The short answer
Braided stainless supply lines every five to ten years, rubber washing machine hoses every five, and a tank water heater at ten to twelve regardless of whether it is still working. These are wear parts with a service life, not permanent fittings, and all three fail at full household pressure.
Restoration is largely a business of components that reached the end of their design life without anyone noticing. Here are the numbers, and the three worth acting on today.
The service life table
| Component | Service life | What failure looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Rubber washing machine hose | 5–8 years | Bursts under full pressure, unattended |
| Braided stainless supply connector | 5–10 years | Weeps at the fitting, then fails |
| Dishwasher supply line | 5–10 years | Slow leak under the machine and into cabinet voids |
| Refrigerator ice-maker line | 5–10 years | Slow weep behind an appliance nobody moves |
| Water heater (conventional tank) | 8–12 years | Shell corrodes through; full release |
| Toilet fill valve and flapper | 4–7 years | Silent running; a bill increase |
| Toilet wax ring | 20–30 years | Slow leak into the subfloor |
| Angle stop | 15–25 years | Seizes, then weeps when finally turned |
| Pressure regulator | 10–15 years | Fails high; over-stresses the whole system |
| Shower pan | 20–30 years | Leaks into the subfloor and the ceiling below |
| Sump pump | 7–10 years | Fails, usually when needed |
| Copper supply piping | 40–70 years | Pinhole perforation from the inside out |
| Galvanized steel piping | 40–60 years | Internal scaling, pressure loss, perforation |
| Clay or cast-iron sewer lateral | 50–75 years | Root intrusion, bellies, collapse |
The three worth doing this month
1. Braided supply connectors, everywhere
Under every sink, behind every toilet. They cost a few dollars each, replacing one takes ten minutes, and they are the single most common point of failure in any house of any age.
When you fit new ones, write the date on them with a marker. Future you, or the next owner, will know.
2. Washing machine hoses — to stainless braided
Rubber degrades from the inside where you cannot inspect it, and these sit under full mains pressure twenty-four hours a day behind an appliance nobody moves. Stainless braided costs a few dollars more and the braid restrains the inner tube so it cannot balloon and rupture.
And turn the taps off whenever you are away for more than a couple of days. See washing machine supply line burst.
3. Find out how old your water heater is
The manufacture date is encoded in the serial number on the label — most manufacturers put the year and week in the first four characters. Over ten years, plan the replacement.
Replacing at year eleven on your schedule costs a fraction of replacing at thirteen on the tank's schedule with a flooded garage and a wet hallway. See water heater leak cleanup.
What shortens all of these
- High water pressure. Over 80 psi over-stresses every fitting continuously. A $15 gauge on a hose bib tells you in thirty seconds, and a failed regulator is inexpensive to replace.
- Hard water. Scale reduces pipe bore, raising velocity and accelerating erosion corrosion at fittings, and it insulates water heater tank floors from the burner.
- Temperature. Hot-water lines and components fail first, consistently.
- Never being exercised. Valves that sit untouched for twenty years seize. Turn every shutoff fully off and on once a year.
- Being ignored. Every item on that table gives warning signs before it fails.
The mid-century Lafayette problem
Look again at the bottom rows of that table: copper at forty to seventy years, galvanized at forty to sixty, clay laterals at fifty to seventy-five.
A great deal of Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda housing was built between the mid-1950s and the mid-1970s. All three of those components across the whole cohort are now inside their failure window simultaneously — which is exactly what we see in the work.
If your house is of that era and on original systems, the honest framing is not "will something fail" but "which one first, and will you be home." See burst pipe cleanup and the Rheem Valley area page.
Frequently asked
How often should washing machine hoses be replaced?
Rubber hoses every five to eight years; stainless braided last longer but are worth replacing on roughly the same cycle. Rubber degrades from the inside where you cannot inspect it, so age matters more than appearance. Replace with stainless braided — the braid restrains the inner tube so it cannot balloon and rupture — and write the installation date on the hose with a marker.
How do I find out how old my water heater is?
The manufacture date is encoded in the serial number on the label, and most manufacturers put the year and week in the first four characters. A conventional tank runs eight to twelve years, and the moderately hard water in this region does not extend that. Over ten years, plan the replacement — doing it on your schedule costs a fraction of doing it on the tank's.
What is the single cheapest thing I can replace to prevent water damage?
Braided supply connectors under every sink and behind every toilet. They cost a few dollars each, take ten minutes to swap, have a five to ten year service life, and they are the most common single point of failure in any house of any age. Write the date on them when you fit them.
Why do so many components in older Lafayette homes fail at once?
Because a tract built over a few years has systems that share a birthday. Copper supply piping runs forty to seventy years, galvanized forty to sixty, and clay sewer laterals fifty to seventy-five — and much of Lafayette, Moraga and Orinda was built between the mid-1950s and mid-1970s. All three are inside their failure window simultaneously across the whole cohort right now.