Whole-Home Repipe in Houston
A repipe is the plumbing decision homeowners put off the longest — and the one they most often wish they'd made a year sooner. If you're patching the same supply system for the third time, the question isn't whether the pipes will fail again. It's whether the next failure happens on your schedule or at 2 a.m. behind a wall. Here's how to know if your house is a repipe candidate, and what the work honestly involves.
Does your house actually need a repipe?
Most of Houston's inner-loop housing stock falls into one of three piping generations, and each fails in its own way:
- Galvanized steel (pre-1970s). Common in the Heights, Montrose, West University, and older Bellaire. Galvanized corrodes from the inside, closing like a hardening artery — weak pressure at upstairs fixtures, rusty morning water, and eventually leaks at every threaded joint. There is no repair for systemic corrosion; there is only replacement.
- Polybutylene (roughly 1978–1995). The gray plastic pipe installed across thousands of Houston-area homes before it was pulled from the market. It degrades from chlorinated water and fails without warning — no corrosion to spot, no slow drip first. Many insurers surcharge or decline homes that still have it. If your home has poly, the repipe conversation is really a when, not an if.
- Copper with chronic pinholes. Copper is good pipe — until a system starts pinholing. Water chemistry, slab movement on our gumbo clay, and decades of service can produce pinhole leaks that recur across the system. One pinhole is a repair. The third in two years is a pattern, and patterns don't reverse.
If what's failing is a single line under the slab rather than the whole system, start with leak detection — the diagnosis is what separates a $600 problem from a five-figure one, and we won't recommend a repipe the evidence doesn't support. (Drains are a separate system with a separate decision tree — see our guide to cast iron drains in older Houston homes.)
PEX or copper — which should you repipe with?
Both are legitimate. Anyone who tells you one is always right is selling the one on their truck. Here's the honest comparison for Houston conditions:
| Factor | PEX | Copper |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Lower — material and labor | Meaningfully higher |
| Freeze tolerance | Flexes under expansion — a real advantage after Feb 2021 | Rigid; splits when frozen hard |
| Corrosion / pinholes | Immune to water-chemistry pinholing | Possible, depending on chemistry |
| Wall access needed | Less — flexible runs pull through cavities | More openings for rigid runs and joints |
| Longevity track record | Strong, but decades shorter history | A century of proof |
| UV / outdoor exposure | Must be protected from sunlight | Unbothered |
Our plain read: for most Houston repipes, PEX with a copper stub-out at fixtures is the right call — it handled the 2021 freeze better, it can't pinhole, and it needs fewer wall openings. We install copper where a homeowner prefers it or where exposure and layout favor it, and we'll price both if you want to see the difference in writing.
What does a repipe week actually look like?
The phrase "whole-home repipe" conjures a gutted house. The reality is more surgical, and it follows a sequence:
- Walk-through and fixed quote. We map every fixture, plan routing, and put the full scope — including patching — in a written number before anyone touches a wall.
- Permit. City of Houston plumbing permit, pulled by us, posted at the house.
- Rough-in, days one through three or four. Planned openings are cut — behind fixtures, at vertical runs — and the new system is built through the attic and walls alongside the old one. Your water stays on each evening.
- Switchover. Fixtures move to the new system, the old lines are abandoned and capped, and everything is pressure-tested.
- City inspection. An inspector reviews the open work. Nothing gets closed until it passes.
- Patch, float, texture. The drywall openings are repaired. Paint is usually the only thing left for your painter.
For most single-family homes that's three to five working days of plumbing, with inspection and patching following. We wrote a full cost-and-process breakdown, with the market numbers, here: What a Whole-Home Repipe Costs in Houston.
Get a fixed repipe quote — in writing
A master plumber walks your house, prices PEX and copper if you want both, and hands you a written number that doesn't move. Est. 1987, city-permitted, serving River Oaks to the Heights.
Call (832) 520-2623Can you live in the house during a repipe?
Almost always, yes. Because the new system is built parallel to the old one, water outages come in scheduled stretches during working hours — you'll have water every night, and we tell you each morning exactly what will be off and when. The livability cost is dust and noise from the cutting, plastic sheeting in work areas, and a few days of trucks in the driveway. Families with a home office or a napping toddler plan around the loudest day (rough-in cutting); nobody needs a hotel for a standard repipe.
What about the money? Per the Houston market broadly: a whole-home PEX repipe typically runs in the low five figures depending on square footage, fixture count, stories, and finishes, with copper above that. Anyone quoting a precise number sight-unseen is guessing — and the guess usually grows once they're in your walls. Our model is the opposite: diagnosis and walk-through first, then a fixed written quote that's ours to honor.
Whole-Home Repipe FAQ
How long does a whole-home repipe take in Houston?
Most single-family repipes take three to five working days of plumbing, plus the city inspection and then drywall patching afterward. A smaller bungalow can run shorter; a larger two-story home with multiple baths runs longer. Water is typically off only in stretches during the day and back on every evening, because the new system is built alongside the old one before switchover.
Do I need a permit to repipe a house in Houston?
Yes. A whole-home repipe in the City of Houston requires a plumbing permit, and the work must be performed under a licensed plumber and pass city inspection before the walls are closed. That inspection protects you — it is an independent check on the work, and it matters at resale, when buyers and their inspectors ask for documentation. We pull the permit and meet the inspector; you keep the paperwork.
Will a repipe destroy my walls?
It opens them in planned, specific places — behind fixtures, at manifold locations, and where lines run vertically — not wholesale demolition. A typical repipe means a series of neat drywall cuts that are patched, floated, and textured afterward. In older homes with plaster or period tile, we plan access to protect what cannot be matched, and we tell you before we cut anything.
What does a whole-home repipe cost in Houston?
In the Houston market, a whole-home PEX repipe typically runs in the low five figures, with copper meaningfully higher — the range depends on square footage, fixture count, one story versus two, and wall finishes. Treat any number quoted over the phone with suspicion. We give you a fixed written quote after walking the house, and that number does not move once work starts.