The Real Cost of DIY Plumbing Repairs Gone Wrong

Fixing things around the house, especially when you did it yourself, is very rewarding. The sense of accomplishment, plus saving money on labor, is great. DIY projects generally include; Painting Walls, Assembling Furniture, Door Handles etc. However, plumbing is different. What may seem so easy to do on YouTube, can become a disaster that takes the whole weekend and costs triple what a pro would have charged to begin with.

It’s easy to see why people want to fix their own plumbing issues. A leaking faucet, for example, seems simple enough to fix. The parts are inexpensive. The video shows you how to do it in a matter of minutes. So why spend $150 to have someone else do this for you? The trouble is when you think you’re almost finished, the faucet still won’t come apart like in the video. The new washer you bought is the wrong size, so you end up forcing it into the faucet. Once forced into the faucet, the washer creates a new leak. The faucet now leaks worse than it did when you first tried to fix it and water is everywhere. You initially thought you were just changing a washer, and now you have to call a plumber on a Sunday afternoon to fix your emergency.

A Pattern Emerges In Common DIY Plumbing Disasters

Most common DIY plumbing disasters follow a predictable course of events. Someone decides to fix what looks like a relatively simple plumbing issue. Everything does not go according to plan. Instead of stopping and seeking help, the person continues to try and fix the issue. This is when the real trouble begins.

Replacing a toilet fill valve is a good example of a repair that can be DIYed if you’re successful. The old valve is removed and the new valve is screwed in. Sounds easy, right? Sometimes the threads are corroded and the valve won’t come loose without damaging the cistern connection. Other times the new valve does not seal properly and you have a slow leak, and you won’t notice the leak until the floorboards below the toilet start to rot. And finally, other times you over tighten the water supply line and it cracks. However, the line does not crack immediately – it waits until no one is at home to crack.

It’s not to say that these types of tasks cannot be completed by homeowners. It’s more that the room for error in plumbing repairs is minimal, and the consequences of errors are often unseen until significant damage occurs. Sometimes a poorly seated connection will stay intact for several days or weeks before failing. Sometimes an over tightened fitting will crack internally but not leak until the internal pressure increases to a point of leakage during normal use. Finally, plumbing repairs don’t always fail immediately after a repair was made incorrectly – it usually fails at the worst possible time.

Additional Costs of Failed DIY Repairs

This is where the cost of failed DIY repairs really adds up. When a DIY repair fails, the cost is not only hiring someone to fix what did not work properly. It is also paying for the additional damage that resulted from the failed attempt.

Water damage is the biggest cost factor. Water will slowly leak from a poorly connected valve for hours, and before you know it, it has saturated the flooring, ruined the subfloor, promoted mold growth, and migrated into the surrounding wall cavities before you find out about the leak. What once cost $100 for a professional plumber to complete, will now cost $3000 to remediate, plus any insurance excess. Therefore, the DIY homeowner, who was able to save the callout fee by completing the job themselves, will ultimately have to pay many more times what a licensed Plumber in Auckland would have charged to complete the job correctly.

In addition to the cost of repairing the botched DIY repair itself, the cost of repairing the botched DIY repair will also add to the total cost. Licensed plumbers will charge more to clean-up the mess left by a DIY repair than they would have charged to complete the job correctly in the first place. Stripped threads will need to be re-threaded or replaced. Cross-threaded fittings may need to be replaced due to the fact that the threads in the fittings were damaged when the fitting was removed. Parts that were improperly installed will be damaged when they are removed. A plumber will tell you that a large portion of the time spent on calls related to DIY failures is actually spent cleaning up the mess left behind by the DIY homeowner.

You will also incur additional costs when purchasing incorrect parts. The wrong size fitting was purchased online. The replacement part that was ordered online arrived damaged, however, you decided to install it anyway since ordering another one seemed to be too much hassle. The specialty tool that you had to purchase to complete the job was used once, and it will never be needed again. These costs seem minor alone, but collectively, they can add up quickly.

Plumbing Jobs That Look Easier Than They Are

Some plumbing jobs tend to attract DIY attempts, yet they are more complicated than they appear. One such job is replacing faucets. The process of replacing a faucet seems to be simple enough – remove the old one, replace it with a new one. However, there are a number of factors that aren’t apparent until you are half-way through the job. For instance, space underneath sinks is usually poor. Corrosion has caused the nut holding the faucet in place to become stuck tightly. The supply lines provided with modern faucets are the wrong diameter for older faucets. Finally, the basin that holds the sink hasn’t been drilled to accommodate the faucet being installed.

Installing a new shower mixer follows the same pattern of being easier said than done. While installing the mixer itself may be relatively simple, installing the proper hot and cold connections, setting the temperature limiter properly, creating the correct pressure balance between hot and cold water, and sealing the entire assembly properly, requires knowledge of how the entire system functions. Installing the temperature limiter incorrectly can cause someone to be severely burned. Sealing the connections improperly allows water to migrate into the surrounding wall cavities.

Replacing a Hot Water Cylinder Is Another Job That Appears Deceptively Easy On Videos

Replaced the old cylinder, disconnected it, connected the new one, and you’re done! What is missing from the video is the fact that proper installation of the pressure relief valve, thermal expansion management, electrical safety for electric cylinders, proper venting for gas systems, and building code compliance are important considerations. A hot water cylinder that has been installed improperly is a legitimate safety hazard, not just an annoyance.

The pattern is consistent: the physical actions required to complete the job may be feasible for a motivated amateur, but the ability to understand the system, determine when something isn’t working right, and fix the resulting problems requires experience gained from completing hundreds of similar jobs.

Building Code Violations No One Ever Considers

One thing that tends to surprise people is building consent regulations. Many plumbing modifications require building consent, and work needs to be carried out by authorized persons. Homeowners who undertake these types of plumbing modifications themselves rarely realize that they have breached building codes until they try to sell the property.

The buyer’s building inspector finds unauthorized plumbing work. Now the seller must obtain retrospective building consent (and the work inspected and certified by a licensed practitioner) or accept a reduced sale price for the non-compliance issue. In either case, the seller will be paying more than if they had employed a licensed plumber to complete the work from the outset.

Insurance Implications Exist Too

If a DIY plumbing repair fails and results in water damage, insurance companies may refuse to honor a claim if the work was performed illegally (i.e., not done to code by a qualified tradesperson). The homeowner will therefore be responsible for repairing the damage and for the original repair.

When DIY Really Makes Sense

Not all plumbing repairs are better done professionally. If you simply need to replace a faucet washer on a modern quarter-turn faucet, it is a relatively easy DIY project. Replacing a shower head or hose connection is hard to mess up. Cleaning the drain trap under your sink is a basic maintenance function that anybody can do.

The deciding factor is whether the job includes connections that may leak, affect water pressure or temperature control, or involve work inside walls or under floors. If the answer to any of these questions is “yes,” then it is likely that employing a licensed plumber is worthwhile.