New Homeowner Plumbing Checklist — Abilene, TX

Find and test your main water shutoff valve

Usually near the street meter, at the foundation where the supply line enters, or in a utility area. Turn it off and confirm water stops. This is the first thing you do in any plumbing emergency — know where it is before you need it.

Locate the gas shutoff valve

The main gas shutoff is typically at the meter on the exterior of the home. Each appliance also has an individual shutoff. Know both. A quarter-turn valve perpendicular to the pipe means closed.

Identify the water heater type, age, and location

The manufacture date is on the serial number label — look for the year embedded in the serial number format (varies by brand, but usually the first 1-4 characters encode the year). If it’s over 8 years old in Abilene, budget for replacement in the next 2-3 years due to hard water acceleration.

Identify your pipe material

Look under sinks and at the water heater connections. Gray plastic = polybutylene (replace proactively). Dark galvanized steel = aging, watch for rust and pressure drop. Copper = standard, watch for scale from hard water. White or flexible plastic = likely PEX, lowest maintenance.

Check your first water bill for baseline

Knowing your normal monthly usage lets you identify a spike that indicates a hidden leak. Save your first 2-3 bills. A $30+ increase with no change in habits is the primary slab leak indicator.

Test every toilet for running

Put food coloring in each toilet tank. After 15 minutes without flushing, check the bowl — if color appears, the flapper is leaking silently and wasting 200+ gallons per day. Running toilets are the most common hidden water waste in Abilene homes.

Check under every sink for moisture

Wipe under-sink areas dry, then check back in 24 hours. Even minor supply or drain line leaks create the moisture-mold cycle. Pay particular attention to supply line connections on the shutoff valves — these are the most common failure points in Abilene’s hard water environment.

Run a water hardness test

We test on every service call at no charge, or basic test strips from hardware stores give a rough reading. Knowing your hardness number tells you whether a water softener is justified and what size is appropriate for your usage.

Inspect irrigation system and backflow preventer

Run each zone and watch for broken heads, uneven coverage, or slow-draining valves. Confirm the backflow preventer has been tested in the past 12 months — City of Abilene requires annual testing. If you cannot find test documentation, schedule a test immediately.

Do a meter leak test

Shut off everything that uses water — all fixtures, ice maker, irrigation, appliances. Check your water meter: if the leak indicator (small triangle or dial) is moving, you have an active leak somewhere in the system. This takes 5 minutes and can identify a hidden slab or supply line leak before it becomes expensive.

Yes, strongly recommended — especially for homes built before 1990. A pre-purchase plumbing inspection ($250–$400) can identify slab leak history or risk, pipe material condition, water heater age and scale status, sewer line condition via camera, and any code violations from previous unpermitted work. The information is leverage in purchase negotiations and prevents expensive surprises after closing.

In our experience, the most common discoveries are: water heaters near end-of-life with heavy scale buildup that the previous owner just lived with, running toilets wasting significant water that the seller had adapted to, under-sink supply line valves that are partially seized from hard water scale (and will fail when first operated), and slab leaks that the previous owner didn’t know they had.

Check three common locations: the meter box at the street or sidewalk edge (there’s a shutoff here, but it typically requires a meter key to operate), where the water supply line enters the foundation (usually in a utility closet, garage, or accessible crawl space), and behind the water heater (there is often a secondary shutoff here). If you cannot locate your shutoff, call us for a quick walkthrough during a service call.