If you own an older home, you eventually learn the rhythm of its quirks. A sticky window in winter. A stair that creaks only at night. But there is one quirk that stops feeling nostalgic the moment it turns costly: aging pipes that spring leaks, clog without warning, or deliver water the color of weak tea. When you find yourself dialing a plumber every few months, the house isn’t betraying you. It is sending a clear message. The network of pipes behind your walls has reached the end of its useful life, and nothing short of a systemic fix will restore peace. That fix has a name: repipe plumbing.
I’ve helped families through that decision in bungalows from the 1920s, ranches from the 60s, and Victorians that survived more winters than any of us. I’ve also seen the cost of waiting. By the time a client agrees to repipe, they’ve usually patched half a dozen leaks, replaced a water heater early because sediment chewed it up, and worried through a vacation about what might burst while they’re away. Repiping is the pivot from chronic repairs to predictable reliability, and it’s worth understanding what the job really entails, what it costs, and how to do it once, the right way.
Why old homes drift toward plumbing failure
Every material has a clock. Galvanized steel, used heavily through the mid 20th century, corrodes from the inside out, narrowing the pipe’s diameter until flow drops and rust flakes cloud your water. Cast iron drain lines, common in older waste stacks, can last half a century or longer, but they fatten with scale and can crack or rot from the bottom where sewage sits. Copper fares better for supply lines, but even copper has enemies. Aggressive water chemistry, poorly soldered joints, and microscopic flux residues can trigger pinhole leaks that spread like measles. And then there principledplumbing.com Repipe Plumbing is polybutylene, the poster child for failure. Widely used in the 80s and 90s, it became notorious for brittle fractures, especially at fittings, and many insurers still look sideways at any home that has it.
Time is not the only force at play. Water pressure chips away too. A house that runs at 90 to 110 psi, common in neighborhoods with older pressure regulators or none at all, adds stress that magnifies small weaknesses. I’ve cut out pipe sections that looked fine at a glance, then crumbled between my fingers once the pressure was gone. Movement also matters. A home that settles pushes on rigid pipe. Earthquakes and frost heave do it too. Those stresses crack solder, misalign fittings, and open the door to leaks.
The net result shows up as a list of small annoyances and occasional mini disasters: water that goes hot and cold when someone flushes, showers that dribble, fixtures that clog with mineral flakes, valves that seize, water bills that tick upward without explanation, and mysterious damp spots that come and go. When you see a combination of these in an old home, it is not bad luck. It’s the system telling you it’s aged out.
The economics of stopgap repairs versus a repipe
I keep a simple rule of thumb taped in my truck: if the annual cost of plumbing repairs and damage cleanup approaches ten percent of a full repipe estimate, it’s time to run the numbers seriously. Let’s say a 1,800 square foot house needs occasional leak repairs, an emergency ceiling patch from a burst line, and constant drain snaking. That might total two to four thousand dollars per year. A full repipe might run eight to twenty five thousand depending on scope, materials, and the local market. Over three years, the piecemeal path can rival the full solution, and you still end up with old pipe.
Insurance skews this math in a direction that surprises homeowners. Many carriers will cover sudden water damage but exclude or limit payment for repeated losses from known system defects. Some even apply a water loss surcharge after your second claim. I’ve walked into homes where the owner paid deductibles two or three times in eighteen months and then had a premium increase that would have nearly covered the monthly payment on a home equity line used for a repipe. If your house carries polybutylene, orangeburg sewer, or visibly corroded galvanized, ask your agent what your policy says. Improvements like Repipe Plumbing often move you into a better risk category.
Then there is the resale factor. Buyers hire inspectors who know the red flags. If your home has visibly aged supply lines, corroded shutoff valves, and poor water pressure, expect the offer to reflect the assumption that the buyer will repipe after closing. I’ve seen listing agents lose five figures off the price because of a few old pipe photos and a pressure reading of 40 psi at the kitchen sink when the neighbor’s house runs at 65. A completed repipe with permits and warranties turns that conversation around.
What a whole-home repipe really entails
Repipe Plumbing is not a single product. It’s a coordinated set of steps that replace your water distribution network, often your branch drains, and sometimes your main sewer. More important, it’s a choreography problem. The best crews cut minimal openings, keep the water downtime short, and leave the home cleaner than they found it. Sloppy crews pepper walls with random holes and vanish on Friday without water restored. Knowing the shape of the work helps you choose well.
A well-planned repipe starts with a map. Good plumbers learn your floor plan, mark fixture locations, trace the current pipe routes, and identify logical manifolds or junctions. In old houses with lath and plaster, it pays to pick vertical chases that reduce patching. In balloon-framed walls, you can sometimes chase lines from basement to attic without opening each floor. For slab-on-grade homes, ceiling space becomes your highway, with drops into walls to reach fixtures.
Openings are surgical when they can be. A palm-sized rectangle near a shower valve, a cut in the back of a closet, a slot above a baseboard to catch a horizontal run. I photograph every opening with a tape measure for scale, then add labels that drywallers appreciate. I also protect floors with heavy Ram Board and sweep as we go. It sounds like window dressing, but it shows in the quality of the final job.
Once openings are set, the crew shuts down water, caps or isolates the old lines, and begins pulling new pipe. At every fixture, we install new shutoff valves. It is astonishing how often a homeowner discovers their sinks and toilets never had reliable local shutoffs. New stops make future maintenance civilized. At the water heater, we add unions and a full-bore ball valve for easy service. If the home lacks a functioning pressure-reducing valve or thermal expansion tank, we add those too. Reliability is not just new pipe, it’s proper control of pressure and temperature cycles.
We test in stages. Air tests find big leaks without spraying water through an open stud bay. Then a water test runs under pressure for hours while we walk and listen. Critical joints get another visual check after the first hot water cycle. Only then do we button up walls and schedule the patch and paint.
Expect water shutoff for a day, sometimes two. Skilled teams can restore cold water the same evening and finish hot the next day. If a home has complex routing, multistory baths stacked over finished spaces, or unusual finishes, I warn clients to plan for two to three days. We arrange a temporary kitchen setup and, if needed, a portable shower for longer projects. A small act of planning goes a long way toward keeping stress down.
Choosing between copper, PEX, and CPVC
Material works like a dialect. You can say the same thing three ways, but each choice carries its own nuance.
Copper has decades of a proven track record. Type L copper resists pinholes better than type M and is my standard when copper is the chosen path. It handles high temperatures gracefully, has low oxygen permeability, and is familiar to inspectors. It is also rigid, which limits routing flexibility and transmits water hammer more readily unless you add arrestors. Copper costs fluctuate with commodity markets, and when prices spike, you feel it in the estimate. Water chemistry matters too. In areas with low pH or high chloramines, unlined copper can pit. A water test and consultation with the local utility help you decide.
PEX, specifically PEX-A or PEX-B from reputable manufacturers, has become the go-to for many repipes. It bends through tight spaces, needs fewer fittings in walls, and tolerates freeze-thaw cycles better than rigid pipes. When installed in a home-run manifold configuration, PEX gives each fixture its own line, which stabilizes temperatures when multiple fixtures run at once. PEX is sensitive to UV, so it must be stored and installed away from sunlight. It also expands and contracts with temperature changes, so good installers leave room for movement, use proper supports, and mind noise considerations. Cheap fittings and off-brand pipe are a false economy. Stick with systems that have third-party listings and long track records.
CPVC holds a middle ground. It is rigid like copper but easier to cut and join with solvent cement. In regions where installers grew up with CPVC, you can get neat, consistent work that performs for decades. CPVC can be brittle at low temperatures and needs careful support to avoid stress at joints. In hot mechanical rooms, I still prefer copper or PEX over CPVC because of the temperature margins.
For drain, waste, and vent lines, ABS and PVC dominate. Cast iron still has a role for vertical waste stacks in multiunit buildings where noise control matters, but in single-family homes, plastic waste piping is reliable, durable, and easier to service. If your home’s drain lines are cast iron with heavy scaling and the supply needs replacement, it often makes sense to tackle both while walls are open. A camera inspection of the main sewer line is cheap insurance. No one wants to finish a pristine repipe only to discover the front yard sewer has a belly or root intrusion that backs up into a brand-new bathroom.
How to time a repipe so it doesn’t take over your life
There’s never a perfect week, but there are smarter ones. If you plan a bathroom remodel, the weeks before tile work are ideal for the repipe. The walls are coming open anyway, and your tiler will appreciate framing that’s already cleaned up around valve locations. If you’re replacing a kitchen, set the repipe ahead of cabinet install. Cutting into brand-new boxes to access lines is a heartbreaker.
In homes with tenants or multigenerational families, stagger the work. Start with the least used bath or the basement laundry and work toward the main bath and kitchen. You can keep a working bathroom active most of the time with this sequence. In a single bath home, we put the active work on weekdays and push for same-day restoration of at least a toilet and cold water. When crews start midweek, supplies are easier to source than on a Monday after a long weekend or on a Friday with a deadline.
Weather matters in some regions. In very cold climates, winter work risks freezing during pressure tests if heat is off for long. In hot, humid regions, summer brings rapid drywall compound curing but sticky working conditions in attics. Most contractors will schedule year round, but they will pack different gear and plan differently based on the season. If you have a crawlspace that floods in spring, do not schedule your repipe for the rainy week when that space turns into a cold soup.
What quality looks like when the walls open
A homeowner walks into a mid-project site and sees holes, pipes, and dust. They often ask, how do I know this is being done right? I point to small, consistent things. Pipe runs that are straight and uniformly supported every few feet. Penetrations through framing that are neatly drilled with protective nail plates where pipes pass near the face of a stud. Valves oriented so the handles clear trim and are accessible. Hot on the left, cold on the right, every time. Shower valves set at a depth that matches the finished wall thickness, not just rough framing. Hose bibs with anti-siphon protection. Dielectric unions where copper meets steel. If you notice details like that, the rest is usually solid.
Testing is the other sign. I like to leave gauges on stubs overnight, then walk in and see the same needle position in the morning. We also flush each line thoroughly before connecting to fixtures. New pipes carry lubricants, plastic dust, and solder residues. A good flush protects your new cartridges, aerators, and appliances. If your contractor treats testing as a checkbox rather than an event, press for a slower, more methodical pace. A leak found during test time costs pennies to fix compared to a leak discovered after paint.
Documentation helps down the road. I take photos of every wall before patching, with a tape measure and a reference like the corner of a door or a light switch. I label the images by room and store them for the owner. Two years later, when they hang a heavy mirror or add a niche, those photos keep a screw from finding a water line. Some pros leave a printed pipe map in the mechanical room. It’s a small touch, but it tells the next tradesperson that someone cared.
How much should you expect to pay
Pricing swings with region, size, and scope. In broad terms, a small two bed, one bath home with a straightforward layout might see a repipe in the eight to fifteen thousand dollar range for PEX or CPVC, and somewhat higher for copper. A larger two story home with three baths, a long run to a detached garage, and lath-and-plaster walls can land in the fifteen to thirty five thousand range. Add in drain replacements, a new main sewer, or high-end fixtures, and your project can move beyond that.
Labor often outweighs material by a factor of two or more on complex jobs. If you compare bids that show material choices but not labor assumptions, you may miss why one price is higher. A company that budgets for precise drywall repair, full permit handling, and a weekend standby for testing will estimate differently than a contractor who plans to hand you patched but unpainted openings and a stack of inspection cards. Ask what is included. Ask about wall repair, paint, permit fees, fixture reconnection, disposal, and water heater re-commissioning. That clarity prevents surprises and helps you compare apples to apples.
Expect warranties in the five to twenty five year range on materials and one to ten years on workmanship. Long warranties are only as good as the company backing them, so check how long they have operated under the same name, look at their licensing and insurance status, and scan recent projects. The cheapest bid with a thin warranty is a red flag. The most expensive bid with a vague scope is not comforting either. The right price sits inside a clear proposal with dates, materials, inspection steps, and contact info for a person who will answer the phone.
Water quality, pressure, and the extras that protect your investment
A repipe is your best chance to set your water system up properly. That means addressing pressure first. Ideal residential pressure lives around 50 to 70 psi. Install a pressure-reducing valve if your street pressure is higher. Add a gauge and check quarterly. Water hammer arrestors at quick-closing appliances like dishwashers and washing machines quiet the thud and protect joints. A thermal expansion tank keeps pressure from spiking when your water heater cycles.
Water quality affects longevity and taste. If your area has hard water, consider a softener or a scale-reduction system. For chloramine-heavy municipalities, carbon filtration at the point of entry can lengthen rubber component life and improve taste and smell. Test water before you invest, because softeners and filters come with maintenance and costs. For many households, a simple sediment filter before the water heater cuts down on grit that collects during construction and keeps fixtures clean. If you use PEX, check your filter housing and cartridges for compatibility with hot water and pressure ratings.
Finally, think about accessibility. Since walls are open, add shutoff valves where it makes sense. Give the ice maker line a valve that isn’t buried behind the refrigerator. Put a ball valve on the line feeding your outside spigots so you can winterize them easily. If you run a recirculation loop for hot water, add a timer or an on-demand control to save energy. These touches make living with the system easier.
Common myths that keep owners stuck in repair mode
I hear the same objections over and over, and they usually stem from myths rather than fact.
First myth: We can’t repipe without destroying the house. Not true. In careful hands, openings are targeted and patchable. I’ve completed two bath homes with fewer than twenty openings, most smaller than a sheet of paper. A plaster repair pro can make those patches disappear.
Second myth: A repipe won’t improve water pressure. If your municipality delivers reasonable pressure at the meter, old pipes are often the choke point. I’ve seen homes jump from a weak 1 gallon per minute at the showerhead to a satisfying 2 or more simply because the supply lines no longer resembled a rusted artery. You need proper sizing and layout, but the physics is on your side.
Third myth: We’ll just fix the next leak. Leaks cluster because the same aging mechanisms affect the whole network. If you have pinholes on the cold line near the water heater, more pinholes are likely within months in adjacent runs. Patch repairs make sense early in a system’s decline or when you need to bridge to a planned repipe, not as a long-term strategy once failures stack up.
Fourth myth: PEX tastes like plastic. Freshly installed plastic systems can impart a brief odor if lines are not flushed and purged. Thorough flushing, a few days of normal use, and, if needed, a carbon filter at the kitchen sink address this. Reputable PEX systems are rated for potable water and have passed rigorous standards. If taste sensitivity is high in your household, ask the installer to perform extended flushing and, for copper systems, to run a passivation period before heavy use.
A short homeowner’s checklist for choosing a repipe contractor
- Verify license, insurance, and permit practices, and ask to see a recent permit from your city. Request a detailed scope with materials by brand and type, wall repair responsibilities, and testing procedures. Ask for references from jobs in homes of a similar age and construction, then call them. Confirm the projected water downtime and daily cleanup plan, including protection of floors and furnishings. Ask how they document pipe locations and whether they provide post-project photos or a map.
Where Repipe Plumbing fits into the larger upgrade plan
Think of Repipe Plumbing as a backbone upgrade, the kind you do once per generation. It pairs naturally with electrical panel upgrades, HVAC replacements, and insulation improvements because access and timing often align. If you plan to install a modern tankless water heater, a repipe gives you the chance to size gas lines correctly or add a dedicated electrical circuit for a heat pump water heater. If an accessory dwelling unit is in your future, stub out for it now while the walls are friendly.
When you rebuild a system, you also inherit the responsibility to meet current codes. That is not bureaucratic nuisance, it’s safety and longevity. Tempering valves on tub fills prevent scalding. Vacuum breakers and backflow protection keep contamination out of your potable water. Proper venting avoids the sewer gas burps that plague many old homes. A permitted, inspected repipe puts those basics on solid footing.
A few real-world snapshots
A single-story Craftsman with galvanized supply had water that went brown after any street work. The owner replaced three faucets in two years, thinking shiny fixtures meant fresh water. When we cut out a section of pipe, the opening was a third of its original diameter. We ran PEX in a home-run manifold, added a pressure reducer, and turned a 90 minute shower-to-warm wait into 20 seconds. The owner called six months later, laughing about how quiet the system had become. No more clanks, no more sighs when a toilet refilled.
A 1970s split-level hid polybutylene in finished ceilings. Small leaks had stained the downstairs family room twice. Insurance paid the first time, balked the second, and the family finally said, enough. We planned the repipe around their kids’ school schedule, kept one bath active, and used existing chases to avoid tearing out their built-in bookshelves. Copper near the mechanical room, PEX everywhere else. The insurer removed the water loss surcharge at renewal with proof of the repipe. Their annual premium dropped by more than their monthly payment on the financing they used for the project.
A Victorian with lath and plaster and a garnet-heavy well supply had pinholes in copper every few months. The owner loved her home’s period detail and feared the aftermath of a repipe. We mapped openings with blue painter’s tape, walked her through each, and brought a plaster specialist in-house. We added a whole-home sediment filter and a cartridge carbon filter before the kitchen line. The water heater, which had eaten an anode rod every year, finally stabilized. The walls looked untouched after paint, and the owner got her weekends back.
What life feels like after the repipe
Reliability shows up in ordinary moments. There’s no hesitation when you turn the faucet. The washing machine chugs quietly without rattling the pipes. The shower doesn’t punish you when someone flushes. The water heater cycles without pressure spikes. You stop listening for drips at night. You stop keeping towels near suspicious spots. Routine maintenance becomes truly routine: a filter change here, a quick glance at a gauge there.
If you’re still debating, make a simple log for a month. Track every plumbing annoyance, every trick you use to coax a fixture to behave, every service call, and the minutes you spend thinking about water. Add it up. Then imagine those same days without the background noise. That’s the value of a well-executed Repipe Plumbing job. It’s not just new pipe in a wall, it’s attention you get to spend elsewhere.
Practical steps to get from maybe to yes
Start with an assessment. Have a plumber pull one accessible section of pipe in a noncritical area and show you the inside. Ask for a water pressure reading at the main and at a distant fixture. Schedule a sewer camera if your drains have been slow or if the home is older than fifty years. Gather two or three proposals that specify materials and methods. Compare not just price, but the logic of the plan.
If the numbers make sense, line up financing that fits your timeline. Some contractors offer terms. Credit unions often have home improvement loans at better rates than national banks. If equity is available, a small line secured by the home can be less expensive and easier to manage than juggling credit cards.
Plan the calendar with your contractor. Identify blackout dates, pets that need space, and rooms that must stay functional in the evenings. Agree on daily start and end times, disposal plans, and a single point of contact. Make a small kit for the household: bottled water, disposable plates, and a simple meal plan that doesn’t rely on a working kitchen for a couple of days. Set realistic expectations, and then let professionals do what they do best.
Repipe Plumbing won’t make your old home new. It will make it dependable where it counts. Pipes are not a cosmetic upgrade. They are a promise that when you turn the handle, the house responds. If you’re ready to stop catching leaks and start trusting your system again, a careful, well-designed repipe is the most direct path from frequent repairs to reliability.
Business Name: Principled Plumbing LLC Address: Oregon City, OR 97045 About Business: Principled Plumbing: Honest Plumbing Done Right, Since 2024 Serving Clackamas, Multnomah, Washington, Marion, and Yamhill counties since 2024, Principled Plumbing installs and repairs water heaters (tank & tankless), fixes pipes/leaks/drains (including trenchless sewer), and installs fixtures/appliances. We support remodels, new construction, sump pumps, and filtration systems. Emergency plumbing available—fast, honest, and code-compliant. Trust us for upfront pricing and expert plumbing service every time! Website: https://principledplumbing.com/ Phone: (503) 919-7243