New Build Reticulation
The whole house set out from the connection inward, sized for the fittings the plans actually specify rather than a standard assumption.
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Plumbing installations in Ballito are quoted per point, with what a point includes set out in writing. That definition is why two honest quotes on the same house can differ by a great deal, and it is the thing worth checking before you compare any of them.
Tell us how many points and whether the walls are already open. If you are comparing our quote against another, ask us both the same four questions from the list below.
New work, extensions and re-pipes. For renovations to an existing room, see bathroom renovation plumbing.
The whole house set out from the connection inward, sized for the fittings the plans actually specify rather than a standard assumption.
New points tied into an existing system, with the existing system checked first to see whether it can actually carry them.
Old galvanised supply replaced throughout instead of repaired section by section on a system deteriorating everywhere at once.
An outside tap, a scullery connection, an irrigation point. Small jobs, quoted the same way and with the same definitions.
Geyser position and pipe runs planned so hot water arrives somewhere useful without a long dead leg to every outlet.
Compliance certificate issued and handed over, which matters for your insurer now and for a buyer's attorney later.
Among the questions Google shows most often around plumbing searches in South Africa is a very specific one: how much do plumbers charge per point? It is a good question and it has an unhelpful answer, which is that the price per point is close to meaningless on its own. The word point is doing an enormous amount of unexamined work, and it means materially different things to different contractors.
Consider what might reasonably be included. There is the cold supply. There is the hot supply, where the fitting needs one. There is the waste pipework and its connection to the stack, which on a toilet is a substantial item and on a basin is not. There is the chasing of walls to get the pipes where they need to go, and the making good afterwards. There is pressure testing. And there is the sanitaryware itself, which is sometimes in and usually not.
A quote covering all of those and a quote covering half of them are both legitimately described as a price per point. They are not remotely the same offer. This is how somebody ends up choosing the cheaper of two quotes, discovering during the build that chasing was excluded, paying a second trade to do it, and finishing well above what the dearer quote would have cost them in total. Nobody has behaved badly. The comparison was simply never valid.
The problem compounds on a new build, where the largest single plumbing-related cost is frequently the connection to the municipal supply, which is not plumbing at all in the strict sense and is therefore absent from most plumbing quotes entirely. It has its own application, its own fee and its own lead time, and finding out about all three late is a genuine programme risk rather than an inconvenience.
So ask every quote the same four questions and write the answers next to the figures. Does the point include hot and cold, or only cold? Does it include the waste and the connection to the stack? Is chasing and making good in or out? Is the fitting supplied? Four questions, four quotes, and the comparison becomes real. Ask us the same ones, and if a competing quote answers better on something, that is worth knowing.
Write the answers beside each figure and the comparison becomes real.
Definitions in writing, so the number can actually be compared.
Hot, cold, waste, chasing and testing listed explicitly rather than left to assumption.
What is not in the price appears on the quote, because that is the half that causes the arguments.
Pressure proved while walls are still open, because a weeping joint behind new plaster costs two trades.
Issued and handed over with the registration number, for your insurer now and a buyer later.
Per point pricing, why quotes differ, re-pipes and the municipal connection.
The figure is far less important than the definition, and this is the single most useful thing on this page. Two quotes on the same house can differ enormously and both be honest, because one includes the waste and the chasing and the other does not. Before comparing any two per point prices, establish for each one whether it includes hot and cold, whether it includes the waste, whether chasing walls is in or out, and whether the fitting itself is supplied.
One terminated plumbing position: a basin, a toilet, a shower, a kitchen sink, an outside tap, a washing machine connection. In our quotes a point means the hot and cold supply where applicable, the waste pipework connected to the stack, the chasing needed to get there, and pressure testing before anything is closed up. It does not mean the sanitaryware itself unless the quote says so explicitly, and you should expect any quote to be explicit about it.
Almost always because of scope rather than because of rates. A quote that excludes chasing assumes somebody else opens the walls. A quote that excludes waste assumes the drainage already exists or is another trade's problem. A quote that excludes the connection to the municipal supply leaves the largest single item out. None of that is dishonest, but comparing two quotes without comparing their exclusions is how people choose the more expensive option believing it is cheaper.
Yes, and on older properties it is often more sensible than repairing a supply run repeatedly. Galvanised pipework closes up from the inside as it corrodes, so pressure falls gradually and every repair buys a little time on a system that is deteriorating everywhere at once. A re-pipe is quoted per point on the same basis as new work, with the disruption set out honestly, because it does mean opening walls and it is not a one day job.
Yes, on first fix and second fix as separate stages with separate figures, and we will hold dates provided the programme is real. What we ask for in return is notice when the programme moves, which it does on every site. A plumber given two days of warning can rearrange; a plumber told on the morning cannot, and that is where site relationships usually break down. See bathroom renovation plumbing for how the same sequence works domestically.
A new connection involves the water services provider rather than only a plumber, and it has its own application, its own timeline and its own cost. It is frequently the longest lead item on a new build and it is the one most often left out of a plumbing quote entirely, because strictly speaking it is not plumbing. Ask specifically whether any quote you hold includes it. If it does not, find out who is applying and when, early rather than late.
Extra points at first fix are dramatically cheaper than extra points later, because the walls are already open and somebody is already there. An outside tap on the far side of the house, a washing machine point in a scullery, a future guest bathroom roughed in and capped: all of those cost a fraction now compared with cutting into a finished building. This is the one place where spending a little more up front reliably pays for itself.
You get a certificate of compliance for the work carried out, issued on completion and handed over without being chased for it, along with the registration number so you can verify it yourself. For a new build or a substantial alteration this matters twice over: once for your insurer, and again at transfer, when a buyer's attorney may well ask for evidence that the plumbing was done and certified properly.
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Tell us how many points and whether the walls are open. If you are holding another quote, ask us the same four questions and compare the answers rather than the totals.