Whole Home Repiping
When the pipes themselves are the problem, fixing leaks one at a time stops making sense. Replacing the supply system does.
Tell us the age of the house, how many bathrooms, and how many leaks you have had. That is most of what we need for a first conversation.
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Repiping means replacing the pressurised supply lines that bring water to your fixtures. It does not mean the drains, which is a separate system and a separate job. Three materials account for most of the repipes we do around Tampa Bay.
Galvanized steel was used in older construction and it corrodes internally. The give away is pressure that has dropped gradually over years, discoloured water on first draw, and hot water that is worse than cold. By the time you notice, the inside diameter is a fraction of what it was.
Polybutylene went into a great many Florida homes built roughly between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s, and it is common in the subdivisions across Palm Harbor, Oldsmar and east Pinellas. It is usually grey, sometimes blue, and it fails without warning. It is also a known issue at sale and in insurance underwriting, which matters even if it has not leaked yet.
Copper with pinhole leaks is the one that catches people out, because copper has a good reputation. When it starts pinholing, the cause is inside the pipe and it is not local to one spot. A second pinhole after a first is the system telling you what the next five years look like.
Done properly this is a planned job with a known scope, not an open ended demolition.
Every fixture, every run, what material is where, and how the new lines can be routed with the least opening up.
In most Florida houses new lines run overhead through the attic and drop down inside walls, which avoids touching the slab entirely.
Fixture count, materials, how many wall openings, and who closes them. All of it in writing before work starts.
New lines in, tested under pressure, inspected, and tied over with the shortest practical time without water.
Access points patched and the work left clean, with the permit closed out properly.
The two questions everybody asks are how disruptive it is and whether it can wait.
Disruption. A typical single storey Florida house repiped from the attic involves a set of access holes in walls and ceilings near fixtures, not a gutted house. Water is off for portions of the working day and back on overnight in most cases. Most people stay in the house throughout. The scale of the patching should be described to you before you sign, because that is where quotes quietly differ.
Materials. Modern repipes here are normally done in PEX or in copper. PEX runs with fewer joints, tolerates our water chemistry well, and installs faster through an attic. Copper is rigid, familiar, and some homeowners prefer it. Either is a legitimate choice and we will tell you the real trade off rather than the one that suits us.
Waiting. Repiping is expensive and there is no point pretending otherwise. What makes it worth doing is that failing supply pipe does not fail once. Each leak is a repair, plus drywall, plus flooring, plus whatever the water reached, and slab leaks add concrete work on top. Two or three of those in a few years costs more than the repipe and you still have the old pipe.
The paperwork angle. Polybutylene in particular affects insurance and sale. If you are planning to sell in the next few years, a permitted repipe is a documented improvement rather than a disclosed defect.
Repiping usually starts with one of these.
Most single family homes are a matter of days rather than weeks, depending on size, fixture count and how accessible the attic and walls are.
Usually not. Water goes off during working hours and comes back on. We will tell you up front if your layout is an exception.
Both work here. PEX has fewer fittings, handles the water chemistry well and is quicker to route. Copper is rigid and some owners simply prefer it. We will price either.
No. Repiping is the pressurised supply side. Drain lines are a separate system, and if yours are old cast iron that is a separate conversation.
That should be written into the quote either way. Ask any company you are considering, because it is the most common gap between two numbers that look similar.
Yes, and you want one. Permitted and inspected work is what protects you at resale and with insurers.
That is usually the pipe, not bad luck. Let us look at the whole system before you pay for another patch.