A Plumbing Maintenance Checklist
Exercise every isolation valve so it still turns. Check the water heater for sediment and the relief valve for drips. Look under every sink for a weep. Read the meter with all taps closed. Clear aerators. Inspect roof tanks and their floats. Most emergencies begin as one of these.
The five minute checks
Turn every isolation valve you can find through its full travel and back. A valve that will not move is useless in an emergency and it is cheap to replace now. Read the water meter with everything closed, then read it again fifteen minutes later. Look under each sink with a torch, at the trap and at the flexible connectors, which are the single most common thing we find weeping behind a cabinet. Look behind the toilet pan too, at the jet spray angle valve, which weeps for a year before it shows.
The seasonal checks
Look at the water heater. Lift the relief valve briefly and let it reseat. Look for rust staining below the cylinder. Unscrew the aerators from the taps that have weakened and clean them. Run a finger along the sealant line at the bath, because a hairline gap there feeds the ceiling below, see bathtub repair. In a villa, inspect the roof tank, its lid and its float, because a float seating badly overflows quietly all summer on a roof nobody visits, and a tank nobody opens is a tank nobody has checked. Ahead of the rain, clear the gutter tank of the sand that blew into it.
The checks that need an engineer
Pressure at the incoming main, gauged rather than guessed. The condition of the pressure reducing valve and the air charge in a booster pump's expansion vessel. The internal condition of a drain that has blocked before. Buildings that keep generating callouts usually spend less on a scheduled inspection than on the callouts, and they get a record of what changed each year.
Common Questions
How often should I check my plumbing?
The five minute checks suit a monthly rhythm and cost nothing. The seasonal checks suit twice a year. The engineer level checks suit an annual visit, and a building with several units usually needs more.
What is the single most useful thing I can do?
Find your isolation valve, confirm it turns, and photograph where it is. Everything else on this list saves money. That one saves a floor.
Are maintenance contracts worth it for a single villa?
It depends on the villa. Long buried runs, irrigation, a pool circuit and roof tanks add up to a lot of things nobody is watching. A single apartment with short pipe runs generally does not need one.
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