Water off first, photograph second, and the replacement fitting usually arrives with the plumber rather than after him.
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The order for a burst is not negotiable. Get the water off at the meter first, because everything about what this costs is decided between the failure and the tap closing.
Once it is off, take a photograph. Not for the record and not for an insurer, but because it is the single most practical thing you can do to make this a one-visit job. A picture of the failed section shows the pipe material, the type of fitting and roughly its age, and those three things decide what has to come with us.
It matters here specifically because there is nothing in Cheltenham to fetch. No hardware store, no plumbing supplier. Whatever a repair needs either arrives on the van or the job takes a second visit, and the second visit is the one that costs you a morning.
The same is true of the far less dramatic version. A dripping tap is not a universal object: spindles and seats vary by type and brand. A photo from the front and from above regularly means the correct parts are in the van before anybody leaves.
Shut the supply off, then take one picture. We will stay on the line while you do both.
What a burst costs is decided between the failure and somebody closing the water. The repair afterwards is ordinary work. The five minutes before it are flooring, cabinetry and ceilings.
Know where your meter and its stop tap are, and check the tap actually turns, on a dry day when nothing is happening. On older properties here they seize.
If the tap is stiff, do not force it to the point of snapping it. A seized meter tap is itself a job worth booking, and it is a great deal cheaper to sort out on a quiet Tuesday than to discover during a burst.
Pipe material, fitting type and roughly the age, all in one image. None of those three survive being described down a phone by somebody who has no reason to know the vocabulary.
One photo from the front and one from above is usually the whole story, and it decides what we put on the van.
Include something for scale if you can, even a hand or a coin. Diameter is one of the three things that decides what fittings we bring and it is the hardest to judge from an image on its own.
Spindles, seats and cartridges vary by type, brand and era, and there is no generic replacement that fits everything. A tap that looks ordinary can take a part that only two suppliers carry.
This matters more here than most places, because there is nothing in the suburb to fetch and no shops to fetch it from. The photo is what stops the visit becoming two visits.
If the tap is one of a matching set, say so. Replacing one visible fitting with something that does not match the other three in the same room is a result nobody is pleased with, and it is avoidable if we know in advance.
Turn everything off, including the machine and the dishwasher, then watch the smallest dial on the meter for two minutes. Creeping means water is genuinely leaving the property somewhere.
A dial that sits perfectly still points somewhere else entirely, usually at usage rather than a fault, and that is worth knowing before anybody opens a wall.
Note the reading before you go to bed and again in the morning if you want a stronger version of the same test. Overnight with nothing running is the cleanest measurement most households can take.
If the dial is moving, close the valve on the inlet to the hot water unit and watch it again. Still moving means the leak is on the cold side. Stopped means the unit or the hot line past it.
Two minutes of that cuts the search in half before we arrive, and it is genuinely the most useful thing a householder can do.
If the reading stops when the hot water is isolated, check the relief valve outlet before assuming the worst. A valve discharging steadily is a common and inexpensive fault that looks exactly like a hidden leak on a meter.
Water follows the fall of a joist, the back of a stud or the top of a slab, and it appears wherever it finally gets out. A stain in a ceiling can be metres from the fitting that failed.
Which is why cutting into the wet spot is frequently the wrong first move. Finding it properly means acoustic listening, thermal imaging or pressure testing sections until the line that is losing water identifies itself.
This is the reason we would rather locate before we cut. Opening the ceiling under a stain is quick and satisfying and quite often reveals nothing but wet plaster.
The braided hoses under vanities and behind cisterns last around five years and they do not fail gradually. They go all at once, at full mains pressure, and frequently while nobody is home.
They are cheap, the job is quick, and they are the most common cause of a genuinely ruinous indoor flood. If you cannot remember when yours were changed, that is your answer.
Turning off the isolating valves under a vanity when you go away for a week costs nothing and removes the risk entirely for that period. It is the cheapest advice on this page.
Not because of what we charge for it, but because of your morning. A return trip for a part that could have been identified from a photograph costs you a day you did not need to spend.
Thirty seconds with a camera is the cheapest insurance against that, and it is the whole reason we ask.
It is also the reason we do not mind being sent too many photographs. There is no such thing as too much information before a job, and there is very much such a thing as too little.
On blocks this size, water can leave a service line and go straight into the ground without ever producing a wet patch anybody would notice. The quarterly bill is frequently the only symptom, and by then it has been running a while.
The meter test is the first move, and the second is the run between the meter and the house. Long driveways mean long service lines, and a leak in that section shows up on the bill and nowhere else.
It is worth ruling out the ordinary explanations before assuming the worst. Irrigation on a timer, a pool topping itself up and a slow cistern all produce the same bill as a buried leak, and all three are considerably cheaper to fix.
Acoustic equipment listens for the noise a pressurised leak makes through soil and slab. Thermal imaging picks up the heat signature of a hot water leak behind a wall or under a floor. Pressure testing shuts off sections in turn until the one losing water gives itself away.
The aim is to know where it is before anything gets cut, and on a house with tiled or timber floors that is the difference between a repair and a renovation.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Water stopped and the situation stabilised, at any hour.
Fittings included, and the right ones if you sent a photo.
Acoustic, pressure and thermal, with nothing opened to find it.
Depending on the pipe, the material and how it has to be reached.
Where it was, what failed, and what we did about it.
We stay on the phone for the first and ask for the second, because between them they shape the entire visit.
From what the photograph showed, rather than from what we hope is on the shelf in the van.
Where the leak is concealed: acoustic, pressure and thermal, until it is a point rather than an area.
What failed, where, and what it took, at the figure agreed before we started.
Shut it off at the meter and ring. A licensed plumber can be heading toward you while you are still on the call.
Call 1300 381 569Turn the water off at the meter before anything else, then ring. How much a burst costs is almost entirely decided by how long the supply stayed on, and nothing else in the first five minutes matters as much.
Once the water is off, yes, and it is genuinely useful rather than a formality. A photograph of the failed section shows the pipe material, the type of fitting and roughly its age all at once. Those three things decide what needs to come with us, and there is nowhere in Cheltenham to collect something we did not bring.
Same answer and it matters more than people expect. Tapware is not universal. A photograph of the tap, from the front and from above, tells us the type and frequently the brand, and whether the spindle and seat we would bring are the right ones.
Less directly, but the surrounding detail still helps. A photo of the wall or ceiling where it is showing, and of the meter with everything closed, tells us more than a description of either.
Close every tap and appliance, then watch the smallest dial on the water meter for a few minutes. If it is creeping, water is leaving somewhere on your side. If it is still, whatever you are seeing has another explanation. It costs nothing and it takes five minutes.
Acoustic listening, pressure testing and thermal imaging, chosen to suit what is leaking and where it runs. None of them require opening a wall to have a look first.
Emergency isolation and make-safe is $200 to $450. Locating a concealed leak is $250 to $600. A burst repair is $300 to $900. A tap or valve repair is $150 to $350, fittings included.
Shut the water off, then send one photograph of whatever has failed. Those two actions do more for the outcome than anything else you could do.
Made safe, located, and repaired with the right part rather than the nearest one.
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