Traced with equipment rather than found by opening walls, and diagnosed honestly, including when what you have is not a leak at all.
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People ring about leaks with two very different problems, and separating them on the phone saves a visit more often than we would like to admit.
The first is water leaving the system. That shows up as a creeping meter with everything closed, a bill that has climbed with no change in habits, or a stain that has appeared with no obvious source. That one needs equipment and it needs it soon.
The second is pressure, and it usually is not a leak at all. If one outlet is weak and the rest of the house is normal, the water is not going missing, it is being restricted on the way to that fixture. A furred aerator, a worn seat, an isolating valve somebody left half closed, or a corroded length of supply serving only that outlet.
The difference matters because leak detection and a pressure fault are different jobs at different prices. So we ask two questions first: is it one outlet or all of them, and does the meter move with everything off. Sometimes that ends the call with a five dollar part.
Shut the supply off before anything else, then ring. We will stay on the line while you find it.
The single most useful question, and you can answer it in a minute. Poor pressure at one tap is that tap. Poor pressure everywhere is the property.
Run the kitchen, then a bathroom basin, then a shower, and compare. It takes less time than describing the problem on the phone.
That single answer decides whether this is a five minute repair or a detection visit, and the two are very different prices.
An aerator, a tap seat or a part-closed valve costs almost nothing to put right, and between them they explain most complaints about pressure at a single outlet.
Aerators clog with the sediment that comes off old pipework, and on housing of this age there is plenty of it. Unscrewing one and rinsing it takes two minutes.
It is worth trying before booking anything, because it is free and it works more often than people expect.
That is either the supply to the property, a pressure limiting valve, or narrowing distribution. All three are real and all three have a different answer.
Galvanised pipe narrows from the inside over decades without changing anything you can see, which is the usual explanation in older housing.
A gradual loss over years points at narrowing. A sudden change points at a valve or the supply.
That is water genuinely leaving the system on your side. Close every tap, the machine and the dishwasher, and watch the smallest dial for two minutes.
A dial that sits perfectly still means your pressure complaint is a restriction rather than a loss, and that is worth knowing before anybody starts looking for a leak.
This is the test that stops a wasted detection visit, which is the whole point of this page.
It is the single most useful thing a householder can do after confirming a loss, and it takes two minutes and no equipment.
Keep moving means the fault is on the cold side of the property. Stop means it is the unit or the hot distribution past it.
Before that becomes bad news, check the relief valve outlet. A valve discharging continuously has failed to seal, which reads identically and is a much smaller job.
Water on a buried external run can disperse without showing at the top, particularly under an established garden that gets watered anyway.
So the absence of a wet patch is not evidence of anything, and the bill is frequently the only symptom you will get.
A jump with no change in habits is worth acting on rather than watching for another quarter to see whether it settles.
Not in the dark, in the rain, on the night it matters. Find the meter, find its tap, and check the tap actually turns, on a dry afternoon with nothing happening.
On properties of this age they seize, and a seized meter tap is its own small job on a quiet Tuesday rather than a crisis at midnight.
Make sure somebody else in the household knows too.
Under the sink, behind the toilet, at the hot water unit. Closing one of those stops a specific problem without taking water off the whole house.
In a house with original joinery and floors, that difference matters. Less water for less time is the entire objective.
They are small taps and easy to miss. Worth having somebody point them out while they are on the property.
The braided hoses under vanities and behind cisterns last around five years and they do not fail gently. They go all at once, at full mains pressure, frequently while nobody is home.
In a house with original boards and plaster, the consequence is considerably worse than in a modern one, because what gets wet is not a warehouse item.
They are cheap and quick to replace, and they are the one thing here worth doing before anything is wrong.
Water follows the fall of a joist, the back of a stud or the top of a slab and appears wherever it finally escapes. A ceiling stain can be metres from the fitting that failed.
In a house with a subfloor and fibrous plaster the travel can be considerable, and the visible damage is frequently in a different room entirely.
So the wet spot is a clue rather than an address, and cutting into it is frequently the wrong first move.
Acoustic listening picks up the noise a pressurised leak makes through structure and soil. Thermal imaging finds the heat signature of a hot water leak behind a surface.
Pressure testing isolates sections until the one losing water gives itself away, which on old distribution is the tool that does most of the work.
On a house with original finishes, that sequence is the difference between a repair and a restoration.
The domestic ceiling is 500 kPa static at any outlet, and the valve that holds it there wears out at around eight to twelve years. It fails open, so nothing warns you.
Read the symptoms together. Taps that keep dripping after repair, water hammer that was not there before, and appliance inlet valves failing early all point the same way.
It also closes the loop on this page, because measuring is what separates a pressure problem from a restriction and from a leak.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Water stopped and the situation stabilised, at any hour.
Where the symptom turns out to be a restriction rather than a leak.
Acoustic, pressure and thermal, with nothing opened to find it.
Depending on the pipe, the material and how it has to be reached.
What it was, where it was, and what we did about it.
One outlet or all of them, and does the meter creep with everything off. Those answers decide the whole visit.
Acoustic listening, pressure testing and thermal imaging until it is a point rather than an area.
A single access point at the fault, instead of a series of hopeful ones on the way to it.
What it turned out to be, 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 569Usually not, and this is the most useful distinction on the page. A leak takes water out of the system, so it tends to show at the meter and on the bill rather than as one weak outlet. One outlet losing pressure while the rest are normal is nearly always a restriction at that outlet: an aerator, a tap seat, an isolating valve part-closed, or a corroded section of supply serving only that fixture.
Two checks. First, is it one outlet or all of them. Second, with every tap and appliance off, does the smallest dial on the meter creep. One outlet plus a still meter is a restriction. All outlets, or a creeping meter, and it is worth a proper look.
Because leak detection is a different job from a pressure fault, and paying for the wrong one is a wasted visit. Two minutes of checking on the phone frequently changes what we bring and sometimes ends the conversation with a five dollar fix.
Shut the water off at the meter before anything else, then ring. How much a burst costs is very largely decided by how long the supply stayed on.
It is one of the more common calls we take. A leak on a buried external run can disperse for months without ever showing at the surface, and the bill is the only symptom you get.
Acoustic listening, pressure testing and thermal imaging, chosen to suit what is leaking and where it runs. None of them involve opening a wall to have a look first.
Locating a concealed leak is $250 to $600. A burst repair is $300 to $900. A pressure fault diagnosed and corrected is $150 to $400. Emergency isolation and make-safe is $200 to $450.
Tell us whether it is one outlet or the whole house, and what the meter does with everything off. Those two answers narrow it before anybody arrives.
Diagnosed honestly, located with equipment, and opened once.
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