This is one of those questions where the internet swings between "old wives' tale" and "certain death", and the truth sits in the boring middle: a small risk, cheap to avoid, worth understanding because the answer depends partly on what your pipes are made of.
How your plumbing conducts, by material
| Material in the home | Conducts electricity? | Where you find it |
|---|---|---|
| Copper pipe | Yes, very well | Most Gold Coast homes built before the 2000s, plus many since |
| Galvanised steel | Yes | Pre-1980s original pipework |
| PEX and PVC plastic | Poorly (the water inside still conducts) | Most new builds and repipes |
| Tap water | Yes, because of dissolved minerals | Everywhere |
| Metal tapware and fittings | Yes | Every bathroom |
Can lightning really travel through pipes into a shower?
Yes, mechanically it can. A strike on or near a house looks for paths to ground, and continuous metal pipework is an excellent one. Anyone in contact with that path, hands on tapware, body in a stream of water connected to it, can receive a share of the current. Documented injuries from plumbing contact during storms are rare but real, which is why the standing advice from safety authorities during electrical storms is to avoid showers, baths, washing dishes by hand, and any sustained contact with plumbing until the storm passes. Modern homes plumbed largely in PEX plastic reduce the metallic pathway substantially, though water itself still conducts, so the advice stays the same regardless of pipe material. It just costs you half an hour.
How big is the risk, honestly?
Small. Southeast Queensland is one of the more lightning-active corners of Australia and still, injuries in showers are a rarity measured across decades, not seasons. We are plumbers, not fearmongers, and we will not dress this up as a looming danger. The fair way to frame it: the risk is low probability but high consequence, the mitigation is free, and a typical storm cell is through the Gold Coast in 30 to 60 minutes. Waiting is the kind of cheap insurance we would take ourselves, and do.
Does storm season affect my plumbing in other ways?
This is the part of the question with real money attached. The same storms that raise the shower question also find every weakness in a home's drainage: blocked gutters backing up under eaves, stormwater drains full of leaves flooding paths, and surcharged sewers pushing up through overflow gullies. Storm season is when a year of deferred drain maintenance presents its invoice, all on the same afternoon as everyone else's. A pre-season clear and camera check, with machine clearing at $250 to $400 and CCTV at $200 to $350, is the practical storm preparation, and if water is where it should not be at 9pm mid-storm, after-hours help runs $360 to $560 for the first hour plus the work, honestly framed: in a big storm event, travel times stretch and we tell you a real ETA, not a fantasy one.
Storm season on the Gold Coast finds weak plumbing fast. Call Hills Plumbing & Gas on 0472 657 042 or book through our Emergency Plumbing service page, before the radar turns purple or after it does.