The repair is finished
when the house stays dry.
A closed wall is not proof. The proof is the next ordinary day: showers, laundry, a dishwasher, and a floor that stays the color it was.
After a supply repair, look at the access, not only the fixture. A fitting can weep slowly enough to miss while someone is still in the room. A paper towel held at the joint tells you more than a glance. After a drain clearing, run the fixture that failed, then the one beside it. If the tub gurgles again the first night, say so. Waiting a week to be polite turns a soft spot back into a backup. After a heater, confirm hot water at the far bathroom, look at the pan, and confirm the relief line is not dripping onto the floor. A new heater that drips from the tank is not “settling.”
What a callback is for
Call if water returns, if a drain that was opened closes again within days, or if a valve we touched will not shut. Do not open a wall to investigate ahead of that call. Tell us what you ran, what floor, and whether anyone else has worked there since. A small stain that was already dry may be the old leak finding the paint. A stain that grows is not.
We would rather hear about it on the second day than discover it as a different job. The scope you approved included the repair holding. If it does not, that is still the same conversation.
What is normal, and what is not
Air in a supply line after the water is turned back on will spit and bang for a short while. Open a faucet slowly, let it run until the spit stops, and do the same at the other end of the house. A pipe that keeps hammering when valves close may have been doing that for years, or a strap may have been disturbed. Mention it. It is not, by itself, a leak. A sweet or metallic smell at a heater the first time it fires can be oil on a new burner or dust on a flue. It should fade. The smell of gas should not. If you smell gas, leave the appliance off and call.
A drain that was just cleared can smell for a day as the line dries. It should not return sewage to a fixture. Run the repaired drain, then run a fixture above it. If the lower one rises, the line is not open, no matter how well it behaved while we were standing there.
Stains, and the paper towel
Old water finds paint after a leak is already stopped. A stain that is the same size at night as it was in the morning is residue. A stain that grows, or a spot that wets a dry paper towel, is active. Check the access panel, the angle stops we turned, and the pan under the heater. Those are the places a repair can weep. Do not cut a new hole to investigate. Call, say which towel came away wet, and leave the opening we made so we can see the same joint.
If a cleared line closes again inside the first days, that is the camera conversation, not a request to wait and see if the third time is quieter. You already approved a repair that was supposed to hold. Telling us early is how that sentence stays true.
Related service: Request a plumber. For the visit itself, call 818-631-7296 or send the address.