When you purchase a house, a lot goes through your mind. There are a lot many criteria you want to meet so you and your family can feel happy, like a certain number of bedrooms or whether it has an aircon system installed throughout. However, you tend to forget about the things you can’t see within the houses you are considering like what it is isolated with or the state of its plumbing.

Yes, before you buy a house a certain number of experts will come to your house, check for termites, design flows, major leaks and for structural damage but most won’t warn you about the material of your pipes. But why does it matter anyway?

Here is the issue: I bought a house and planned on renovating one of the bathrooms for my kids. What was supposed to be a standard renovation became a bigger project because the licensed plumber in Perth I talked to told me he would prefer passing on the job than renovating a bathroom he could not guarantee would hold up 10 years. And why is that? Because we found out we had galvanised pipes from the 80’s. Because these pipes were 40 years old or so, corrosion and rust were building up in them and the risk for a burst pipe, and major water leaks was imminent.

Long story short, the renovation cost doubled and we are now saving up to replace the house pipe system bit by bit which is going to be very costly. So here is my advice: enquire about the pipes before signing on anything, hire a plumber to check the system if needed. If I knew I would have probably negotiated the price down and spared myself a headache!