Every 6 months, we block 45 minutes per floor for a plumbing walk-through. On a 6-story office, that cadence has trimmed after-hours leak calls by 1–2 per quarter, mostly because we catch slow issues early. I bring a thermal camera and a 1–1/16" socket to pop anode rods, plus a small gauge to read PRVs without guessing. Typical saves: a domestic PRV creeping from 65 psi to 80, a dry trap primer on a third-floor restroom, or a sump pit that won’t kick on until the float gets a bump. We crack the RPZ test cocks to look for weeping, run 2–3 gallons through floor drains, and note any roof drain ponding for the HVAC crew. None of this is glamorous, but it keeps tenants out of buckets and keeps the main from getting shut down at 5 a.m. What’s on your checklist?
Same here — our 6‑month sweep cut after-hours calls about the same, mostly from catching sweating angle stops and a slow weep at a recirc pump. An IR camera and a cheap moisture meter paid for themselves fast. Do you follow a set checklist or just walk the risers and mechanicals?
On our six-months I exercise every isolation valve a quarter-turn and tag the ones that bind — paid off when a third-floor leak needed a fast shutoff. I also quick-check expansion tanks with a tap and a Schrader gauge; catching a flat bladder early has stopped a couple nuisance relief lifts.
On the walk‑through I screw a 0-160 gauge with a lazy hand onto a mop-sink hose bib for a few minutes; if the peak hand jumps above 80, we know the domestic PRV is creeping or we’re getting night spikes. That’s how we caught a bypassing PRV last spring - dripping T&Ps made sense, and we swapped it before it turned into a shutdown.