You've found black pipe under the house.
Or a stain appeared on the ceiling, a plumber opened it up, and the words "Dux Quest" came out of the conversation.
Either way, you're now asking the question that matters more than the leak itself: how much of this is in my house, and what happens next?
We can tell you. We'll look at what's actually installed, how much of the original system is still carrying water, and what a permanent replacement would involve — before you commit to anything.
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Master Plumbers member business
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PGDB licensed plumbers and gasfitters
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Over 45 years of combined Auckland plumbing and gasfitting experience
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12-month workmanship warranty
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Clear written quotations
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East and Central Auckland based
What Dux Quest Actually Is
Dux Quest is a plastic water pipe that went into New Zealand homes from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. It was one of the first polybutylene plumbing systems used here. It was withdrawn from sale around 1987 after pipes and fittings started bursting in houses around the country.
You'll also see it written Dux Qest. Same pipe. The spelling has been muddled since the day it was installed.
It's easy to recognise once you know what you're looking at. Settled.govt.nz, the government-backed property buying resource, describes it as "distinctive black piping with 'Dux Quest' printed in white lettering on the side."
In practice it looks black or very dark grey, feels smooth and slightly flexible, and joins with plastic or compression fittings rather than soldered copper.
Where It Turns Up
Under the house. In the roof space. In the hot water cylinder cupboard. Behind the vanity, under the kitchen sink, running through the laundry wall.
The parts you can see are rarely the whole story. Most of a home's pipework is concealed, which is exactly why finding one length of black pipe raises a bigger question than it answers.
Not sure what's installed in your home? Send us a photo and we'll tell you.
Send Us a Photo. We'll Tell You What You've Got.
You don't need to book anything to find out what's under your house.
Take a photo of any exposed pipe — under the kitchen sink, in the cylinder cupboard, in the roof space or underfloor — and send it to us. One of our plumbers will look at it and tell you what the pipe appears to be, whether it's worth a closer look, and what your realistic options are.
No charge. No obligation. No sales call unless you ask for one.
What helps
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A clear photo of the pipe, ideally with any printing visible
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A second shot showing where it runs, if you can get one
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The suburb and roughly when the house was built
If it turns out to be modern pipe, we'll say so and you can stop worrying about it.
How to send it
Text a photo to 027 482 4503. That's usually quickest — the photo is already on your phone.
Prefer email? Send it to info@martinplumbing.co.nz.
Either way, tell us your suburb and roughly when the house was built if you know it. One of our plumbers will look at it and reply, usually the same day.
027 482 4503
On your phone, texting is quickest. On a computer, email.
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Do I Need to Replace All of It?
Honest answer: not always.
Finding one Dux Quest leak doesn't tell us the condition of every pipe in the house. Sometimes a single failed fitting is genuinely a single failed fitting, and a local repair is the sensible thing to do.
But repairing one section doesn't change the age or the material of everything else.
The rest of the system is the same pipe, installed on the same day, carrying the same water at the same temperature for the same forty-odd years. The repair fixes today's leak. It doesn't tell you anything about next year's.
So the question we want to answer isn't "can this be patched?" It's "how much of the original system is still in service, and where is it?"
Once you know that, the decision makes itself. Some homes have had most of the Dux Quest replaced piecemeal over the decades and only need the last runs done. Others still have the original system almost intact.
We'll tell you which one you're in.
Find out what's actually left in your system before you decide.
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When Repairs Stop Making Sense
The first leak is usually cheap to fix. That's what makes the maths deceptive.
What adds up is everything around it:
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Another call-out, then another
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A ceiling replaced after the second leak
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Carpet lifted and dried after the third
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Time off work waiting for a plumber
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An insurance excess each time
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The growing sense that you can't leave the house for a weekend
Experience has taught us that the plumbing is rarely the expensive part. The water damage is.
A pipe repair might be a few hundred dollars. A ceiling, the insulation above it, the carpet below it and two weeks of drying gear is a different number entirely — and that's before anyone repaints.
That's the comparison worth making. Not "repair versus replace," but "one more repair versus removing the reason the repairs keep happening."
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Signs Your Home's Pipework Is Near the End
Dux Quest is one system among several that reach this point. In many Auckland homes we also find galvanised steel, early polybutylene and water mains that have been patched more than once.
Worth a closer look if you're seeing:
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Black or very dark grey plastic pipe under the house or in the roof space
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More than one pipe leak in the past few years
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Old repairs visible in several different places
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A water bill that climbed without an explanation
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Water pressure that's dropped off, or varies room to room
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Brown or discoloured water, particularly first thing in the morning
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Visible corrosion or scaling on metal pipework
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Damp patches on ceilings or at the base of walls
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A low-pressure hot water system that's never been upgraded
Any one of these on its own might be nothing. Two or three together usually means the system is telling you something.
The Martin Plumbing Complete Replumb
One plan for replacing ageing pipework properly.
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ASSESS
We identify what's installed, how much of it remains in service, where it runs and what access the job will need.
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PLAN
We map the replacement route. A new system rarely has to follow the old one, which is usually how we keep the opening-up to a minimum.
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REPLACE
New hot and cold water pipework installed throughout, with fixtures reconnected and isolation valves where they should have been in the first place.
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TEST
Pressure tested and commissioned. We don't hand back a system we haven't proven.
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FINISH
Reinstatement coordinated where it's included, and a completion pack documenting exactly what was done.
What's in the completion pack
When the job's finished you get a record of it: what pipework was replaced, what wasn't and why, the materials used, the date, photographs of the work before it was closed up, and the warranties that apply.
That matters later — when you sell, when you insure, when someone asks what's behind the wall.
What Happens to My Walls and Ceilings?
This is the question people are really asking, and it deserves a straight answer.
Yes, a whole-house replumb needs access to pipework that's currently concealed. No, that doesn't mean the house gets opened up wall by wall.
An experienced plumber doesn't have to follow the old pipe route. Most of the time we can design a new route that uses spaces already available to us — the roof cavity, the underfloor, wardrobes, service cupboards, the back of a vanity — and only open what genuinely can't be reached another way.
Where we do need access, it's usually small, deliberate and in places you'll agree to before we start.
You'll know where every opening is going to be before any work begins, because it's on the quote.
Putting the house back together
Depending on your home and what the job needs, we can either coordinate the trades required to make good afterwards, or work alongside a builder you've already got.
We'll be clear in the quotation about which parts are plumbing scope and which are reinstatement, so nobody discovers halfway through that the painting was somebody else's job.
What Does It Cost to Replumb a House in Auckland?
There's a wide range of figures published online, and most of them are close to useless without knowing the house they refer to. The most quoted range in New Zealand comes from a directory rather than a plumber, and runs from $11,000 to $62,000 — which tells a buyer with a deadline nothing at all.
How much to replumb a three-bedroom house?
It's the most common way people ask this, and it's the wrong unit. Bedrooms don't cost anything to replumb. Bathrooms, kitchens and laundries do, and so does how hard they are to reach.
A three-bedroom house on piles with one bathroom, good underfloor access and a roof space you can move in is a straightforward job. A three-bedroom house on a concrete slab with a second bathroom added at the far end is a substantially bigger one. Same number of bedrooms, different job.
What actually moves the number:
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Floor area, and single storey versus two
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How many bathrooms, and where they sit relative to each other
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Whether the house is on piles with underfloor access, or on a concrete slab
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How much of the pipework is genuinely reachable
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Where the hot water cylinder is and whether it's staying
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How much reinstatement sits inside the scope
Two three-bedroom houses a street apart in Meadowbank can differ by thousands, purely on access.
So rather than publish a number that won't apply to you, we inspect the property first and give you a scoped written quotation — what's included, what isn't, what happens if we find something unexpected, and how long it'll take.
You'll know exactly what's happening before any work begins.
Our hourly rates, call-out fee and after-hours charges are published in full, so you can see what the work is built from before you ever ring us.
Dux Quest Plumbing and House Insurance
It can affect it, and it's worth understanding before you need to find out.
Settled.govt.nz puts it plainly: "replacing the pipes is preferable to simply fixing the leaks, because some insurers will not cover damage caused by Dux Quest piping."
Policies differ, and so do insurers. Some apply conditions to known problem pipework. Some treat a second claim on the same property differently from the first. The only reliable answer for your situation is the one your own insurer gives you.
What we can do is give you the plumbing side of that conversation: a clear assessment of what's installed, and — once the work is done — documentation showing what was replaced and when.
We document the work. Your insurer decides how they treat it.
Was Dux Quest Recalled?
No. It was withdrawn from sale, which is a different thing, and the difference matters.
A government release from April 2011 describes Dux Quest as "one of the first Polybutylene plumbing systems introduced into New Zealand in the early 1980s" and confirms it "was withdrawn from the market about 24 years ago." At the time, the manufacturer offered to replace the product or pay for replacement materials.
That was the 1980s. If you're finding Dux Quest in your house now, there's no recall to register for and no scheme paying for it. Dealing with it is the homeowner's cost.
Which is exactly why it's worth knowing what you've got before it decides the timing for you.
Buying an Auckland Home With Dux Quest?
Finding Dux Quest in a building report doesn't mean walk away.
It means find out what it costs before you sign, not after.
Settled.govt.nz advises buyers they may wish to "ask for it to be replaced as a condition of sale or negotiate the cost of replacement off the sale price." You can't do either without a number.
We inspect properties for buyers before settlement and provide a written plumbing assessment — what's installed, how much of the system is affected, what replacement would involve and roughly what it would cost.
Bring that to your lawyer and you're negotiating with evidence instead of a worry.
The earlier it's found, the more room you have to do something about it.
Ageing Pipework in Auckland's Established Suburbs
We work in these streets every week. We know which eras brought which systems, what tends to have been replaced already, and what's usually still sitting there behind the plaster.
That's the difference between a plumber who has read about Dux Quest and one who pulls it out of Auckland houses.
Common Questions
A plastic water pipe installed in New Zealand homes in the early 1980s, withdrawn from sale around 1987 after widespread reports of pipes and fittings bursting.
Look for distinctive black piping with "Dux Quest" printed in white lettering on the side. Check under the kitchen sink, in the hot water cylinder cupboard, in the roof space and underfloor. Send us a photo and we'll confirm it for free.
No. It was withdrawn from sale around 1987 rather than recalled. There's no scheme to claim from today — replacing it is the homeowner's cost.
Not necessarily all at once. What matters is how much of the original system is still carrying water. We assess that before recommending anything.
Yes, and sometimes that's the right call. But the repair doesn't change the age of the rest of the system.
It depends heavily on house size, layout, access and how much reinstatement is involved. We inspect first and quote in writing.
Bedrooms aren't what drives it. Bathrooms, kitchens, laundries and how reachable the pipework is are what change the number — which is why two houses with the same bedroom count can differ by thousands.
Yes. Replumb is the New Zealand term; repipe is more common overseas. Same job.
Most standard homes take several days of plumbing work. Reinstatement adds time on top. We'll give you a programme with the quote.
Some access is usually necessary, but far less than people expect. We plan the route to minimise it and show you where every opening will be before we start.
Usually yes. Water is off for parts of the day rather than the whole job, and we plan around that with you.
Modern pipework appropriate to your home — most commonly PEX, which is what the majority of new Auckland homes are plumbed in.
Yes. Galvanised steel is the other system we most often find at the end of its life in older Auckland homes.
Yes, and if the main is also original it's usually the sensible time to do it. One excavation, one commissioning.
Find Out What's Actually in Your Walls
Every repair on a forty-year-old system buys time. It doesn't buy certainty.
If you've found Dux Quest, had a leak, or seen old pipework flagged in a building report, the useful next step is understanding the whole system — not just the piece that failed.
We'll assess it, explain exactly what we've found, and give you a clear written plan for replacing it.
Leave your preferred day or time and we'll do our best to fit around you.