Whywait Plumbing DOES NOT provide free plumbing quotes or estimates, ever. We have never never done so on any service or maintenance plumbing works.
Yes, we will provide free plumbing quotes if you email us or deliver a set of design drawings, such as hydraulic or architectural plans to our office.
If we have to attend on-site at your home or business premises, there are significant costs involved for us. That is why we charge you a diagnostic fee.
Businesses that advertise that they undertake free quotes or devalue their time and their expertise. I guarantee you will pay for their time, hidden somewhere in their charges because, as the saying goes, there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Think about it: “Would you go to work for free?”
In our experience the people who want free plumbing quotes are…
We learned long ago that offering free plumbing quotes or estimates wastes our time, money and company resources.
In our experience, people who call Whywait Plumbing asking for free plumbing quotes or expecting us to come to the site and solve their problems obligation-free fall into the following categories:
Dreamers who are toying with some vague idea of a plumbing installation, such as a third bathroom or outdoor kitchen, want us to design it all and solve all the problems but have little intention of using our services.
Price checkers who want us to give them a comparison price in the hope we come up with a cheaper alternative to undertake the work.
Time-wasting people who have a significant plumbing issue, such as flooding in their backyard in heavy rainfall, who want us to investigate and solve the problems and are insistent on picking our brains, getting all the information off us so they can then do it themselves or get a handyman to do it.
The DIY homeowner who wants to pick our brain so he can run to Bunnings and be a weekend warrior playing at being a plumber.
Without profit, any business is just an expensive hobby
We learnt at Whywait a long ago to accept that we cannot compete with competitors who devalue their plumbing licenses by racing to the bottom with clients who are only interested in PRICE, being:
a cheap price,
a less expensive than fair price that an alleged competitor has quoted over the phone,
an entirely unreasonably and pathetically inadequate price that does not even cover the plumbers’ wages.
As the owner of Whywait Plumbing, I was lucky enough to learn long ago that we always had to know our numbers. This required us to review our budgets regularly and know where our break-even cost was. This knowledge empowered us so we knew when to say NO.
These simple lessons ensure that we don’t waiver from our commitment to providing outstanding customer service from well-trained and professional plumbers who stand behind their work.
As I said previously, there is no such thing as a free lunch because Whywait Plumbing Pty Ltd is a business that is legally obligated to generate profits.
I reiterate that: “Without profit, any business is just an expensive hobby.”
Water hammer or banging pipes are different faults with your water reticulation system.
In theory, you should never hear the water moving through your hot or cold pipes. Instead, all you should listen to is the water flow from the tap or fixture in the room it’s installed in.
Essentially water hammer is a shock wave created inside your piping.
What are the causes?
Plumbing is essentially the movement of water through pipes. It, therefore, has the potential to be noise-creating and create what is referred to as a water hammer.
Water hammer that is noticeable occurs with copper water pipes. But plastic water pipes also suffer from water hammer, and it’s harder to hear.
Water hammer audible noise in copper pipes is generated primarily by:
High water pressure
Quick closing mixer taps
Quick closing solenoid valves
Faulty or worn brass seats in taps
Broken tap washers
Airlocks in pipes
Shock waves in pipes
Common noise complaints
Sharp banging or hammering sounds coming from pipes
A series of loud bangs when the washing machine or dishwasher is in operation
A loud bang from a valve or tap
Audible ticking sounds that diminish after the tap is turned on
An intense banging or hammering results from faulty valves, defective mixer taps, defective solenoid valves, broken taps or broken tap washers or poor clipping of pipes.
A series of loud bangs while using the washing machine or dishwasher is caused by the machine’s instantaneous opening and closing of the solenoid valves as it traverses through its cycle.
Excessive water pressure can accentuate all of these causes as water pressure legally cannot exceed 500kPa inside the building.
The ticking sound can build up and then diminish and are the sounds generated by pipe expansion. This is caused by the pipe heating up when the hot tap is turned on as the hot water replaces the cold water and then cools down.
The bangs you hear are from a shock wave
Water hammer will occur much more if your pressure is excessive. The common causes of water hammer are quick closing mixer taps or solenoid valves on washing machines and dishwashers.
In the picture above, the shock wave is generated at the face of a quick closing mixer tap because the flow of water moving under pressure is stopped suddenly by the instant turning off of the mixer tap. The shock wave then ricochets back from the face of the mixer tap cartridge through the stationary water in the pipe. As a result, the shock wave creates enormous pressure moving at 1280 meters per second through the pipe.
This same effect is replicated more intensely by the solenoid valves in your washing machine and dishwasher. Unlike mixer taps, they instantly open and shut as your machine moves through cycles.
Water hammer is an early warning alert
All of the sounds or the audible noise commonly referred to as water hammer tend to be highlighted in copper water pipes. Water hammer still exists in plastic piping systems, but it is diminished significantly as the plastic pipe absorbs the sounds.
Your plumbing reticulation pipes, taps, valves and appliances are all susceptible to damage caused by the impact of shock waves, even if you hear no noise.
The noise is essentially an early warning system telling you to rectify the problem before damage occurs.
Rectification is possible
Water hammer is avoidable and can be rectified regardless of whether you have copper or plastic water reticulation piping.
Banging or noisy pipes usually occur when the water reticulation pipes have not been clipped correctly as per AS/NZS 3500.1: 2018 when the house was initially constructed. This can be much more challenging to rectify compared to a water hammer.
To prevent damage to plumbing pipes, taps, fixtures, hot water valves and appliances, the water hammer’s noise and shock wave elements need to be eliminated.
The noise element is auditory. For example, when you turn off a tap or your washing machine is running, the loud bang of a water hammer alerts you to water hammer problems. Without the noise, there will be no indication of a problem until the damage is caused or your home is flooded by a burst flexihose or appliance hose.
The elimination of the water hammer eliminates the shock waves, which impose undesirable stresses on reticulation pipes, flexihoses and appliances.
Yes the tiny flies in your bathroom are drain flies
As a Service Partner client, Lynette recently sent me a photo of her bathroom floor covered in tiny flies. It didn’t take me long to identify them as drain flies, which thrive in warm temperatures above 20°C, especially in spring and summer. Unfortunately, Lynette’s attempts to kill them were futile, as the flies kept coming back.
She was baffled and frustrated that they only appeared in one bathroom, accumulating on the walls and floor while absent in the rest of the house. The photo above shows the astounding number of flies that can exist in a small area.
Cleaning your bathroom won’t eliminate these pesky flies
Despite her rigorous cleaning routine, Lynette was fed up with the drain flies persistence.
She tried using a strong bleach cleaner, but the flies returned the next day, as she’d heard from others in a similar predicament.
Finally, a friend suggested pouring a 2.5-litre container of bleach down the drains to eliminate the flies within 24 hours, but the flies remained even after Lynette followed this advice.
Identifying drain flies in your home
Drain flies can be unsightly and frustrating, but they pose no health or property damage risks. They don’t bite or transmit diseases, nor do they ruin clothes, towels, or linen.
The problem lies in their ability to breed quickly, causing frustration for homeowners like Lynette. Unfortunately, the more she killed, the more seemed to emerge.
The flies are small, at only 3-4mm in length, with dark grey bodies and hairy moth-like wings that dominate their body size, as shown in the photo below.
Solving the mystery of why drain flies only appear in bathrooms?
If you’re not on an acreage with a septic tank or sewer treatment plant, your only encounter with these annoying flies is probably in your bathroom. These flies are prolific breeders in septic tanks and treatment plants but tend to stay near their food source.
During the day, bathroom flies often sit on walls or under the vanity basin or ceiling. However, they are more active at night, so you may not see them flying or emerging from your floor waste drain.
Despite being poor fliers, drain flies can travel long distances of 3-5km, carried by the wind away from septic tanks or treatment plants. They can enter your home through your insect screens since they are small enough to fit through the holes in the mesh. Ultimately, they will seek out your bathroom floor waste drains as a food and breeding source.
The drain fly dilemma where do they live and breed?
Drain flies are weak fliers, never straying far from the bathroom floor waste drain, causing them to be exclusively found in bathrooms.
Infestations occur when temperatures exceed 20°C in spring. Drain flies multiply rapidly as their life cycle is 1-3 weeks from egg to adult. Eggs hatch within 48 hours, becoming larvae that mature within 12 days, feeding on decaying organic matter in the bathroom floor waste drain. The adult flies emerge from the drain at night, living no more than two weeks.
Tiny insects, big headache: Tips for eliminating drain flies from your bathroom?
Removing breeding sites in bathroom drains is the best way to control and eliminate drain flies. Bleach can help with minor infestations but not major ones, which require sealing and cleaning of the floor waste trap.
Our experience has shown that cleaning the area around the floor waste, and inside the drain, with Enzyme Wizard All Purpose Surface Spray will sanitise and disinfect the breeding ground and food source of drain flies.
If you’re struggling with persistent drain fly infestations, call us at Whywait Plumbing on (07) 5580 4311 to book a service call. We’ll eliminate them for good.
Despite everything that is happening with the Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic emergency as your local Gold Coast Plumber Whywait Plumbing will continue to be available 24/7 to service your plumbing, drainage and gas needs. The current Queensland Government health directives advise that the plumbing industry is an essential service. This means our plumbers are exempt from the two-person rule when entering homes or private premises provided the appropriate social distancing and hygiene requirements are adhered to.
To ensure the safety of our clients, staff and the general public we are making changes to the way we serve our clients. This ensures we can still attend to your problems while focusing on making the correct choices to keep everyone safe.
Read the information below which details out everything you need to know how Whywait Plumbing will ensure your critical plumbing infrastructure remains fully functioning.
Whywait is still here for you 24/7
Whywait Plumbing Services has been trusted by thousands of Gold Coast homeowners, landlords and business owners since 1976 to maintain their plumbing, drainage and gas infrastructure. We believe that now more than ever we need to be there for you 24/7.
As your trusted Gold Coast Plumber we guarantee to continue to be available to keep you safe and ensure your plumbing is functioning to the highest standards.
We assure you we have increased our precautionary measures to protect you and minimise any risk of spreading COVID-19. We continue to adhere to all advice from the official Australian Government health website and are monitoring the situation to ensure we take all practical steps to protect our clients and staff.
It is now our policy when booking all jobs that you provide us credit card details to secure the booking because as recommended by the Government, we ask that you make a pre-payment over the phone so that no physical exchange of money has to occur. If you can only pay with cash we will be handling all transactions using gloves and practising social distancing.
We will now ask you a number of health-related questions when you call us to keep everyone safe which may include:
Have you, or anyone in your household tested positive for COVID-19, or are awaiting test results?
Do you fall into a category where you are self-isolating for COVID-19?
Do you, or anyone living in your household have any flu-like symptoms, a fever, cough, or shortness of breath?
Depending on the answers you provided, we will discuss with you on the best way forward to support solving your plumbing problems.
After we have booked your job if you start to develop flu-like symptoms such as coughing, sneezing, fever or shortness of breath, please call us immediately on (07) 5580 4311 so we can help to manage your appointment.
What to expect when a Whywait employee is at your home or business
Upon arrival, our plumbers may be asking the same health questions asked at the time of your booking. This is to ensure your circumstances have not changed. Plus we guarantee they will be following our increased hygiene practices.
While undertaking any work, they will inform you exactly what they will do before they start and will clean all surfaces they touch with Enzyme Wizard cleaning products.
Thank you for your ongoing support and your understanding
You can be certain that we have your best interest in mind during these uncertain times and we are endeavouring to continue to provide the great service that Whywait Plumbing is renowned for as your Gold Coast Plumber.
This Christmas I can guarantee that burst plastic water reticulation pipes or burst flexi hoses will create more emotional stress and insurance claims than fires and burglaries combined.
How to avoid house flooding is becoming more challenging as we continually add more and more water connections inside our homes. Insurance companies are experiencing year on year increases in ever-increasing water damage insurance claims. The average insurance claim from internal water damage flooding has increased from $17627 in 2014 to $30361 in 2018.
A collapsed ceiling from a water deluge above caused by a burst pipe
If you are going away on holiday this Christmas and New Year holiday season and leaving your home empty then I only have one recommendation. And that is before you drive off walk over to your water meter box and turn off the water supply.
How to avoid house flooding is simple if you turn your water off at the council water meter. By undertaking this simple task I can 100% guarantee you will not arrive home to a flooded house caused by a burst water pipe.
I’ve written frequently over the last 10 years about the issues we see every week with homes getting flooded. We’ve witnessed an ever-increasing amount of homes having plastic water pipes and flexi hoses being installed. In turn, we have seen an ever-increasing number of burst flexi hoses and split plastic pipes flooding homes.
In all likelihood even if you have copper water pipes you will still have multiple flexi hoses in your home. They will exist commonly in both residential and commercial buildings under the kitchen sink, under the bathroom vanity basins, under the toilet cistern and under the laundry tub.
Every flexi hose is potentially a ticking time bomb. It has become so common that we attend to burst flexi hoses every day. In 1 hour a burst flexi hose can discharge 1500 litres of water so in 1 day that could be 36000 litres of water. We’ve all experienced how far a spilt glass of water runs on a floor so imagine how far 108000 glasses of water will run.
We have multiple solutions available to prevent flooding in your home ranging from AquaTrip valves at the boundary that turns the water off automatically to individual auto shut off valves for flexi hoses.
If you have any concerns about your water pipes, flexi hoses, fridge connections or valves in your home and don’t want to have one of our plumbers spending part of Christmas Day with you then call us today.
In 2019 as we have done so for the last 43 years we will continue to provide full plumbing, drainage and gasfitting services every day up to and right through the upcoming Christmas holiday and 2020 New Year holiday period.
Public holiday diagnostic fees will apply to all call outs on those days except for Whywait Service Partners.
I’m always mindful that Christmas greetings can become superficial but even so everyone here at Whywait Plumbing Services wishes you and your family a Merry Christmas and a prosperous 2020. Remember the best of gifts around your Christmas tree on 25 December in the presence of a happy family with a toilet that flushes and a tap that turns off.
In accordance with the advice provided by the 
