Plumbers near you

There is no national plumbing licence, but every state and territory licenses the trade, and the thresholds are generally low or non-existent. In New South Wales you need a licence or certificate to do any plumbing, draining or gasfitting work regardless of the cost of the work and regardless of whether it is residential, commercial or industrial. South Australia is equally direct: only licensed plumbers, gas fitters and electricians may work on those installations on your property. Tasmania requires a practitioner licence for anyone carrying out plumbing work and a contractor licence for anyone selling plumbing services.

Most states then require a certificate or a notification when the work is finished. In Victoria a compliance certificate must be issued by a licensed plumber for prescribed categories of plumbing work, it certifies that the work complies with the prescribed plumbing standards, and only a licensed plumber may issue it. Victoria requires one for the installation, relocation or replacement of any Type A gas-using appliance regardless of the cost. In Queensland much residential work falls into the notifiable work category, which avoids a local government permit but must be registered with the Queensland Building and Construction Commission within ten business days of the invoice being issued.

For you as the homeowner, the practical steps are the same everywhere: ask for the licence number, check it on your state regulator's public register, and ask which certificate or notification this job will generate and when you will receive your copy. Keep it with the house records, because it is what a future buyer, an insurer or a warranty claim will ask for.

The WaterMark Certification Scheme is a mandatory scheme for defined categories of plumbing and drainage products, managed and administered by the Australian Building Codes Board on behalf of the state and territory plumbing regulators. Certified products carry a visible WaterMark and are listed in a public product database, so you can check a tapware set or a hot water system before it is installed. Products on the Schedule of Products must be certified; others are assessed individually. A licensed plumber will not knowingly install an uncertified product where certification is required, and imported bargains bought online are where this usually goes wrong.

Water efficiency is a separate label. Under the Water Efficiency Labelling and Standards scheme, taps, showers, toilets, dishwashers and washing machines must be registered and correctly labelled with their water efficiency information when offered for sale. The label carries a star rating plus the actual consumption figure, expressed as litres per minute for taps and showers and litres per average flush for toilets, which is the number to compare rather than the stars alone.

Underneath both sits the AS/NZS 3500 series, the plumbing and drainage standards the National Construction Code calls up for water services, sanitary plumbing and drainage. You are not expected to read them, but they are the reason a plumber will refuse to do something that looks harmless, and the reason a compliance certificate means something.

Rainwater tanks are far more common in Australian homes than in most comparable countries, and once a tank is plumbed into the house it is no longer just a garden fixture. The National Construction Code requires rainwater services to comply with Section 15 of AS/NZS 3500.1, and requires that pipes and pipe outlets forming part of a rainwater service be clearly identified, so that nobody later mistakes a rainwater line for a drinking water line.

The serious risk is cross-connection. The Code's objective for cross-connection control is to safeguard people from illness caused by contamination of a drinking water supply, and it treats rainwater services, non-drinking water services, alternative supplies, swimming pools and pipework containing chemicals as hazards. Each hazard must be assigned a hazard rating and isolated from the drinking water service by an appropriate backflow prevention device selected and installed in accordance with Section 4 of AS/NZS 3500.1. A rainwater service must not have an unprotected cross-connection with the water utility's drinking water service.

Backflow prevention devices are not install-and-forget. The Code requires that appliances and backflow prevention devices can be isolated for testing and maintenance, and testable devices are generally subject to periodic testing by an appropriately licensed plumber. If your home has a tank with a mains top-up, a fire service, an irrigation system or a pool auto-fill, ask your plumber what devices are fitted and when they were last tested.

Find your shut-offs before you need them. The main water isolating valve is normally at the water meter near the front boundary; individual fixtures usually have their own small isolating valves, and the hot water system has its own cold water isolating valve. Turning the main off at the meter stops almost every water emergency from getting worse while you wait.

Hot water is one of the largest single energy uses in an Australian home, so the replacement decision is an energy decision as much as a plumbing one. A failed thermostat, element or valve on an otherwise sound tank is usually worth repairing. A tank leaking from the body is not repairable, and a system that has already been patched more than once is telling you something.

When replacing, the options differ sharply in running cost. The Australian Government notes that heat pump hot water systems are highly efficient and use around 30 per cent of the energy of a conventional electric hot water system, while conventional electric storage systems, used by around half of Australian households, are the cheapest to buy and install and generally the most expensive to run unless paired with rooftop solar. Solar hot water uses collectors or evacuated tubes with a storage tank and usually needs a gas or electric booster where mid-year sun is limited. Gas storage and instantaneous units are normally installed outdoors because of venting requirements.

Practical constraints matter as much as the brochure. Heat pumps need airflow and clearance and make some noise, which affects where they can go on a narrow block; solar needs suitable roof area and orientation; and switching fuel types may mean new electrical capacity or decommissioning a gas line. Ask the plumber to price the installation realities, not just the unit, and ask which rebates apply in your state before you commit.

Plumbing work is a service supplied to a consumer, so the Australian Consumer Law's consumer guarantees apply on top of anything written in the quote. Services must be provided with an acceptable level of care and skill, at least as good as a competent provider with average skills and experience would deliver, and supplied within a reasonable time where no time frame was agreed. A business cannot remove those rights with its own terms and conditions, and cannot simply redirect you to the manufacturer.

For a minor problem the business must at least offer a free repair; for a major problem with a service you have the right to alter the agreement. Several states add plumbing-specific protections, including mandatory plumbing insurance and warranty periods attached to the compliance certificate, which is one more reason to make sure you actually receive that certificate. Keep the quote, the certificate, the product paperwork and photographs of the work before anything is covered up.