Located with acoustic and pressure equipment, repaired at a price agreed in writing, and written up properly. If a hidden leak has inflated your bill, that report is what an application to Sydney Water needs.
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Most leaks in this suburb are not discovered by anyone seeing water. They are discovered when a quarterly bill comes in at two or three times what it should be, and nothing about the house looks any different.
The reliable test is the meter, not your eyes. Everything off, watch it for a quarter of an hour, and if it is still turning then water is going somewhere. That costs nothing and it works no matter where the leak is.
The part a lot of people never hear about is what happens afterwards. Sydney Water runs a concealed leak allowance that can reduce a bill inflated by a leak nobody could reasonably have known about. Whether it applies is their decision, not ours.
What we can do is hand you a proper written report: what leaked, where, how we found it, what we did and when. That is the documentation an application needs, and it comes with the job rather than as an extra.
Turn everything off and watch the meter for fifteen minutes. It is free, it takes a quarter of an hour, and it answers the question.
Shut every tap and appliance and watch the meter for fifteen minutes. Movement with nothing running means water is genuinely leaving on your side.
Turn any irrigation controller off entirely rather than to a rest day, or it will run during the measurement.
It costs nothing, needs no equipment, and it either confirms a leak or rules one out before anybody charges you to look for one.
Once the meter has shown a loss, isolate the hot water unit and read again. Two minutes, and it is the single most useful thing a householder can do.
Keep moving: cold side. Stop: the unit or the hot distribution past it.
Before assuming a failed cylinder on a hot-side result, check the relief valve outlet, because a valve that has stopped sealing reads identically on a meter.
Water follows the fall of a slab or a cavity and emerges wherever it can, which may be nowhere visible at all. Underground it may never surface.
So there is frequently no symptom other than the account, and by the time a second bill confirms it the loss has been running a long time.
A jump with no change in habits is worth acting on rather than watching for another quarter.
It exists to reduce a bill inflated by a leak the customer could not reasonably have known about. The detail of what qualifies is theirs and it is worth reading their own material.
It is not automatic and it is not something a plumber grants. It is an application you make, supported by evidence.
We are plumbers rather than assessors, so we will not tell you what you are entitled to. We will give you the evidence.
An application needs to show what leaked, where, when it was found and when it was repaired, by a licensed person.
So the written findings from the visit are worth as much as the repair itself in that context, and they are easy to produce at the time and impossible afterwards.
Ask for them at the time. We write them as a matter of course.
The alternative to detection is opening up the likely spots and hoping, and that is wrong often enough to be expensive.
Acoustic listening, pressure testing and thermal imaging narrow a whole property to a point without disturbing anything.
The cost of doing it properly is almost always less than the cost of guessing wrong once.
It is routinely metres and occasionally an entire floor, because water runs along whatever surface it meets until something interrupts it.
A ceiling stain, a swollen skirting or a lifting floorboard all mark where the water got out of the building fabric, not where it got out of the pipe.
That gap is precisely what acoustic, thermal and pressure equipment exists to close, and closing it before cutting is what keeps a repair small.
Closing a stop tap needs nobody's permission and it is the single thing that decides how much damage there is.
Find the meter and its tap on a dry afternoon and check it actually turns. On older properties they seize.
Learn the isolating valves indoors too, because closing one of those handles a specific failure without taking water off the house.
The braided hoses under vanities and behind cisterns last around five years and fail all at once, at mains pressure, frequently while nobody is home.
They are cheap, quick to replace, and the most common single cause of a genuinely destructive indoor flood.
Doing them as a set makes sense, because they all went in on the same day and they will all reach the end at roughly the same time.
What was found, where, and what was done about it. That document is what supports a bill adjustment, an insurance claim or a conversation with a landlord.
A verbal account of what a plumber said is not evidence and it does not move anybody.
It costs nothing to produce at the time, and it is the part of the job that is still useful in six months.
Leak detection and repair is licensed work, and the same verification applies as everywhere else on this site. NSW Fair Trading publishes the register.
It also matters for a concealed leak allowance application, which generally requires the repair to have been done by a licensed person.
So it is not only about trust. It is about whether the paperwork will do its job afterwards.
On anything running into thousands, another quote is a sensible thing to get and nobody legitimate will mind.
It is easier when you hold the written findings and any footage, because the second plumber starts from evidence rather than from scratch.
That is another reason to insist on both.
Some quotes cover confirming a loss and locating it. Some cover only the visit. Some include a written report and some charge for one separately.
Those are very different products at similar-looking prices, and the difference matters most when you need the paperwork afterwards.
It is a fair question to ask before booking, and anybody legitimate will answer it in a sentence.
Stopping the water is urgent. Choosing between repairing a section and replacing a run is not, and it does not become urgent overnight.
So make the property safe, get the finding in writing, and take the time to consider a quote of any size.
Pressure to authorise major work while somebody is standing in your hallway is about their schedule rather than your plumbing.
Agreed in writing before work starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges. Written findings are included on every leak job, whether or not you plan to take them to Sydney Water.
Isolated and stopped, any hour. We deal with the water before we discuss the price.
Acoustic, pressure and thermal, narrowed to a point rather than an area.
Once located. Access moves this figure considerably more than the pipe does.
Cheap now, and among the most destructive failures in a house when left.
What leaked, where, how found, what was done and when. Written to be read by anyone.
On a burst the water gets stopped before anything else is discussed, including money.
Acoustic, pressure and thermal testing to narrow the whole property down to a single point.
A fixed figure with the licence number on it, agreed before the repair starts.
Pressure tested before anything is closed up, then the findings written out for you to keep or take to Sydney Water.
Shut it off at the meter if you can reach it, then call. We will make it safe first and quote afterwards, not the other way round.
Call 1300 381 569Do the meter test before anything else, because it is free and it settles the question. Turn off every tap and appliance in the house, then watch the water meter for fifteen minutes. If the dial is still moving with nothing running, water is escaping somewhere. A concealed leak under a slab or in a wall can run for months with nothing visible at all, and the bill is very often the only symptom you ever get.
It is worth asking, and a lot of people never do. Sydney Water operates a concealed leak allowance which can reduce a bill inflated by a leak you could not reasonably have known about. Whether it applies in your case is Sydney Water's decision and not ours, so we will not promise an outcome. What we can do is give you a clear written report of what we found, where it was and when it was repaired, which is the kind of documentation any application needs.
What was leaking, where it was, how we located it, what we did to repair it and the date the repair was completed, along with our licence number. It is written to be read by someone who is not a plumber, because the people who need it are Sydney Water, possibly an insurer, and you. Every leak job gets one whether you ask or not, at no extra cost.
Easily. Water follows the fall of a slab, a joist or a wall cavity and comes out wherever it can, which may be metres from the actual failure, or nowhere visible at all. That is exactly why the meter is the reliable test and your eyes are not. A leak that never surfaces still appears on the bill every quarter.
With equipment rather than guesswork. Acoustic gear listens for escaping water through the structure, pressure testing isolates which line has lost integrity, and thermal imaging finds the temperature difference a hot water leak leaves. Between them we narrow it to a point before anything is cut or dug, which is what keeps the repair small and the cost down.
They are among the most common causes of serious water damage in Australian homes and they have a service life of about five to ten years. When one fails it does not drip, it releases mains pressure continuously until someone reaches the meter. If you cannot remember ever replacing the braided hoses under your sink or vanity and the kitchen is over ten years old, that is a cheap job now instead of an expensive one later.
An emergency make-safe is $250 to $500. Leak detection is $300 to $600 depending on how much of the property has to be covered. Repair once located is $400 to $1,200 for most jobs, with access moving that more than the pipe does. A flexible hose replacement is $150 to $350. All of it agreed in writing before we start, and the written findings are included.
Tell us what made you suspect it, whether that is the meter, the bill or a stain. And say if you want the findings written up for a Sydney Water application, so we format it accordingly.
Located with equipment, quoted in writing, and written up properly whether or not you decide to apply for anything.
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