Whole-Home Repiping: Replacing the Pipe Instead of the Leak
Three leaks in two years on the same system is not bad luck. It is the supply pipe reaching the end of its life, one joint at a time, at your expense.
Most Georgia repipes are done with the family living in the house. Water off during the day, back on by evening.
The threshold
Six signals that patching has stopped paying
Repiping is a large, disruptive job and nobody should do it on a whim. These are the conditions where it is genuinely cheaper than continuing to repair.
- Repeat leaks. Two or three supply leaks in a couple of years, in different places. Individual fixes are addressing symptoms of a system-wide condition.
- Declining pressure everywhere. Not one fixture, the whole house, getting worse over years. Classic internal corrosion in galvanised steel narrowing the bore.
- Discoloured water on first draw. Rusty or brown water from taps that have been standing overnight, clearing after a few seconds. That colour is the inside of your pipe.
- Known bad material. Galvanised steel, or polybutylene. Both have finite and now largely expired lives. See polybutylene repipe.
- Pinhole leaks in copper. Copper is excellent pipe, but pinholing from water chemistry, excessive pressure or poor original installation tends to appear in clusters once it starts.
- Major renovation already planned. If walls or floors are coming open anyway, the marginal cost of repiping while access is free is far lower than doing it later.
One leak on otherwise sound modern pipe is a repair. Do not let anyone talk you into a repipe on the strength of a single failure.
Dating your plumbing
What Georgia houses have in the walls
Galvanised steel
Threaded grey steel, magnetic, often with rust at the threads. Corrodes internally, narrowing the bore with nodules until pressure fails, then perforating. A fifty-year design life that ran out decades ago. Every galvanised system in Georgia is now living on borrowed time, and no repair changes that.
Polybutylene
Grey, dull plastic, flexible, usually with copper or plastic crimped fittings. Installed heavily across Georgia during a large construction boom. Degrades with chlorinated water and becomes brittle; failures are sudden and often at fittings. Insurers ask about it, and buyers’ inspectors look for it.
Copper
Good pipe with a long life. Vulnerable to pinholing where water is aggressive, pressure is unregulated, or the original installation used the wrong fittings or too much flux. Also a theft target in vacant properties. A repipe is only warranted once pinholes are appearing in more than one place.
CPVC and PEX
CPVC is rigid cream-coloured plastic, reliable but brittle with age and intolerant of UV and some solvents. PEX is flexible tubing, now the default for repipes: no corrosion, fewer joints, and it tolerates a freeze far better than rigid pipe, which matters in a Georgia crawl space in January.
Not sure what you have? A plumber can identify it in minutes at the water heater or in the crawl space.
Get Your Pipe IdentifiedThe material decision
PEX or copper
Both are legitimate. The honest summary is that PEX is the practical default for a residential repipe in Georgia and copper is a considered upgrade with specific advantages.
Fewer joints, less demolition
Flexible tubing snakes through joists and stud bays with far fewer openings cut in finished walls, and a home-run manifold layout gives each fixture its own line, so one leak affects one fixture. It does not corrode, it handles Georgia water chemistry indifferently, and it survives a freeze that would split copper. Cheaper in both material and labour.
Proven, rigid, recyclable
Decades of track record, unaffected by UV, tolerant of high temperatures, and it holds value as scrap. Preferred by some owners on principle and specified in some renovations. It costs more, takes longer, needs more wall openings, and remains vulnerable to pinholing where water chemistry or pressure is unfavourable.
Home run versus trunk and branch
A home-run manifold runs a dedicated line to each fixture, best pressure balance and easy isolation, more tubing. Trunk-and-branch mirrors traditional layout with a main run and takeoffs, less material, and a shared line means a fault affects several fixtures. Ask which you are being quoted.
The things that decide quality
Insulation on runs in crawl spaces and unconditioned attics. Isolation valves at each fixture. Proper support spacing. Sleeving where tubing passes through framing or concrete. A repipe is largely judged on these, not on the brand of pipe.
Living through it
What actually happens, day by day
Walkthrough and plan. Every fixture is counted, the route mapped, access points identified. In most Georgia houses the crawl space does the heavy lifting; slab houses route through the attic and drop down interior walls instead, which changes both the plan and the freeze-protection detail.
Protection and access. Furniture moved and covered, floors protected, and access openings cut, behind fixtures and at strategic points rather than continuously along runs. Expect neat rectangles of missing drywall.
Installing the new system. New lines are run alongside the existing ones with the old system still live, which minimises the time you are without water. Manifold or trunk installed, runs pulled, fixtures connected.
Cutover. The switch to the new system. Water off for part of a day, typically a few hours, and back on the same evening. Most families stay in the house throughout.
Pressure test and inspection. The system is pressure tested and inspected by the local authority before anything closes up. Do not let walls be patched before the inspection has happened.
Patch and finish. Drywall repair, texture and paint. Establish up front whether the quote includes finish painting to match or only patch-and-prime, because that gap is the most common source of end-of-job disappointment.
Three to five days for a typical house
A two-bathroom Georgia house with a good crawl space is commonly two to four days of plumbing plus drywall work. Larger houses, slab foundations, multiple storeys, or difficult attic access extend it. Water is off only during cutover, not for the whole job.
Scope and paperwork
What drives the price, and what to check in the quote
The variables that move a repipe quote are structural rather than negotiable: number of bathrooms and fixtures, storeys, foundation type, access, and whether the finished surfaces get properly restored.
- Foundation. A generous crawl space is the easy version. A slab house is routed overhead and down through walls, which means more openings and more finish work. A finished basement adds ceiling repair.
- Fixture count. Every sink, bath, shower, toilet, washer, outside tap and refrigerator line is a connection. Bathrooms drive the number more than square footage does.
- Access. Tight crawl spaces, low attics, plaster and lath, tile walls, or built-in cabinetry over the route all add hours.
- Restoration scope. Patch and prime versus patch, texture and paint to match. Get this in writing.
- Extras worth including. Isolation valves at each fixture, insulation on unconditioned runs, a new main shut-off, a pressure regulator if pressure is high, and replacing the old water heater flex connections while everything is open.
- Permits and inspection. Repiping is permitted work throughout Georgia and is inspected before closing up. A quote without a permit line is a quote you should question.
Ask for the material, the layout, the fixture count, the restoration scope, the permit and the warranty on both parts and labour. A repipe quote that names all six is comparable with another that does.
Repiping is planned work, quote it in a calm week, not during a leak.
Discuss a RepipeQuestions we get on the phone
Answered plainly
The pattern matters more than any single leak. Repeat leaks in different places, whole-house pressure declining over years, rusty water on first draw, or a known bad material like galvanised steel or polybutylene all point to the system rather than the spot. One leak on otherwise sound modern pipe is a repair, and a good plumber will tell you so.
Only during cutover, typically a few hours in one day, back on the same evening. The new system is installed alongside the old one while it is still live, which is why most families stay in the house through the whole job. Plan on three to five days total for a typical Georgia house including drywall work.
PEX is the practical default: fewer joints, far less wall demolition, no corrosion, better freeze tolerance and lower cost. Copper is a legitimate upgrade with a long track record and tolerance of high temperatures and UV, at more money and more openings cut. In Georgia crawl spaces, PEX’s freeze behaviour is a real advantage.
There will be openings, but not continuous demolition. With PEX the tubing snakes through framing, so access is cut behind fixtures and at strategic points, neat rectangles, mostly in predictable places. Confirm whether the quote covers patch-and-prime only, or texture and paint to match your existing finish.
If the cause is corroded galvanised pipe narrowing the bore, yes, dramatically, and often to a level the house has not seen in decades. If the cause is a failed pressure regulator, a partially closed valve, a municipal supply issue or an undersized service line, repiping the interior will not change it. That is worth diagnosing before you spend.
Yes. Repiping is permitted work in Georgia jurisdictions and the new system is pressure tested and inspected before walls are closed. Never let drywall be patched before the inspection has passed, and be wary of any contractor proposing to skip the permit. It becomes a disclosure problem when you sell.
Third leak in two years?
We will identify what is in your walls and tell you honestly whether it is a repair or a repipe.
(866) 559-0826