Q: If you're house-hunting, what can you do to check the plumbing?
A: You can run water through a drain. If they don't back up immediately, you know you don't have an immediate problem, but sometimes you can run water into a kitchen sink for five minutes, and then that sixth minute, it backs up. But there's no way to really know that until you've actually moved in.
A: You can visually check to see if any faucet is dripping when it should be off, but there is really no way to assess what's going on behind the walls or under the floor.
A: Grab a commode and see if it's loose. If it wobbles on the floor, then that's a problem that needs to be corrected.

Tip: If you ever need to know how old a house is, take the lid off the commode tank; usually it's stamped in there how old the commode is, and that will tell you the age of the house.

Q: What do people do to improve their plumbing when they're selling a home?
A: People are fixing their drippy faucets, repairing the commodes that are leaking, and taking care of some stopped-up drains so they won't back up when you turn the faucet on.

Q: What other advice to you have for homeowners?
A: I tell people that a drippy faucet gets worse as time goes on because it will eat the faucet up, and then you're going to have to replace it. When a faucet first starts dripping, new washers and seats will correct problems. But if you let it go, then you're replacing the whole faucet. The worst case is if it's a bathtub faucet because then you have to get into the wall to replace it. That becomes a major deal.