Whole-House Repiping
A whole-house repipe is the decision to stop negotiating with old pipe: every supply line replaced, one project, one disruption, and then decades of not thinking about it. The engineering is straightforward (modern PEX or copper, run new), but what owners actually want to know is the living-through-it part: how long, how loud, how open, and how often the water dies.
This page is that briefing. Whether you need a repipe at all is a condition question answered on the Pipes & Repiping hub; a single failing run belongs to pipe replacement.
How a Plumber Diagnoses the Problem
How the project actually runs:
- Mapping before anything. Every fixture, run and access path surveyed; the new system is routed on paper first: which walls open, which cavities the new lines snake through, where manifolds land.
- New lines first, alive second. The crew runs the new system alongside the old one wherever possible. The house keeps water on the old pipes while the replacement grows in parallel.
- The cutover. Fixtures switch to the new system in planned groups; total water-off windows compress into hours, not days, because the new network already exists when the old one is cut.
- Openings, managed. Access cuts are planned, numbered and photographed. PEX minimizes them by snaking; plaster and tile zones get discussed explicitly before day one.
- Test, inspect, close. The completed system holds test pressure, passes rough inspection where permitted work requires it, and only then do surfaces close, with restoration scope already agreed in writing.
Plan the Repipe
Share the house's size, stories, current pipe material and which surfaces are precious. The staging plan and the openings list are the quote's real content.
Request a Quote for Whole-House Repipingor call (800) 555-0147Only license-checked plumbers who cover your ZIP receive your request.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does a whole-house repipe take?
Typical single-family homes run a few days to a week of active work, plus inspection and patching. Size, stories, finished surfaces and occupancy set the range. The quote should give you a day-by-day outline, not a shrug.
Will we have to move out?
Usually not. The parallel-build approach keeps water on outside of planned cutover windows, and crews stage room by room. Households with special needs (medical, infants, night workers) should say so; staging bends around real constraints.
How much wall damage should we expect?
Less than the word 'repipe' suggests, more than zero: access cuts at fixtures, turns and manifold locations, minimized by snaking PEX through cavities. The honest version is a numbered list of planned openings before work starts, and a patching plan with names attached.
Is repiping done with permits and inspection?
Nearly everywhere, yes. A whole-house repipe is exactly the scale of work permitting exists for, with rough inspection before walls close. Permitted repipes also document beautifully at resale: buyers' inspectors love a house whose pipes have paperwork.
What does a repipe not fix?
Drains. A supply repipe replaces pressurized lines only; waste and vent piping is its own project with its own condition logic. Also untouched: fixtures themselves, and any pressure problem that lives at the street. The scope names its boundaries so nothing is assumed.