PGDB's lists at a glance
You can
- Install appliances such as dishwashers and washing machines.
- Replace or repair taps, ball cocks and plugs.
- Clear blocked drains, provided the inspection pipe and ventilation pipe aren't altered or repaired.
- Work on portable gas appliances with the bottle attached, such as barbecues, cabinet heaters and patio heaters (PGDB strongly recommends a gasfitter).
Leave to an authorised tradie
- Fixing or unfixing any pipe, fixture or appliance, including traps and waste, soil, vent, overflow and water supply pipes.
- Installing, altering or repairing a drain, including a septic tank connection or any trap.
- Installing, altering or repairing gas appliances, their pipes and flues, and commissioning them.
- Any work on gas appliances fixed in a building, even when they run off bottled gas.
Plumbing: taps, washers and appliances
The law backs PGDB's list. Under the Plumbers, Gasfitters, and Drainlayers Act 2006, repairing or replacing taps, ball valves, tap washers or plugs isn't sanitary plumbing. Neither is fitting a dishwasher or washing machine where no waste or water supply pipes are fixed or unfixed, or fitting a shower over a bath that's fed through the bath taps.
The catch is in the pipes. If a new dishwasher needs a waste pipe cut in, or a tap swap means changing the pipework behind the wall, the job has crossed into sanitary plumbing and needs an authorised plumber. See taps and kitchen and bathroom plumbing.
Gas: almost nothing
All gasfitting is restricted work. The only exceptions a homeowner is likely to meet are work on a portable gas appliance designed to have its own bottle with it or attached, like a barbecue or patio heater, and adjusting controls that are designed for you to adjust.
Anything fixed in the house, including appliances fed from gas bottles of any size, needs an authorised gasfitter. If you can smell gas, go to gas leaks.
Drains: clearing, not changing
Clearing a blocked drain yourself, with a plunger or by hand, is on PGDB's list, so long as nothing is done to alter or repair the inspection pipe or vent pipe. Installing, altering or repairing a drain is drainlaying, and so is fixing or unfixing a gully trap or connecting a drain to a septic tank. How to unblock a drain covers the safe way to have a go.
The householder exemption isn't a DIY pass
Section 15 of the Act lets an owner do sanitary plumbing in their own home, with help only from family who live there, but only in places the Minister has determined after consulting the local council. The legislation website shows no secondary legislation under that section. It never covers plumbing for a non-consented granny flat, and owners relying on it don't count as authorised for the building consent exemptions. A separate power to designate rural areas (section 16) is in the same position. Unless your place is confirmed as covered, treat PGDB's lists as the limit.
Why the line matters
Doing unauthorised sanitary plumbing or drainlaying can bring a fine of up to $10,000, and unauthorised gasfitting up to $50,000 for an individual. PGDB also warns that your insurance may be void if unlicensed work on your property goes wrong.
Paperwork is the other trap. The building consent exemptions for plumbing and drainage work apply only when an authorised person does the work, and all building work, consented or not, still has to meet the Building Code.
Before you start a small job
Find the shut-off
Know where your toby is, the water shut-off at the boundary, or the valve that isolates the fixture, before you loosen anything.
Photograph it first
Take a photo of how everything fits together. It makes putting it back easier, and helps a plumber if you end up calling one.
Take the old part to the shop
Tap washers, cartridges and ball cock parts come in many sizes. Matching the old one saves a second trip.
Stop when a pipe has to move
If the job needs a pipe cut, a joint undone or a trap taken off, it has left PGDB's list. Put the tools down and ring a plumber.
What we would do
Stick to PGDB's list and you're on safe ground: taps, washers, ball cocks, plugs, appliances that go in without pipe changes, a plunger on a slow drain, and the bottle barbecue. The moment a job needs a pipe or trap undone, or anything touches fixed gas, hand it to an authorised plumber, gasfitter or drainlayer, which protects your insurance as well as your home. Tell us the job and we'll match you with a local tradie who specialises in it.