This is a concept website · Enquire about this domain

generalplumbing.com.au

Plumbing is a licensed trade. Your state draws where your hand stops.

Six taps, cut open, with every part coloured by whose hands the law puts on it: yours, a licensed plumber’s or gasfitter’s, or the water or gas authority’s.

General information about plumbing licensing in Australia, not advice for your own plumbing.

Ink is a householder’s part. Copper is a licensed plumber’s or gasfitter’s. Slate is the water or gas authority’s. The strip under the washer says which states put the washer in your hands.

A section through a basin tap. The washer is drawn as a householder’s part, as Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania (own home only) name it; the pipe behind the wall is a licensed plumber’s. the tap the jumper valve the washer the pipe behind the wall A section through a basin tap. The washer is drawn as a householder’s part, as Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania (own home only) name it; the pipe behind the wall is a licensed plumber’s.
  1. VICminor tap repairs
  2. QLDunregulated work
  3. WAbasic plumbing tasks
  4. TAStapware repairs, own home only
  5. NSWSydney Water: you maythe regulator: a licence, any plumbing
  6. SAalways use a licensed plumber
  7. ACTask Access Canberra
  8. NTalways use a licensed plumber

Filled the state’s own source names it as yours. Split the state’s own two bodies disagree. Outline not filled as yours here: the cell carries the state’s own words, or the body to ask.

The other five taps

  1. How hot should the hot tap be?
  2. Is my toilet leaking, and can I fix the cistern?
  3. Why does a garden hose need backflow protection?
  4. Is the leak mine or the water authority’s?
  5. Gas at home: whose pipe, which gasfitter, and carbon monoxide

The washer’s story in full, all eight jurisdictions side by side: what plumbing may I do myself?

The three hands

  • Ink: yours. Victoria’s regulations name the repair or replacement of tap washers and other minor tap repairs in a dwelling; Queensland’s guide to unregulated plumbing names replacing a jumper valve or washer in a tap; WA lists maintenance or repair of a tap among the basic tasks a homeowner may do.
  • Copper: a licensed plumber’s or gasfitter’s. WA: apart from the listed householder tasks, all water supply, sanitary and drainage plumbing work is a licensed plumber’s or permit-holder’s. Queensland: all regulated plumbing and drainage work is a licensed plumber’s and drainer’s. NSW: a licence or certificate is needed for any plumbing work, at any cost. Tasmania: work outside the first category has to be a licensed plumber’s.
  • Slate: the authority’s own parts. Sydney Water owns the water meter on a property and is responsible for its pipes and that meter; Australian Gas Networks is responsible for the gas meter and for the network that reaches it, including the pipework from the mains to the meter.
  • Red: the hot side only. One colour is not an ink: the hot side of the shower mixer, and the water guide 3 is about, where the states that set a maximum hot water temperature say so themselves.

One disagreement, both pages

On the tap washer, NSW’s own public pages do not agree, and this guide does not settle them for you. Both are set out here, both are linked at the foot of the page.

Sydney Water, the state’s water authority

A householder who is confident about minor plumbing work, such as changing a tap washer, may do it, its page says; for bigger problems, renovations, or replacing toilets or hot water systems, a licensed plumber is needed.

From Sydney Water: general plumbing information.

Building Commission NSW, the state’s plumbing regulator

In NSW, a licence or certificate is needed to do any plumbing, draining or gasfitting work, whatever it costs and whether the work is residential, commercial or industrial.

From NSW Government: plumbing, draining and gasfitting work.

What is not in doubt is who licenses plumbers in NSW: Building Commission NSW is the plumbing regulator under the Plumbing and Drainage Act 2011. Doing unlicensed plumbing, draining or gasfitting work there can be fined $22,000 for an individual and $110,000 for a company.

Six taps, six guides

The basin tap above opens the first guide. The five in the index open the rest, and each guide redraws the set with its own tap in the large frame, so you can always see which one you are reading about.

That is the same rule everywhere on this site: where a state’s own source says nothing about a part, the drawing leaves it uncoloured and names that state’s body to ask.