Plumbing and gasfitting reports in Christchurch

Who asks for one, and why

• Buyers. A builder's report covers the structure. It rarely tells you much about the plumbing, and almost nothing about the gas. A separate plumbing and gas report tells you whether you are inheriting a cylinder with two years left in it, a galvanised main that is closing over, or an appliance that has never been certified.
• Landlords and property managers. A condition report at the start of a tenancy, or a scheduled check across a portfolio, so maintenance is planned rather than reactive. It also gives you something in writing when a tenant reports a fault that turns out to be longstanding.
• Insurers and claims. After a failure, what actually failed and why — written plainly, with photos. Insurers ask for this more often than people expect, and a clear report moves a claim along.
• Businesses. Gas compliance across a site, hot water capacity for the way the premises is actually used, and the state of the plumbing you have inherited in a leased tenancy. Useful before signing a lease, and useful when a landlord and a tenant disagree about who owns what.
• Owners planning work. Before a renovation or a sale, a straight assessment of what is worth doing and what is not.

Dux Quest pipe — the thing most reports are really looking for

If there is one reason to get the plumbing looked at before you buy, this is it. Dux Quest is a grey or black flexible plastic (polybutylene) pipe installed in New Zealand homes from the late 1970s through the 1980s, with distinctive plastic fittings and crimp rings. It degrades from the inside over time, goes brittle, and fails — and it tends to fail suddenly rather than by dripping first.

The real problem is insurance. Most insurers now treat Dux Quest as a known defect: cover for water damage is commonly excluded, some will not write a policy on a house that still has it, and others make replacement a condition of cover. That has a way of becoming a mortgage problem as well as a plumbing one. Policies differ, so check with your own insurer — but find out before you are committed, not after.

The remediation scheme that dealt with Dux Quest in the 1990s closed a very long time ago. If a house still has it in the walls today, replacing it is the owner's cost.

Where we look for it

• The hot water cupboard — the runs in and out of the cylinder are usually the easiest length to identify.
• Under the house — subfloor runs, where the pipe and its fittings are visible along the bearers.
• Under vanities and the kitchen sink — the tails up to the tapware.
• Anywhere a previous owner has been. This is the one that catches people out: partial replacements are common. Someone replaced what they could see and left the runs inside the walls or under the floor. A house can look re-piped in the cupboard and still be full of it. We check the accessible runs properly rather than glancing at one length and calling it done.

Where we find it, the report says so plainly, with photographs, and sets out how much of it appears to be left and what a full replacement would involve.

Full replacement

The only real fix is to take it all out and re-pipe the house in modern materials — copper, or PEX where it suits. We do this work.

• All of it, not the easy bits. A partial replacement leaves the failure risk and, as far as most insurers are concerned, leaves the problem. If a run genuinely cannot be reached without opening a lining, we tell you that in writing rather than quietly leaving it.
• Staged so you keep water. On an occupied house the work is sequenced so you are not without water overnight.
• Access first, linings last. Most homes have enough subfloor or ceiling access that the damage is far less than people fear. We will tell you honestly where a wall has to be opened before we start.
• Documented at the end. You get a record of the work, which is what your insurer will want to see before they will reinstate normal cover.

A full re-pipe is quoted, not charged by the hour. Send us the report or give us a look at the house and we will price it properly.

What a report covers

We look at what is accessible without opening up linings or lifting floors, and we say plainly where we could not see.

• Hot water. Type, age, capacity, pressure class, valve set, tempering valve, and an honest estimate of how much life is left.
• Water supply. Pressure and flow at the fixtures, the state of the main where it is visible, isolating valves, and whether the pipework is copper, PEX, galvanised or a mix of all three.
• Fixtures and pipework. Taps, mixers, toilets, wastes, visible leaks, and anything installed in a way that will cause trouble later — including checking for Dux Quest, which is covered in detail above.
• Gas. Appliances, bottle or reticulated supply, the state of the installation, and whether it has ever been certified. Gasfitting has to be certified on installation and after any alteration, and a surprising number of installations have no paperwork at all.
• Drainage, to the gully trap. What we can see and test above ground. Anything in the buried line needs a drainlayer with a camera — we will say so where that is what it needs.

What you get

A written report with photographs, findings set out in plain English, and each item sorted into needs doing now, needs doing soon, and worth knowing about. Where a repair is worth pricing, we give you an indicative cost rather than leaving you to guess.

We do not pad a report to justify work. If the plumbing is in good order, the report says so — that is a useful answer too, and it is what you paid for.

What it costs

Reports are charged at our standard rates — $135 + GST for the first hour including travel, then $95 + GST an hour, which covers both the time on site and the time writing it up. A standard three-bedroom house is usually two to three hours all up. For a commercial site or a portfolio, ask for a quote and we will price it properly.

If you go on to have us do the work the report identifies, that is quoted separately and the report stands on its own either way.