Two to four days of plumbing work for a typical single-storey slab house, plus the sheetrock repair, texture and paint afterwards. A two-storey house, or one with several bathrooms spread across it, runs longer. The pipe itself is rarely what sets the schedule — opening walls and closing them back up is.
That is the honest answer, and the reason quotes vary so wildly is that half of them are pricing the plumbing and half are pricing the whole job. This page walks through where the days actually go.
Where do the days actually go?
A repipe is four jobs in a row, and only one of them is plumbing:
- Opening the walls. Cutting access at every fixture, every riser and anywhere a line changes direction. On a slab house that includes ceilings, because that is where the new lines run.
- Running the new pipe. This is the fast part. Uponor PEX-a inside, pulled through the attic and dropped down to the fixtures.
- Changeover and test. New lines tied in, old lines abandoned, system pressured up and checked before anything is closed.
- Closing back up. Sheetrock, tape, float, texture, paint. This is usually the longest stage and it is often a different trade.
The pipe is rarely what sets the schedule. Opening walls and closing them back up is.
Why do two quotes for the same house look nothing alike?
Ask every bid you get one question: does this include sheetrock, texture and paint?
That question explains most of the difference between two numbers that look unrelated. A plumbing-only bid is a real bid, it is just not the whole cost of getting your house back to normal. Neither approach is dishonest. Comparing one against the other is what goes wrong.
The other thing that moves the number: what the house is made of. Real tile is slower and riskier to open than a fiberglass surround. Plaster is slower than sheetrock. A house with an attic you can stand up in is quicker than a house with an eighteen-inch crawl space over the bedrooms.
Will I have water while it is happening?
Most nights, yes. New lines go in alongside the old ones and the changeover happens near the end, so you are not without water for the length of the job. There is a period on changeover day where the water is off; we tell you which day that is in advance so you can plan around it.
If the house has one bathroom, that is the day worth planning around properly.
How long does an apartment unit take?
Less, and the reason is scheduling rather than plumbing. On a Baytown apartment building we worked on, the galvanized riser feeding eight units had rusted through at a joint. The building dates to the 1970s and the pipe was original — around fifty years old.
For a building like that, most owners cannot take it out of service and do not have to. The way it usually gets done is one unit at a time as tenants move out, while the unit is already empty and the walls are already being patched and painted. No lost rent, no relocating tenants, spread over a few years. Tell us the turnover schedule and we will fit around it. See repiping.
What makes a repipe take longer than expected?
Three things, in our experience:
Finding out the drains are as old as the water lines. A repipe is normally about supply. If the cast iron or the drain line under the slab turns out to be failing too, that is a different job and it changes the schedule. See sewer line repair and replacement.
Tile. Matching fifty-year-old tile is close to impossible, so where a valve allows it we cut in from the front and set the trim plate to cover the opening. Where it does not, somebody is sourcing tile.
Wall repair scheduling. If sheetrock is a separate trade, the job is only as fast as their calendar.
Can it be done in stages?
Yes, and for property owners it usually should be. Unit by unit on turnover for apartments. In a house, depending on why the repipe is happening, water lines now and drains later, or one wing at a time.
What we will not do is stage it in a way that leaves you with a half-repiped house and no plan for the rest, because that is how people end up paying mobilisation twice. See financing if spreading the cost rather than the schedule is the real question.
When is it time to stop repairing and repipe?
Three symptoms bring most people to it: brown flecks or grit in the water, pressure that has dropped off as galvanized silts up internally, and several leaks close together. One leak is a repair. Three in a year is a pipe telling you something.
Common questions
How long does it take to repipe a house?
For a typical single-storey slab house, plan on two to four days of plumbing work, plus sheetrock repair, texture and paint afterwards. A two-storey or a house with several bathrooms runs longer. The plumbing is rarely the part that takes the time. Opening the walls and closing them back up is.
Will I have water during the repipe?
Most of the time, yes, overnight at least. The way it is normally sequenced, the new lines go in alongside the old ones and the changeover happens near the end, so you are not without water for the whole job. There is a period on changeover day where the water is off. We tell you which day that is in advance so you can plan around it.
Do I have to move out?
For a single-family house, usually not. It is dusty and there are people in your walls, but you can live in it. What decides it is bathrooms: if the house has one bathroom and it is out of service on changeover day, some people would rather be elsewhere for a night.
How long does an apartment unit take?
Less, because the scope is smaller and the walls are already coming open. The reason to do apartments one unit at a time on turnover is that the unit is empty anyway and the walls are being patched and painted anyway, so the repipe adds days to a schedule that was already happening rather than starting a new one.
Why do some quotes say one day and some say a week?
Usually because one of them is quoting the plumbing only and the other is quoting the whole job including the wall repair. Ask any bid you get whether sheetrock, texture and paint are in it. That single question explains most of the difference between two numbers that look nothing alike.
Can you do it in stages?
Yes, and for property owners that is often the sensible way. One unit at a time on tenant turnover for apartments. In a house, we can sometimes do the water lines now and leave the drains, or do one wing at a time, if the reason for the repipe allows it.
Last updated · written by a licensed master plumber, MPL 38224