Plumbing Inspection and the Plumbing It Leaves Out

Free to homeowners — the contractor pays us for the introduction, you never do.

The one-paragraph answer

A home inspection is visual and, in both industry standards, not technically exhaustive. For plumbing that means wells, septic, water quality, pressure, concealed pipe and the sewer lateral sit outside it — and those exclusions are published rather than discretionary.

Source: ASHI Standard of Practice; InterNACHI Home Inspection Standards of Practice.

Go straight to the one that sounds like yours:

You are never chargedContractors pay us when we route them a call. There is no cost to the homeowner, ever.
Every figure names its sourceThe numbers on this site come from public data and the page says which, so you can check them.
We say where we coverCalls are routed by ZIP code to independent contractors.See the coverage
We say when not to callIf the fix is a few minutes of your own time, this site tells you that instead of selling you a visit.

Both of the industry standards of practice say an inspection is visual and not technically exhaustive. The list of plumbing that follows from those two words is longer than almost any buyer expects.

What this site is

PresalePipe is a referral service, not a contractor or a home inspector. We connect homeowners and buyers with independent contractors. Contractors are required to hold whatever credential their state or municipality demands. Every state page sets out who licenses plumbers there and where to check, so you can confirm before work begins. We carry out no inspections and no work, we do not set prices, and we never charge homeowners anything — the contractors in our network pay us when we route them a call.

The definition, not the disclaimer

InterNACHI and ASHI are competing bodies with different standards, and they agree on this: an inspection covers readily accessible, visually observable, installed systems, and is not technically exhaustive.

Where two competing standards draw the same line, the line is real. Everything excluded follows from it.

Source: InterNACHI Home Inspection Standards of Practice; ASHI Standard of Practice.

What that rules out

Wells, pumps, pressure tanks and filters. Septic and other wastewater treatment. Water quality and potability. Water conditioning. Flow and pressure. Pipe inside a wall, under a slab or below grade. Fire sprinklers, lawn irrigation, clothes washer connections, gas leak testing. InterNACHI names polybutylene piping outright.

None of that is an inspector cutting corners. It is the published boundary of the service, and reading it is how you find out what you did not buy.

What is covered, and covered properly

Every fixture with the water running. Every toilet flushed. Drainage at every sink, tub and shower. The drain, waste and vent system. The water heater, its venting and its relief valve — though the valve is looked at, not operated, and both standards decline that test deliberately.

The covered list is shorter than the excluded one and it is not thin.

And the gap people pay for

The drains are checked inside the house. Where they run to is excluded by both standards, which is why a camera survey is a separate instruction — and the most expensive thing on a property to be wrong about.

Where we route

We publish a page for each of the 4,383 towns we route in across 38 states, each carrying that town’s own turnover figure. Across all of them, 22% of owner households moved in during 2018 or later.

Where we route calls

Tap your state for the towns and ZIP codes we route in, and the figures behind them.

Where these numbers come from

Every figure on this site is public and attributed. You can go and check any of them.

HousingUS Census BureauAmerican Community Survey 5-year estimates — the housing figures on every town page, and the table each one comes from is named on the page.

What happens when you call

No form, no quote tool, no waiting for an email.

You tell us what the water is doingOne short conversation. If it turns out to be something you can fix in five minutes, we will say so.
We route the callWe match your ZIP code to an independent contractor who already covers your area — not a call center three states away.
They quote, you decideWe do not set prices and we never charge you. The contractor pays us for the introduction.

4,452towns with a page of their own
39states we route calls in
$0what a homeowner ever pays us

What to do first

Four things worth doing first. They cost nothing and they can keep a small problem small.

Shut off the water closest to the problemUnder a sink or behind a toilet there is usually a small valve on the supply line. Turning it clockwise stops that fixture without shutting off the rest of the house.
If you cannot find it, use the mainUsually where the supply enters the building — a basement wall, a crawl space, or a covered box near the street. Then open the lowest tap in the house, which drains the standing water out of the pipes instead of out of the leak.
Water and electricity: stay out of the roomIf water has reached an outlet, a panel or an appliance, switch that circuit off at the breaker before going near it. If you cannot do that safely, do not go in, and say so when you call.
Photograph it before anything is movedInsurers ask for it, and a contractor can tell more from a photograph of the leak than from a description of it.

And one case where the answer is not to call us. If the water is surfacing on the street side of your meter, that is the utility's line and not yours. Report it to your water utility — they do not charge a homeowner to repair their own main.

Inspection report in front of you?Read us the plumbing lines and nothing else — we do not want the document. We will route you to a contractor covering your area who can quote the items on it, and you are never charged by us. Inspections are the theme here; calls of every kind are routed.

Call (888) 764-3501

Water filter housing and shutoff valves plumbed into a wall

Rusted steel pipes and a plastic run along a basement ceiling