How to find water mains on your property (NZ)

Find your toby first

The toby is the small valve box at or near your street boundary, usually in the berm or footpath and often under a round or rectangular lid. It marks the handover point: the water authority owns the pipe on the street side, you own everything on the house side.

Finding the toby tells you roughly where the private pipe leaves your property, which narrows the search considerably before you request any plans.

Request the network plan from whoever supplies the address

The operator that supplies your water holds the plan showing main size, material and approximate alignment, and most will send an extract for a specific address on request. Ask for a locate rather than a general enquiry if you are about to dig.

Not sure who that is? Work it out first - see who supplies water to your address - then come back for the plan.

Request the property file for the private pipe

The pipe between your toby and your house rarely appears on any network plan. Where it has been recorded at all, it is usually in the as-built drawings lodged with a building consent, which sit in the council property file for your address.

A property file is not the same thing as a LIM. The LIM is a summary report; the property file is the underlying document set, and it is the one that holds the as-builts. Availability, cost and turnaround vary by council.

Submit a beforeUdig enquiry for the corridor

beforeUdig returns plans from operators registered with the service, which is the fastest way to sweep several networks at once. It does not cover every operator - councils, private site owners and some networks sit outside it - so treat it as one source among several rather than the whole picture.

Confirm on site before the spade goes in

Plans give you an alignment to search within, not a dig permit. For anything mechanical, or anything near a main, have the line located and marked on the ground first.