Do I Need a Repipe? Six Signs Your Supply Lines Are Near the End

01The six signs, in the order we'd trust them

• Discolored water at first draw. Rusty or brown water when you first turn on a tap after the line has sat, clearing after a minute, points to corrosion inside galvanized steel pipe rather than anything at the street.
• Pressure loss at more than one fixture. Corrosion narrows the inside diameter of galvanized pipe over decades. If pressure has dropped slowly at several fixtures at once rather than just one, the pipe itself is the likely cause, not a single clogged aerator.
• A second pinhole leak within a year. One leak can be a fluke, a bad fitting or a nail through a wall. A second, unrelated leak in the same twelve months usually means the pipe material is failing broadly, not in one isolated spot.
• Visible corrosion at connections. Greenish crust on copper fittings or reddish flaking at galvanized threads, visible where a supply line is exposed under a sink or in a crawlspace, is a preview of what is likely happening at the connections you cannot see.
• Galvanized or polybutylene pipe at the shutoff. These two materials have known, well-documented failure timelines. Finding either one at your main shutoff is the strongest single signal on this list.
• A home built in the relevant window. Galvanized steel was standard through the mid-1900s. Polybutylene was common from the late 1970s into the early 1990s before it was phased out over failure claims. Knowing your home's construction date narrows the odds before you look at anything else.

02Identify your pipe material in two minutes

Find the main shutoff valve, usually near the water heater or where the line enters the house, and look at the pipe itself. Copper is reddish-brown, rigid, and usually soldered at the joints. Galvanized steel is dull gray, threaded at every joint, and a magnet will stick to it, which copper never will. Polybutylene is a flexible gray or black plastic pipe, often with a stamped code reading PB2110 on the surface, connected with plastic or metal crimp fittings rather than threads or solder. PEX looks similar to polybutylene at a glance but is usually a brighter color, red or blue for hot and cold, with a different fitting style.

If you cannot get a clear look, a photo of the pipe and the fitting at the shutoff is usually enough for us to identify the material over the phone before a visit. Worth checking the water heater connections too, since it is common for a home to have copper in most of the house and a short galvanized stub left over near an older water heater, which is a much smaller job than a full repipe.

03When a repipe is premature

A single pinhole leak in an otherwise sound copper system is not, by itself, a reason to repipe the whole house. Copper in good condition, installed correctly with the right water chemistry, regularly lasts fifty years or more. If your home has copper supply lines with no corrosion visible at the connections, no pressure complaints, and one isolated leak traceable to a specific cause, a spot repair is the honest answer, not a whole-home replacement. For more on what our water actually does to metal and fixtures over time, our guide to Sacramento's water hardness covers what shortens a pipe's life here and what doesn't.

We would rather tell you a repipe is not needed yet and lose the job than talk you into one. It costs us nothing to say so, and it is the reason people call us back when the day does come.

04What a repipe actually involves

A whole-home repipe replaces the supply lines throughout the house with either copper or PEX. Copper costs more and has the longer track record. PEX is faster to install, more forgiving in a wall cavity, and holds up well against the mineral scale in our local water. We walk you through both before you decide, sized to your house rather than a one-size answer. Because the new lines run through the same walls the old ones did, some drywall comes out and goes back, and the job gets permitted and inspected the same as our repiping work always is. That permit and inspection is what protects your home's resale record.

Most homes are done in stages over several days rather than all at once, so you are not without water overnight. We cap and connect one section at a time, test it, and move to the next.

05What it costs

A whole-home repipe is quoted in writing after a free estimate. House size drives most of the range, since a larger house means more linear feet of pipe and more fixtures to reconnect. Material choice moves it too, with copper sitting higher than PEX for the same house. How much drywall has to come out and go back is usually the third variable, and it depends on wall construction and how the original lines were routed, not on anything we can guess before opening a wall. We give you the real number after seeing the house, with the reasoning behind it.

Workmanship on the job carries a one-year warranty, and the fittings and materials themselves carry whatever manufacturer warranty applies, typically five to fifteen years depending on what we use. We will tell you which applies to your job before anyone signs anything.

If two or more of the six signs above sound like your house, the next real step is a visit where we look at the pipe itself, not a number over the phone. Send a photo of your shutoff valve first if you want a head start on the conversation.

06Frequently asked questions