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.)

Galvanized, polybutylene, or copper — how do you tell what pipe you have?

You don't need to open a wall. The water heater closet is the one place in almost any house where the supply piping stands exposed, at eye level, wearing its era on its sleeve — start there.

• Look at the two pipes entering the top of the water heater. Dull gray metal with visible threaded fittings, often crusted white or rust-orange at the joints: galvanized steel — and a magnet will grip it. Penny-colored rigid pipe with smooth, silvery soldered joints: copper. Flexible gray plastic, usually stamped PB2110 along its length, joined with crimped metal bands or plastic fittings: polybutylene.
• Cross-check under a sink or two. Houston homes were often partially repiped over the decades, so the heater may show newer pipe while the branch lines are original. The stub-outs under sinks and behind toilets tell you what's actually in the walls.
• Check the meter box. Poly-era builders frequently used gray poly for the yard service line too; a gray plastic line at the meter is a strong tell for what's under the slab.
• Don't be fooled by the lookalikes. Cream or ivory rigid plastic is CPVC, not poly. White, red, or blue flexible tubing is PEX — meaning someone already repiped at least that run.

Era is corroborating evidence, not proof: galvanized dominates pre-1970 construction, polybutylene shows up roughly 1978–1995, and copper spans the gaps. Ten minutes with a flashlight and a magnet usually settles it — and if you text us photos of the water heater connections, we can usually tell you what you're looking at before anyone drives over. While you're standing at the heater anyway, note its age too: repipes and heater replacements often make sense in the same year, and doing them together saves tearing into the same spaces twice.

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:

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 cost in Houston — PEX vs. copper?

Per the Houston market broadly — not a quote: a whole-home PEX repipe typically runs low-to-mid five figures for larger homes, with smaller one-story homes coming in under that, and copper typically lands 30–60% above the equivalent PEX job on material and labor combined. What moves a house within those ranges: square footage and stories, fixture count, wall and ceiling finishes, and — the quiet one — how much of the run can travel through attic or crawl space instead of through drywall.

That last factor is why the same repipe prices differently across our neighborhoods:

• The Heights. Pier-and-beam bungalows are the least invasive repipes we do — much of the new system runs through the crawl space, which means fewer wall openings, less patching, and often a shorter, cheaper job than square footage alone would predict.
• West University. A mix of 1930s–40s cottages — plaster walls, original galvanized — and newer two-story rebuilds. The older homes need careful access planning; the newer ones repipe conventionally. West U is also its own city with its own permit office, which we handle.
• River Oaks. Large two-story homes with high fixture counts, long runs, and finishes — plaster, millwork, period tile — that deserve protection. These land at the upper end of the range, and the money buys planning as much as pipe.

Slab-on-grade homes in Memorial and Tanglewood usually arrive at this page after their second or third slab leak — the clay-soil arithmetic that gets them there is its own story. Whatever the housing stock, the promise doesn't change: we walk the house, price PEX and copper side by side if you want both numbers, and hand you a fixed written quote that does not move once work starts.

Is it worth it? The arithmetic most owners actually run: the cost of the repipe against the running total of repairs, deductibles, drying fans, and flooring the old system keeps generating — plus what it settles at sale time, when a buyer's inspector flags galvanized or polybutylene and the negotiation starts from a worse place. A permitted repipe closes that conversation with paperwork instead of a price cut. We can't run that math for you sight-unseen, but we can put a fixed number on one side of it so you're comparing something real.

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:

1. 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.
2. Permit. City of Houston plumbing permit, pulled by us, posted at the house.
3. 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.
4. Switchover. Fixtures move to the new system, the old lines are abandoned and capped, and everything is pressure-tested.
5. City inspection. An inspector reviews the open work. Nothing gets closed until it passes.
6. 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.

How long does a repipe take?

Three to five working days of plumbing for most single-family homes — but housing stock moves that number more than square footage does, so here's the calibrated version:

• Pier-and-beam bungalow (Heights, Montrose): often two to three days. Crawl-space access does for the schedule exactly what it does for the price — the new lines run under the floor instead of through the walls.
• One-story slab home (Memorial, Tanglewood, Bellaire): three to four days, with attic routing carrying most of the system.
• Two-story homes and Upper Kirby townhomes: four to five-plus days — vertical runs through stacked wet walls add cutting, and townhome party walls need care.

Add to any of those: the permit inspection, which is scheduled rather than same-day — and note that West University and Bellaire run their own permit offices with their own inspectors, which changes the calendar but not the standard — and then the patch-float-texture work. Water stays on every evening throughout. What stretches a schedule usually isn't plumbing: it's plaster walls that need surgical openings, an attic section nobody can reach, or sequencing around a home office — all things we'd rather plan into the quote than discover on day two.

Can 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.

How can I tell if my house has polybutylene pipe?

Look at the pipes entering the top of your water heater and the stub-outs under sinks: polybutylene is flexible gray plastic, usually stamped PB2110, joined with crimped metal or plastic fittings. It was installed in Houston-area homes roughly 1978 to 1995. Don't confuse it with cream-colored CPVC or with white, red, or blue PEX. Photos of your water heater connections are usually enough for us to confirm by phone.

Is a pier-and-beam house easier to repipe than a slab home?

Generally, yes. In a pier-and-beam home — most of the Heights and much of Montrose — new lines run through the open crawl space instead of through walls, so there are fewer drywall openings, less patching afterward, and often a day or two less on the schedule. Slab homes route through the attic instead, which works well but involves more ceiling and wall access.