Plumbing Checks before Buying a New Home


Browsing for a new home is not a mundane task. You have to look beyond appearances, no matter how appealing the house looks, and see if there are potential structural and technical issues with the house. There are several crucial checkups you need to go through once you’ve found a house to your liking, and one of the most important items on that list are definitely plumbing checks before buying a new home.

The network of pipes is like a minefield in the walls

The old Latin saying goes – Caveat emptor – which can be translated as “buyers beware”. In the case you decide not to do a thorough checkup of the plumbing before you put a down payment on a house, it can easily be categorized as carelessness. The kitchen and the bathroom are two of the most important rooms in the house when it comes to function, and the plumbing that connects to faucets and appliances is a complex network of pipes that runs through the entire household. In the case of bad piping, it’s as if you are purchasing a minefield within the house walls.

Possible consequences

If there is a malfunction in the waiting somewhere, it will rear its ugly head pretty quickly after you move in – first it begins as a blotch on the wall, and before you know it, you have to move out and spend a small fortune on a string of renovations. Sometimes, the price of these renovations can rival the price of a small house, so you’ll end up spending double on one barely functional home. Therefore, the consequences of not doing a plumbing check can be dire.

If the issues are glaringly obvious…

Here’s a possible scenario – you absolutely and unequivocally fall in love with the house, yet some plumbing issues are not only telegraphed by the sellers, there are already visual and technical confirmations of them in the house.

You are faced with a tough choice – completely abandon the house you can easily see yourself and your family living in, or purchase it, but deal with the problem at its root. Not all repairs will cost a small fortune if they are tackled on time. For instance, this Gladesville-based plumber can offer impecable services with courtesy and efficiency, without taking unreasonable ammounts of money from your pocket.

Maybe start off with a professional opinion

However, most of the time, plumbing issues are insidious and invisible until it is too late. Unless you are a professional plumber yourself, it is best to start the checkup with some reliable consultation. As you cannot be certain about how many plumbing issues there are in the house (if any), hire an inspector who has a lot of experience and who will save both yours and agency’s time by tackling potential weak spots, starting with the most frequent issues and leading from there.

At the end of the assessment, every inspector worth their salt will give you a financial estimate for the repairs. If they do not by any chance, remind them you’ll need one, and ask them to be as specific as they can.

What you can do yourself

Before you hire an inspector or plumber, there is one specific thing you can do by yourself – ask the seller to turn off all the valves and faucets in the household and implore them to return in a few days and check if the water meter is still turning. This process can appear tedious, but if you really like the house and you are eager to put a down payment on it, it might save you a lot of headache. If the water meter has moved, you definitely need to call the inspector for an assessment.

It’s easy to become enamored with a house that looks pretty, but you have to look beyond the façade in order to address the crucial issues that can have an immense impact on the quality of your life. Whether the home is new or renovated, the traders will fall back on superficial aesthetic “makeup” to hide the cracks and blemishes on the household. Therefore, apart from electricity, it is of utmost importance to do a thorough checkup of the plumbing.