House re-pipe what kind of costs are typical

[PaPaG]

I know there is no way someone can give any kind of close price for a job this big but I was just wondering what the average costs can range to repipe a 2k sq foot house with 3 bathrooms (3 toilets, 3 sinks, 1 shower and 1 tub along with a kitchen sink). Also to possibly include the sewer pipe to the street roughly 35-40 feet away from the structure. House was built in 1930 and has an accessible sized crawlspace under the whole house. We were replacing a sink drain and the pipe crumbled in my hands with some torque from a channel lock. Should have been just an easy fix but the pipe going into the wall was corroded and spun off without much effort and part of it broke off inside the wall. With a house this old they had the water supply pipes under the house replaced about 10-15 years but not sure if we should repair as needed, do a complete drainage repipe or a complete repipe to include everything if we are spending the money. House is in Cali, Glendale/Burbank area.

Any ideas so I do not get shocked would be appreciated.

PS Have a Merry Christmas.

 

[Yellowboat]

With lead controls 20-30

 

[imirsh1]

I did a repipe in my house in Mission Viejo 2 years ago with a company called repipe 1. I did it in pex as the copper totally failed with over 10 pinhole leaks inside of a year. Very happy with their work. In my application a lot of holes were cut to access the new piping, but with your application having a crawl space maybe not as intrusive. My house is 2600 sq. ft. 3 baths. 3 bd rooms. They also replummed my pool fill and added a spicket in the front of the house for $5100. Roughly $1700 a bathroom.

 

[Bobby V]

I did a repipe in my house in Mission Viejo 2 years ago with a company called repipe 1. I did it in pex as the copper totally failed with over 10 pinhole leaks inside of a year. Very happy with their work. In my application a lot of holes were cut to access the new piping, but with your application having a crawl space maybe not as intrusive. My house is 2600 sq. ft. 3 baths. 3 bd rooms. They also replummed my pool fill and added a spicket in the front of the house for $5100. Roughly $1700 a bathroom.

Did this price include the drywall repair and painting. ?

 

[PaPaG]

I did a repipe in my house in Mission Viejo 2 years ago with a company called repipe 1. I did it in pex as the copper totally failed with over 10 pinhole leaks inside of a year. Very happy with their work. In my application a lot of holes were cut to access the new piping, but with your application having a crawl space maybe not as intrusive. My house is 2600 sq. ft. 3 baths. 3 bd rooms. They also replummed my pool fill and added a spicket in the front of the house for $5100. Roughly $1700 a bathroom.

Did this include drainage and sewer or drain pipes? You just reminded me there is a pool as well built back in 1970...so that may have to be done as well......

 

[DC-88]

If you have a 3 or 4" exterior cleanout, have it videoed to see the exact condition/ type of pipe of your waste line between your house and the lateral @ the main before you pay to replace it. Also a good time (and code in most cities) to install a backflow preventer at the end of your DWV waste run before it heads to the main. Make sure to have whoever does it check your water pressure at the house (main shutoff) and size the lines so you get good pressure at all fixtures. We've been using PEX on all new homes and re-models since 2000 with no issues and on a 1 story the 5,100 for that part and some under house dwv work may be realistic but for a quality job on a sewer line, PEX re-pipe, and all new DWV piping I'd budget more IMO - Merry Christmas

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

We did ours with pex a few months ago, two story 2000 square foot house, all in with the plumber, the drywall repair and repaint it was about $15,000

 

[brgrcru]

We did ours a few years ago. 6k
Had to have all new sewer lines also last year. 5 k lots of digging . All the way to septic tank.
Both done by a Plummer freind.

 

[NicPaus]

Usually re-pipe is just water supply, if steel drains might need to be replaced. I am rehabbing a 1920 home now for my sister. Plumbing is copper but already failing. Redoing it in Pex. I just checked the main sewer today, it is full of roots from a massive tree we just cut down. Going to replace it to the street. Her house is 2 bath. Repipe I would bid at $6850 with patch work. Her sewer about $8000 with concrete removal and replace. Putting in a new drive way already so just need to bring back hoe attachment and breaker.

 

[Yellowboat]

Usually re-pipe is just water supply, if steel drains might need to be replaced. I am rehabbing a 1920 home now for my sister. Plumbing is copper but already failing. Redoing it in Pex. I just checked the main sewer today, it is full of roots from a massive tree we just cut down. Going to replace it to the street. Her house is 2 bath. Repipe I would bid at $6850 with patch work. Her sewer about $8000 with concrete removal and replace. Putting in a new drive way already so just need to bring back hoe attachment and breaker.

Did you have it tested?


No way a plumber can do it for that with dealing with lead(legally) I know people who ignore lead paint all the time. Just dealing with Sacramento and the bay area has made me pariond.

 

[NicPaus]

Did you have it tested?


No way a plumber can do it for that with dealing with lead(legally) I know people who ignore lead paint all the time. Just dealing with Sacramento and the bay area has made me pariond.

Copper should not have to be tested for lead. Although Leadfree couplings only kicked in a few years back. I was more worried about the paint. Had 6 guy's on it today scraping and sanding it down to wood. 1/8" of paint they took off. Got it primed ready for paint monday. Got the front door installed today also, tried to get a permit but they were closed today.

 

[Bobby V]

We did ours with pex a few months ago, two story 2000 square foot house, all in with the plumber, the drywall repair and repaint it was about $15,000

Why Walt. Your house must only be 25 years old. ?

 

[Yellowboat]

Copper should not have to be tested for lead. Although Leadfree couplings only kicked in a few years back. I was more worried about the paint. Had 6 guy's on it today scraping and sanding it down to wood. 1/8" of paint they took off. Got it primed ready for paint monday. Got the front door installed today also, tried to get a permit but they were closed today.

It does there is lead in the solder. When it comes too old house its in every thing. Cast iron drain lines haveit in pored hoints too. Most duct work as well. If its metal or has metal in it(ie something white) it has lead in it.


Knew a few plumbers that got put out of bizz becuase of a repipe. They got popped durin a inspection when they saw the buckets of old pipe in the back of thier truck(scraping it). The way the law is written the agnecy that catches you gets half the fine. At 34.5k a day... local govs are looking for money.

Lathe in paster or drywall? There is that other a word in most of that.


When we tested some of the redwood framing in a house it came back with higher ppm of lead then paint. It waa next too the water to air passive heat system. I can only sppeculate that the lead fumes from when they built it on site contaminated it.

 

[Yellowboat]

Thinks lead laws are the dumbest thing ever . I spend well north if 1 million in 4 years in compliance.


I don't miss working on old/ historic homes one bit.


Ps glazing for windows was another one they would pop people in.

 

[NicPaus]

Never heard of any issues in my area with lead. Hard enough to get a code enforcement inspector to even show up.


Never heard of any one pulling a repipe permit. Sure the city will take your money.


I have a few plumber friends who bid repipes at $11-13k no patch work. They have never pulled a permit or have had a lead test.

 

[NicPaus]

Why Walt. Your house must only be 25 years old. ?

This is a piece of copper pipe that is from 2003. In middle of a 20' run. Already pin holing. Inside of pipe there is a green ball forming inside. It is type M which is up to code. Found 4 other pin holes ready to pop today. Replaced with type K verticals and stub outs the rest Uponor Pex.

 

[Yellowboat]

Never heard of any issues in my area with lead. Hard enough to get a code enforcement inspector to even show up.


Never heard of any one pulling a repipe permit. Sure the city will take your money.


I have a few plumber friends who bid repipes at $11-13k no patch work. They have never pulled a permit or have had a lead test.

The city of sac a repipe or repair is online "small" permit, any plumbing requires a permit.

Davis is worse,opening clean out or wax ring requires one.

The deal with stuff in sac is tgey had people driving around. From what I understand for awhike tgey were bringing in almost 500k a year in lead fines(remember they get half, so the number was 1 mill)

In late 2010 and in 11 at least 3 times a week they would stop me and check my lead certs and containment. Know a few people that owned environmental companies, they said tgey had some one watching them full time, just waiting for something.

Here I walk in and out of the building department in 20 mins, its cheap and they actually want too help you. Even had them correct plan set that had a minor error on it. (Revered numbers, was supose too be 128" and was wrote as 182") In sac, they would have kicked it back and charged you to review it again, while putting it on the bottom of the que.

 

[Yellowboat]

Ps, I don't know what part of socal you are in, but tge 2nd week in jan I have too be down there. If you need some help with the finish work I can give you a hand. It will be a nice break to take my mind off ucla med school and being a pin cousin.

 

[ONE-A-DAY]

Why Walt. Your house must only be 25 years old. ?

The whole neighborhood is known for slab leaks, had several over the years, the most recent one was the last straw.

 

[Singleton]

The whole neighborhood is known for slab leaks, had several over the years, the most recent one was the last straw.

I have had 1, 1 more and we are lining the interior pipes. Repiping to kitchen would require tearing up entire kitchen. The one I had we were able to bypass due to elevated entry floor.

 

[NicPaus]

I have had 1, 1 more and we are lining the interior pipes. Repiping to kitchen would require tearing up entire kitchen. The one I had we were able to bypass due to elevated entry floor.

Re-Routing over head if possible is best way to reroute. Just finished the granite on a kitchen a few months back and they got a slab leak on hot supply to kitchen. We rerouted hot and cold and were able to open all the can lights and go overhead with minimal drywall and stucco patch. That epoxy does sound like a great option, never heard of it until Rick mentioned it. For slab houses that sounds like a great option. Took a week to schedule the leak detector in as he is BUSY.

 

[PaPaG]

Usually re-pipe is just water supply, if steel drains might need to be replaced. I am rehabbing a 1920 home now for my sister. Plumbing is copper but already failing. Redoing it in Pex. I just checked the main sewer today, it is full of roots from a massive tree we just cut down. Going to replace it to the street. Her house is 2 bath. Repipe I would bid at $6850 with patch work. Her sewer about $8000 with concrete removal and replace. Putting in a new drive way already so just need to bring back hoe attachment and breaker.

Thanks for the info. I am going to be getting an estimate of just the two sink drain repairs Tuesday and see what the guy says about the rest of the system. He is a local licensed plumber and did our water heater and was a referral from a very good Engineer and air conditioning friend of my dads so we will see if he says it Needs a repipe (even though we know for sure roots had done some damage to the sewer to the street but a firm about 10 years ago repaired that damage and I have obvious damaged drains along with a strange flushing toilet furthest from the street) After seeing the buildup at the wall where the drain pipe broke and the other two slower draining sinks along with the flushing issues I think it may be time for a sewer repipe...we will see what he says, If he says YES am going to get some estimates from so called friends of friends but would also be very open to giving a job this costly to a RD member since most of us long timers are reliable, honest with a good rep and can be trusted.

 

[imirsh1]

Did this price include the drywall repair and painting. ?

It did include the drywall patching only. You are on your own with the painting.

 

[imirsh1]

Did this include drainage and sewer or drain pipes? You just reminded me there is a pool as well built back in 1970...so that may have to be done as well......

No sewer or drain pipes. Supply lines only.

 

[BoatCop]

Damn. All that shit sounds like a pain. I cut my teeth in plumbing by re-piping town-homes in Torrance in '73 or so working for a company called Pinkham Plumbing out of PV. 2 full bath, kitchen & laundry cookie cutter complexes all built with galvanized pipe. The places were identical, so after the first 2 or 3 of them, we'd pre-cut all the copper and just punch holes and install. I think we charged around $2,000 then, which included wall repair. We'd knock them out in a day with the inspector coming by once a week to sign off on however many we'd done. No worries about lead back then.

Part of my job as the apprentice was to make sure the inspector saw me when I put the bottle of Jack into his truck. :rolleyes

 

[PaPaG]

OK Update. Had our plumber come in yesterday. He was able to remove the rusted pipe from the wall without any other damage, redid the sink lines, drain pipe, etc...then snaked both bathrooms and 1 toilet to see if he can clear the lines...could not find the clean out in front of the house and only found one at the side and three under so since the snakes seemed to have done their job and there was no further leaks we thought he got it all and everything worked great. We flushed them all a bunch of times and done...

Now the fun stuff....5 minutes later I decide to try the one bathroom that had the broken pipe and toilet almost overflowed so it was clogged again somewhere, went to both other bathrooms and same thing happened...called the plumber and he said he will send employees with the commercial snakes. I decided to go out front to dig up some dirt to see if I can find a clean out in front of the house.....as lucky as I can imagine being I dig about 4 feet and find a 4"x 2" piece of clay pipe busted up and roots growing into the hole...I start to pull out the roots and you guessed it...it flowed YUK...thankfully the whole I dug about 4'x1' and deep was enough to LITERALLY keep that crap in there..the two guys showed up, pulled out the big guns and snaked to the street, put on the cutting edge and within 10-20" of the hole caught on to a section of baby roots about 2 feet long that had grown down the pipe...they pulled that out and everything flowed like it should..flushed everything in the house including turning on all the showers and it flowed great. Today, plumber is returning to replace a few feet and put a new clean out in front...shitty day but got lucky it worked out...

 

[Mandelon]

The lead issues are in paint prior to 1975 or so. Like asbestos... if a licensed contractor disturbs it, then it has to be contained.

EPA RRP Lead Safe info: https://www.epa.gov/lead/renovation-repair-and-painting-program

Homeowners don't have to worry if they do their own work but licensed contractors do.

 

[NicPaus]

Sounds like you got lucky. Finally made it to my Brothers tonight to meet up with my Plumber friend. Brought the big jetter rig. Blasted through the stoppage and just like I thought broken pipe where stoppage was. I was able to bore through it with big snake but could not see the break. After jettered could see the collapse area and broken piece lodged blocking part of pipe where it drops into city sewer. Turns out next door neighbor just had same issue. A lot of big cracks above in the alley. Have guy's saw cut and open it up tomorrow.


Sister's sewer is complete stoppage. Have to dig it all up with the machine. Seller said they never had a issue and avoided the camera inspection.

 

[PaPaG]

Sounds like you got lucky. Finally made it to my Brothers tonight to meet up with my Plumber friend. Brought the big jetter rig. Blasted through the stoppage and just like I thought broken pipe where stoppage was. I was able to bore through it with big snake but could not see the break. After jettered could see the collapse area and broken piece lodged blocking part of pipe where it drops into city sewer. Turns out next door neighbor just had same issue. A lot of big cracks above in the alley. Have guy's saw cut and open it up tomorrow.


Sister's sewer is complete stoppage. Have to dig it all up with the machine. Seller said they never had a issue and avoided the camera inspection.

I can see how that whole issue would be a pain in the ass. I was lucky or should I say my dad was lucky that was for sure and thankfully your sister has you to help her out and not get ripped off.

 

[PaPaG]

They did not have time to get the new pipe work done today but covered the hole just in case of rain tomorrow and are going to replace it first part of next week. We are ripping out both cypress trees that were next to sewer and water line and another tree that had some roots near the pipe just to be in the clear for future damage if not already done under the lawn.