The 10-minute plumbing check every homeowner should do

Most plumbing disasters send warning signs weeks or months in advance. A ten-minute walk-through twice a year catches nearly all of them, costs nothing, and needs no tools beyond food colouring and a torch. This is the same quick sweep Terry runs at his own place, and after nearly four decades on the tools around Berala and Western Sydney it is the advice he gives more often than any other.

The ten-minute checklist

• Water meter leak test. Turn off every tap and water-using appliance in the house, then watch the meter for five minutes. If the dials move at all, water is escaping somewhere between the meter and your taps, and hidden leaks under slabs or inside walls announce themselves exactly this way.
• Flexi hoses. Open the cupboards under every sink, basin and toilet and look at the braided hoses. Rust spots, fraying strands or bulging mean replace now. Burst flexi hoses are among the most common causes of internal flooding claims in Australian homes.
• Tap drips. A tap dripping once a second wastes thousands of litres a year and is usually just a worn washer or cartridge. Note every dripper, inside and out, including the garden taps everyone forgets.
• Toilet dye test. Put a few drops of food colouring in the cistern and wait fifteen minutes without flushing. Colour appearing in the bowl means the outlet valve is leaking, silently sending water down the drain around the clock.
• Hot water system age and condition. Find the compliance plate and check the manufacture date. Systems past eight to ten years are approaching the end, and a sacrificial anode replacement around the five-year mark can add years to a storage tank. Look for rust streaks and weeping at the valves while you are there.
• Gutters and downpipes. From ground level, look for plants growing in the gutters, staining on the eaves, and downpipes that discharge against the slab instead of into a drain. All three cause damage that costs far more than the cleaning would have.

What the results mean

A moving meter with everything off deserves prompt professional attention, because slab leaks only get worse and the water bill proves it. A failed dye test is a cheap valve fix that pays for itself in saved water within months. Aging flexi hoses are an inexpensive part, but the consequences of ignoring them are measured in ruined floors. Drips and gutter issues sit at the bottom of the urgency list, and they are also the cheapest to sort while they are small.

Make it a habit

Run the check twice a year. Daylight saving changeover weekends work well as a reminder, the same trick people use for smoke alarm batteries. Keep a note of the hot water system date and the last anode change, because future-you will not remember. Ten minutes twice a year will not make a house maintenance-free, but it reliably turns four-figure emergencies into two-figure repairs, and that is about the best return on time a homeowner gets.