You’re under contract. The option period is running. An inspector is coming out.
Here’s the part most buyers don’t know: a standard home inspection won’t catch the two most expensive plumbing problems in Plano. Both are invisible, and both can cost more than everything else on the inspection report combined.
This is what to check, and how to check it yourself in an afternoon.
1. Your inspector probably isn’t looking at the sewer line
A standard home inspection is visual. The inspector runs the faucets, looks under the sinks, checks the water heater, and flags what they can see.
They don’t put a camera down your sewer line. They can’t see under the slab.
So you can get a clean inspection report on a house with a cracked sewer line or an active leak under the foundation. It happens all the time, and the buyer finds out six months later.
If you want to know what’s under the house, you have to ask for it separately. A camera inspection is the only way to see inside the line.
2. Look up the year it was built first
Before you spend a dollar, look up the build year. Collin County Appraisal District has it, it’s free, and it takes two minutes. Search the address.
That one number tells you most of what you need to know, because Plano is really two cities when it comes to plumbing.
Older east Plano — the neighborhoods around downtown and Haggard Park — was built when cast iron sewer pipe was standard. Cast iron rusts and scales on the inside, then cracks. Those homes are now at the age where it starts to fail.
West Plano — Legacy, Willow Bend, and what got built around them — mostly has copper water lines running under the concrete slab. After 30-plus years, copper under a slab develops pinhole leaks.
Different decade, different pipe, different problem. Once you know the build year, you know which of the next two sections applies to you.
If you want the longer version of how build era shapes plumbing here, we cover it on our Plano plumbing page.
3. Older east Plano home? Get a sewer scope
A sewer scope is a camera run down the main line from a cleanout. It takes under an hour, and you watch the screen with the technician.
What you’re looking for:
- Cracks or breaks in the pipe
- Tree roots growing in through the joints
- A “belly” — a low spot in the line where water sits instead of draining
- Heavy scale buildup narrowing the pipe
Why it’s worth it in an older home: a sewer line replacement is one of the largest plumbing bills a homeowner can get. A scope costs a small fraction of that. If the line is fine, you’ve bought certainty. If it isn’t, you found out while you still have leverage.
Do this during your option period, not after. Once you close, it’s your pipe.
Here’s what sewer line repair and replacement actually involves if the scope turns up a problem.
4. West Plano home from the 80s or 90s? Look for slab leak signs
A slab leak is a leak in a water line running under the concrete foundation. In a house that age, with copper lines, it’s the thing to rule out.
Signs to look for during a walkthrough:
- A warm or damp patch on the floor, often in one spot
- Water pressure that seems low across the whole house
- The sound of running water when every tap is off
- New cracks in flooring or along a wall
- A musty smell that doesn’t have an obvious source
Ask the seller for the last few water bills. A bill that jumped without a change in how many people live there is one of the clearest signals there is.
If anything looks off, get it checked before you close. Good leak detection uses acoustic equipment and pressure testing to find the leak without opening the floor.
5. Run the water meter test yourself — it takes 15 minutes
This one is free and any buyer can do it. Do it at your final walkthrough.
- Turn off every faucet, shower, and appliance in the house. Don’t forget the ice maker and the irrigation system.
- Find the water meter. In most Plano homes it’s at the street in a covered box near the sidewalk.
- Look at the small dial or triangle on the face. That’s the leak indicator.
- Note the reading, wait 15 minutes, and check it again.
If it moved, water is going somewhere with everything shut off. That’s a leak — under the slab, in the yard line, or at a running toilet.
It won’t tell you where. It will tell you there’s something to find, which is exactly what you need to know before you close.
6. Check the water heater’s age
Look for the serial number on the label. On most brands, the first four digits are the month and year it was made. A serial starting 0817 means August 2017.
Then do the math. A tank water heater generally lasts 8 to 12 years.
Plano’s water shortens that. The North Texas Municipal Water District supplies Plano, and the district describes its treated water as moderately hard — around 11 to 12 grains per gallon. Those minerals settle in the bottom of the tank and make it work harder. Tanks here often don’t reach the top of their expected range.
If the heater is past 10, treat a replacement as a cost you’ll carry in the next couple of years, not a maybe. Ask when it was last flushed. If nobody knows, assume never.
That’s worth factoring in when you’re deciding what to ask for. Here’s more on water heater repair and replacement.
7. Know what’s worth negotiating
Not everything on an inspection report is a problem. Some of it is just the house being the age it is.
Worth pushing on:
- A cracked or root-filled sewer line
- An active slab leak
- A water heater already past its expected life
- Any active leak, anywhere
- Galvanized steel supply pipe in the oldest homes — it rusts shut from the inside and eventually needs replacing
Usually just the age of the house:
- Slow drains that clear with a cleaning
- A dripping faucet or a running toilet — these are cheap parts
- Older but working fixtures
- Minor corrosion at a visible fitting with no active leak
The distinction matters. Buyers who ask for everything often get nothing. Buyers who ask for the two things that actually cost real money tend to get them.
What to do with what you find
Get anything significant in writing before your option period ends. A written quote from a licensed plumber is far more persuasive to a seller than an inspection report line item, because it puts a real number on the table.
And whatever you learn, keep it. Knowing you have cast iron under the yard or copper under the slab is genuinely useful for the next ten years of owning the house.
Quick checklist
- Look up the build year at Collin County Appraisal District
- Sewer scope if it’s an older east Plano home
- Walk through looking for slab leak signs if it’s 1980s or 90s west Plano
- Run the 15-minute water meter test
- Read the water heater serial number and do the math
- Ask the seller for recent water bills
- Get written quotes for anything real before the option period ends
Buying in Plano and want the plumbing checked before you close? We’re a licensed master plumber and a registered City of Plano contractor. We’ll scope the line, test for leaks, and give you a straight answer in writing while you still have time to use it.
Call (945) 291-8008 or get in touch.
Wise Choice Plumbing & Rooter — Master Plumber M-46550