specialist to sort it?
Tell us the job and your postcode. We match the licence-checked local electrician who does this kind of work, and they call you. No ring-around, and your number goes to them alone.