Handover and Defect Plumbing Checks in Clyde

Why new homes need a plumbing check

Building a home in a growth corridor like Clyde means many trades working fast on many houses at once. Most of the plumbing is done well, but small faults slip through: a shower waste that does not quite drain the corner, a basin trap that weeps, a push-fit joint behind a wall that drips slowly. These often do not show up until the home has been lived in for a few months. Most builders offer a maintenance period after handover, and anything reported in that window is normally fixed at the builder's cost.

What we check

Our check covers every wet area and the plumbing outside. We run each fixture and look for leaks at traps, hoses and connections. We check showers and floor wastes for proper fall so water does not pond. We test the toilet cisterns, check water pressure and whether a pressure limiting valve is fitted, confirm the hot water system is installed with access for servicing and has a tempering valve, and look at the overflow relief gully height and the stormwater pits. Where recycled water is supplied, we check that the purple taps and pipes are correctly identified.

We can also run a camera through the sewer from the inspection opening to look for building debris and damaged pipe, which is much easier to raise with the builder now than in five years.

Your report

You get a plain-English list of what we found, with photos and the location of each item, so you can pass it to your builder with your maintenance list. We do not inflate the report: if the plumbing is fine, we say so.

After the warranty period

If the maintenance period has passed, we can still fix the faults we find. For bigger problems that may be structural or defective work, the Victorian statutory warranties for domestic building work run much longer than the builder's maintenance period, so it may still be worth raising with your builder or Domestic Building Dispute Resolution Victoria.

Common plumbing defects in new Clyde homes

Over many inspections, the same items come up again and again: showers with the floor waste in the wrong place so water sits in a corner, silicone instead of proper seals at shower screens, basin and laundry traps that weep at the slip joint, missing or loose pipe clips that let pipes knock in the walls, hot water units installed without a tempering valve or without room to service them, overflow relief gullies set too low or covered by landscaping, and pressure limiting valves that were never fitted. None of these are major on their own, but together they can cause water damage and complaints for years.

When to book

The best time is in the first few months after handover, before your maintenance period ends, and ideally after you have lived in the home long enough to use every bathroom. We can also check before handover if your builder allows a pre-handover inspection.

Clyde ground

Clyde homes sit on heavy basalt clay that swells after rain and shrinks hard over summer. Drains laid in that clay move with it, so joints open up and roots find their way in. On the new estates the ground has been cut and filled for house pads, which can leave sewer lines with a slight belly that holds water and collects waste. When we clear a drain or chase a leak in Clyde, we keep that soil in mind and use a camera to check the line rather than guessing.

From your call to the finished job