A plumbing checklist for rental turnovers

Run this between every tenant, even when the unit looks fine. A dripping supply line or a worn wax ring is cheap to catch at turnover and expensive to catch after it’s ruined a floor.

Go room by room instead of jumping around. It’s easy to check a toilet and forget the shutoff behind it, or check a faucet and skip the aerator. A fixed order means nothing gets skipped just because the last unit ran long.

Kitchen

• Under the sink: look for damp cabinet bottoms, rust on the shutoff valves, and supply lines that flex or crack when you touch them.
• The drain and P-trap: check for slow drainage and a loose slip-nut connection.
• Garbage disposal: run it with water. Listen for humming without spinning, which means a jam, and check underneath for a wet ring on the shelf.
• Dishwasher: check the drain hose for a proper high loop or air gap, and look at the supply line connection for corrosion.
• Faucet sprayer: pull it out and check the hose for kinks or a weak spray pattern.

Bathrooms

• Toilets: run the dye test (a few drops of food coloring in the tank, check the bowl after 15 minutes for silent leaks). Check the flapper for cracking, the fill valve for a slow hiss after the tank fills, and rock the bowl gently to check for a loose base, which can break the wax ring’s seal.
• Tubs and showers: time the drain. Slow is a warning sign even if it’s not fully clogged. Check caulk and grout for gaps, and run the diverter (tub spout or shower switch) a few times to confirm it holds.
• Faucets and aerators: check for drips at the handle and unscrew the aerator to look for mineral buildup restricting flow.

Laundry

1. Check the washer hoses. If they’re still the black rubber ones, replace them with braided stainless. Rubber hoses degrade over years and fail without warning, and a burst one behind a washer can run for hours before anyone notices.
2. Check the box valves behind the washer for drips or corrosion.
3. Look at the standpipe the washer drains into for slow drainage or buildup at the opening.

Water heater

• Read the manufacture date off the label and note it in the unit’s file.
• Check the T&P relief valve’s discharge line for corrosion or a line that doesn’t reach the floor.
• Look at the drain pan, if there is one, for rust or a cracked bottom.
• Flush the tank if it’s due. Heavy sediment shortens the life of the heater and makes it noisier.

Shutoffs

Turn every fixture shutoff valve, under sinks and behind toilets, to confirm it actually moves. A valve that’s seized from years of sitting won’t help anyone during a leak. Go easy on old ones, though. If a valve won’t budge or starts to drip, leave it and get it replaced. Confirm the main shutoff is easy to find and labeled if it isn’t obvious.

Units that sat empty

A dry trap after a vacancy lets sewer gas back up into the unit, which shows up as a smell nobody can place. Run water in every drain, including floor drains and rarely used bathrooms, for a minute before a tenant moves in. If the smell doesn’t clear, here’s what a sewer smell in the house usually means.

A trap only holds water because something keeps refilling it. Leave a unit empty for a couple of months and every trap in the place can run dry. Running each drain takes less time than fielding the phone call about it later.

Winter vacancies

If a unit’s sitting empty during a cold stretch, don’t let the heat drop low enough that pipes are at risk. An empty unit is more at risk, since nobody’s there to notice the first sign of trouble.

Tape this list inside the utility closet door and run it every time. If you’d rather hand some of it off, here’s how we work with property managers.