10 Questions to Ask a Plumber Before You Hire One in SEQ

Two quotes for the same blocked sewer line in SEQ can land a long way apart. Usually one of them was priced after a camera went down the line. The other was written from the kerb.

The questions to ask a plumber before hiring are how you work out which quote you’re holding. Start with the QBCC licence number, and ask for proof of public liability insurance while you have them on the phone. Then the price. Is it fixed, or can it move once they open the line up? How is labour charged, and what does the call-out fee cover? Ask what the workmanship warranty includes as well, and have all of it written into the quote. That last one gets skipped more than any other, usually until the same drain blocks again three weeks later.

Key takeaways

• Check the licence number on the QBCC licensee register yourself. Plumbing and drainage has its own register, and the licence class has to match the job.
• A fixed-price quote suits new drainage and rough-ins. Clearing an unknown blockage, leak detection and work behind wall sheeting usually can’t be fixed-priced honestly.
• Labour should appear on the written quote as its own line, with the charging method stated.
• On a drain that keeps blocking, insist on a CCTV inspection before the quote.
• Ask how the plumbers are paid. Commission is where upselling starts.

1. Are you QBCC licensed, and will this be done to code?

Ask for the QBCC licence number and look it up yourself. Regulated plumbing and drainage work in Queensland has to be carried out by a licensee under the Queensland Plumbing and Drainage Act 2018, and to AS/NZS 3500.

Of all the questions to ask a plumber, this is the one you can verify without taking anyone’s word for it. Licensed contractors carry a physical QBCC licence card or a digital version, and the QBCC licensee register shows the licence class and its full history. Plumbing and drainage has a separate register on the QBCC site. Check the class matches your job.

While you’re at it, ask for a certificate of currency for their public liability insurance. Anyone who holds it can send it over without fuss.

Working to code also explains a lot of the gap between quotes. A licensed plumber carries the liability for what they connect, so they won’t tie a new fixture into a cracked earthenware line under a 1960s Brisbane house without raising it first, even if the owner insists the old setup “worked fine for 40 years”. The bare-minimum quote never has that conversation. The saving turns up later, usually as a second call-out.

2. Is this a fixed-price quote, or could it change?

New drainage and rough-ins can be quoted and held. Jobs with hidden unknowns can’t, and an honest plumber will tell you which kind yours is.

Excavation is the obvious one. Leak detection and anything behind wall sheeting belong in the same category, and so does a stormwater line packed with silt after a summer storm, which catches people out because it looks simple. The jetter goes in and clears the first few metres, then reaches a bend. Whether there’s a collapsed section past that bend or just more silt, nobody knows until the camera has been down there.

A fixed price on that kind of job still has risk built into it. Either the plumber wears the cost when something goes wrong, or the padding was in the number from day one.

The more useful thing to ask is what the chances are that something turns up needing a re-quote, and whether they’ll call you before going over. Good plumbers keep you in the loop when the job changes. The invoice should never be where you find out.

3. Can I get that in writing, with a breakdown?

Always get the quote in writing.

If the total looks high, ask how they got there. The way a plumber handles that question tells you as much as the breakdown does. Some walk you through it line by line; others get defensive.

Find out how labour is charged, whether hourly, as a flat rate for the agreed scope, or as a minimum charge. A large labour line on a forty-minute job is much easier to query when you know which method produced it.

4. What’s your call-out fee, and does it come off the job?

Most plumbers charge to attend. Some credit that fee against the work if you go ahead, some don’t, and the time to find out is before they arrive.

That fee pays for a licensed plumber and a stocked van arriving at your door, plus the travel and the cost of you finding them in the first place. Nothing unreasonable about it. Where people get caught is the extras nobody mentioned: minimum charges, and after-hours rates for a blocked toilet on a Sunday night. The cheapest moment to ask a plumber a question about fees is before the van leaves the depot, and most plumber questions about money land better on the phone than on the doorstep.

5. Should the drain be camera-inspected before you quote?

On a drain that has blocked more than once, yes.

Repeat blockages in older clay lines are usually roots, and roots get in where the joints have moved. Reactive clay soils across Logan and Ipswich swell in the wet and shrink in the dry, which works those joints open over the years. Jetting cuts the roots out. It does nothing about the gap they came through, so the blockage often comes back within the year.

A pan-and-tilt CCTV camera shows where the damage is and how much of the line is affected. That’s the difference between quoting a clear and quoting a repair such as pipe relining. Ask for a copy of the footage too. A plumber who is confident in the diagnosis won’t mind sending it.

6. What does your workmanship warranty cover, and what’s excluded?

Ask how long it runs and what it leaves out, and get both in writing.

Brand of fittings turns up on most online lists of questions to ask a plumber. For most people the brand matters less than they expect, unless they know enough about fittings to judge one against another. The warranty question does more work.

Two warranties usually sit on one job. The manufacturer covers the product. The plumber’s own warranty covers the installation, which is where most failures start. A relining system might carry a 50-year product warranty on the liner, and that figure tells you nothing about whether the liner was cured properly or the junctions were reinstated cleanly. Exclusions matter as much as the term. A drain cleared on Monday and blocked again by wet wipes on Friday won’t be covered anywhere, and a clear warranty spells that out.

7. Will you install something I’ve bought myself?

A decent plumber will give you an install-only price on a toilet suite or tapware you’ve supplied. If they refuse to work with your choice at all, take note.

Expect their warranty on that job to cover the installation only. Any fault in the product goes back to the retailer.

8. Are your plumbers paid on commission?

Ask it plainly. Commission-based pay, common in franchise models, is where upselling tends to happen.

Size alone proves nothing. Plenty of larger companies put more into training than a one-van operator ever can. The pay structure is what shapes the advice at your door, and a plumber paid on what they sell has a reason to turn a blocked basin into a full reline quote with no footage to back it.

9. Can you look at a couple of other things while you’re here?

Usually, if you mention them when you book.

Give the whole list on the phone. The slow shower drain and the gurgling toilet in the ensuite that started the same week might share one cause further down the line, and knowing both changes what goes in the van. It also saves you a second call-out for something that would have taken ten minutes.

Keep expectations realistic on a busy day. A quick opinion on the extras is fair to ask for. A full diagnosis of every fixture in the house is a separate booking.

One practical tip: the first job of the morning is the one least likely to run late.

10. What should I ask if I’m renovating, building or buying?

While the walls are open, ask about access and isolation. Buyers should ask for a CCTV inspection of the sewer line before settlement.

These are questions to ask before hiring a plumber for a reno, since the answers get expensive to change once the tiles are down:

• Can you fit isolation valves to each fixture or room, so one dripping tap doesn’t mean shutting off the whole house?
• Where is my main shut-off? Every homeowner should know before the day they need it.
• Will the inspection openings stay reachable after the landscaping goes in?
• Can you add an access panel behind the shower or bath?
• What pipe are you running, and why that one?

For buyers, a standard building and pest inspection doesn’t look inside the sewer. On an older Queenslander with mature trees along the boundary, a camera through the line before settlement is one of the few ways to find a root-cracked pipe while it’s still the seller’s conversation. Ask the age of the hot water system on the same visit.

What will the plumber ask you?

Your questions to ask a plumber are half the conversation. Expect a few back about the property and the history of the problem, and short, accurate answers save time on site.

If you rent, the plumber needs to know who is paying and who can approve the work. A blocked or broken toilet counts as an emergency repair under Queensland’s Residential Tenancies and Rooming Accommodation Act 2008, and where the tenancy agreement lists a nominated repairer, tenants are expected to contact them first. The Residential Tenancies Authority sets out what happens when nobody responds.

The age of the house tells the plumber which pipe material to expect before they lift a single lid.

Has it happened before? Say so, even if the last plumber “fixed it”.

Then the physical details. Can you see water, or only hear it? Inside or outside? Clean water from a supply pipe and sewage backing up from a drain are different jobs with different urgency, and whoever answers the phone will triage on what you tell them.

How do you find a good plumber in SEQ?

Start with people who have already hired one. A recommendation from a neighbour, a local community group or your strata manager is more reliable than an ad.

In a unit or townhouse, ask the body corporate or strata manager who they use. Across the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, where so many complexes are strata-titled, that plumber has often worked on the building’s stacks before and knows where the access points are. The rate can be sharper as well.

On Google, read past the star average. The one- and two-star reviews, and how the business replied to them, show you how complaints get handled.

Most of the questions to ask a plumber in this guide take a minute on the phone. When someone answers them straight, keep the number.

How can you make the plumber’s visit go smoothly?

Clear the work area and be home for the whole booking window.

Empty the cupboard under the sink before they arrive, and move the car if the inspection opening sits beneath it. Ask questions while they’re there, including the ones that feel basic. Most drainers have explained a root intrusion to someone in a dressing gown at 7am. If the second explanation comes out more tangled than the first, hold off on signing.

Talk to a drainage specialist

SEQ Blocked Drains works on drainage only, not general plumbing. On a recurring blockage, we put a camera through the line and show you the footage before we quote. Straightforward jetting we can price over the phone. Ask us any of the questions above, and if a drain on your property keeps coming back, book a CCTV inspection or call for a same-day visit across SEQ.