Whole home repiping

When repiping beats another repair

Repeat leaks in different places. One leak is an event. Three in two years at different points is a system reaching the end of its life, and the fourth is already on its way. Spot repairs on a failing system are a subscription.

Polybutylene. Grey plastic pipe with crimped fittings, installed widely from the late seventies into the mid-nineties. It fails unpredictably and it is the clearest repipe case there is. It also affects insurance and sale.

Galvanised steel. Pre-1960 houses. Corrodes internally until the bore is a fraction of its original size. Symptoms are poor pressure, rusty water on first draw, and pinholes.

Pinholing copper. Copper is a good material that fails early in some conditions, aggressive water chemistry, high velocity from oversized pump pressure, or poor original workmanship. Once a house starts producing pinholes, it usually keeps producing them.

Under-slab supply that keeps leaking. One slab leak is a repair or a reroute. A second on the same system suggests the pipe under the concrete is done, and rerouting overhead across the whole house is a repipe by another name.

Pressure and flow that no fixture fix improves. If aerators, cartridges and the regulator have all been addressed and the house still delivers poorly, the pipe itself is the restriction.

A major remodel. Walls are open, floors are up, and the marginal cost of new pipe is at its lowest point. If the supply system is more than forty years old, this is the moment.

PEX or copper

Both are legitimate. The right answer depends on the house and, honestly, on preference.

PEX. Flexible, fast to install, and its flexibility means long runs with far fewer fittings, and fittings are where leaks happen. It tolerates freezing better than rigid pipe, expanding rather than splitting in many cases, which is not nothing after recent Texas winters. It can be pulled through existing wall cavities with less demolition, which is often the deciding advantage. It is also cheaper, both in material and labour.

Against PEX: it must not see UV, so no exposed exterior runs. Rodents have been known to chew it. Early generations had fitting issues, largely resolved with modern expansion fittings.

Copper. Proven over a century, rigid, tolerant of heat, immune to UV and vermin, and preferred by some buyers at resale. It is also visibly tidy in a garage or mechanical space.

Against copper. Considerably more expensive in both material and labour. Rigid, so it needs more open wall to install. It splits when frozen rather than expanding. And in aggressive water it can pinhole again, if that is what caused the original failure, replacing copper with copper repeats the experiment.

What we usually recommend: PEX for concealed distribution throughout the house, copper for exposed runs, mechanical connections, and anything within reach of a water heater. That combination gets the strengths of both and is standard practice on most Texas repipes.

How the work actually goes

Survey and plan. Every fixture mapped, routes planned, access points identified. A good plan minimises the number of holes, and the number of holes is what determines the repair bill.

Permit. Repiping is permitted work in essentially every Texas jurisdiction, with an inspection before the walls close.

Protection. Floors covered, furniture moved or sheeted, work areas contained. This is dusty work and containment is the difference between a manageable week and a miserable one.

Access openings. Neat, deliberate cuts in the places the plan identified, typically at fixtures, at direction changes, and at the manifold. Attic space is used wherever possible because it means no holes at all in the ceiling below.

New system installed. Run from a manifold or a trunk-and-branch layout, fixture by fixture, generally leaving the old system live until each zone is ready to switch.

Pressure test and inspection. The new system is tested at pressure and held, then inspected before anything is covered.

Cutover and old pipe abandoned. Old lines are capped and left in place rather than torn out, which avoids a great deal of unnecessary demolition.

Drywall repair, texture and paint. Usually a separate trade and frequently the longer half of the schedule.

Typical duration: two to four days of plumbing for an average house; a week or more with the finish work.

Living in the house while it happens

Most families stay, and it is usually the right call. What matters is knowing the shape of the week.

Water off during working hours, on overnight. This is the standard arrangement and it is worth confirming before work starts. Expect to be without water roughly eight hours a day and to have it restored each evening.

One bathroom prioritised. A competent crew sequences so at least one bathroom returns to service early and stays available.

Dust. Everywhere, despite containment. Put away anything you care about, and expect to clean thoroughly afterwards.

Noise. Drilling, cutting and hammering through the working day. Not a week to work from home if you take calls.

Access to walls. Clear the perimeter of rooms, empty the cabinets under sinks, and clear the closet floors along exterior and plumbing walls before day one. It saves hours of crew time you are otherwise paying for.

Pets. Doors open, strangers in and out, loud tools. Plan for it rather than discovering it.

What drives the price

Number of fixtures, not square footage. Bathrooms, kitchen, laundry, water heater, hose bibs. A large open-plan house with two bathrooms can cost less than a smaller one with four.

Single or two storey. Upstairs bathrooms mean routing between floors, and that is where the access work gets involved.

Slab or pier and beam. A crawlspace makes distribution vastly easier. Slab-on-grade means going overhead through the attic and down inside walls.

Accessible attic. A generous attic with room to work is one of the biggest cost reducers available. A tight, low-clearance attic full of ductwork is the opposite.

Material choice. Copper throughout is substantially more than PEX, all else equal.

Finish work included or not. The single largest source of confusion between quotes. Some prices include drywall patching, texture matching and paint; some stop at the plumbing. Establish this explicitly, texture matching on a Texas knockdown finish is skilled work and it is not cheap.

Permit and inspection should be in the number. If it is not listed, ask why.