Repiping
Whole-home repiping in Phoenix
On this site, repiping means one thing: replacing water supply lines that keep leaking. It is not a remodel, and it is not the answer to a first leak.
When replacing beats patching
One leak is an event. Two leaks in different places, on the same vintage of pipe, in the same conditions, is a pattern — and at that point each repair is buying time on a system that has already told you what it intends to do. That is the whole case for repiping, and it is not a case we make on a first failure.
The counterweight is just as honest. Repiping is the largest disruption on this site. A house with one failure at a fitting does not need it. A house where every failure has been in one buried run may only need that run rerouted. We would rather do the smaller job and be right than the bigger job and be safe.
What repiping is not
- It is supply side only, and it is done because of leaks. Drains and sewer are not our trade and are not part of it.
- It does not replace fixtures, appliances or water heaters.
- The buried line from the meter to the house is a separate job with its own answer — see water main and service line repair.
- It is not a remodel. If you are renovating and want plumbing moved, that is a general plumbing job and a different trade.
What actually happens
The new lines go where they can be reached
New supply runs go through walls, through the attic and along the garage — above the slab rather than in it. The old under-slab runs are disconnected and abandoned in place; once they carry nothing, they do no harm where they lie. That is the real point of the work: not better pipe, but pipe that is reachable next time anything needs doing.
Walls get opened, and then closed
There is an opening at each drop and at each fixture. They are patched and textured afterwards. Matching texture and paint on a wall that has been painted before is a finishing question, and an honest one: patches can be made very good, and on some walls they can still be found by someone looking for them.
Attic runs have to be treated properly here
A Phoenix attic in summer is far hotter than the house below it. Lines crossing it have to be insulated and supported, or the cold side arrives warm and the hot side loses heat the whole way. Anything that daylight can reach has to be protected as well — sunlight is hard on some materials, which is part of the PEX or copper decision rather than an afterthought.
Whose houses this conversation belongs to
Repiping tracks almost exactly to when a neighbourhood was built. These are published Census figures for the housing stock, and they are the reason we ask the age of the house early.
The older valley
In Sun City, 88 percent of homes were built before 1980 and the median is 1973. Around Encanto and Willo the median is 1961 with 75 percent pre-1980, and in Maryvale the pre-1980 share is 62 percent. Copper of this era usually fails where it was bent or where it rubs a rebar chair, so the leak is rarely where the wet carpet is. Where that is the system, repeat failures are not bad luck and a repipe is a reasonable thing to be weighing.
The newer valley
In Buckeye, 89 percent of homes have gone up since 2000, and in Surprise 74 percent. Newer pipe rarely fails along its length - it fails at fittings and manifolds, which means locating it is about the connections, not the run. In those houses, repiping is almost never the right answer. One failure is one connection, and the sensible move is to repair it and get on with your life.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates (2023)
What you decide
- Material. Copper or PEX, with real trade-offs both ways. That has its own page: PEX and copper repiping.
- How much at once. A whole house, or the part of it that keeps failing.
- Timing against other work. If walls are coming open anyway for something else, that is worth knowing before either job starts.
What we will not do is talk you into the largest version of the work. If the evidence points at one run, we will say so, and we will show you what it is based on.
Questions we get every week
Straight answers
How do I know it is time to repipe rather than repair again?
The count and the pattern. Failures in more than one place, on the same vintage of pipe, with no mechanical cause behind them, is the picture that points at the system rather than the spot. One failure with a clear cause — something struck it, something rubbed it, a fitting was wrong — points the other way, and we will say so.
Do you replace the drains and sewer at the same time?
No. Leak detection and leak repair is all we do, and that means water supply. Drains, sewer, gas and water heaters are other trades. A repipe here covers the pressurised water lines that keep leaking, and nothing else.
Does the old pipe have to come out of the slab?
No. It is disconnected and left where it is. Once it carries no water it is inert, and digging it out would mean opening the concrete, which is the thing a repipe exists to avoid.
Can you do part of the house instead of all of it?
Often, yes, and sometimes it is clearly the better answer — particularly where every failure has been on one run or on one side of the house. The argument for doing the whole thing is that walls are opened once. The argument against is that you may not need it. We will lay out both.
Will repiping fix my water pressure?
Sometimes. Where pressure has been falling because old galvanized pipe has closed up from the inside, replacing it usually restores the flow. But pressure has other causes, including the regulator and the supply itself, so we will not promise a result we have not diagnosed.
Where we work
Across the Valley
Repeat-leak work concentrates in the older valley, and we go where it is.
Related pages
Start here
Tell us how many leaks you have had
The count, the rough dates and where each one was is the conversation. That alone usually tells us whether you are looking at a repair or at something larger.
Have a report from someone else?
Send it over. We will read it and tell you what we would do differently, if anything.
Send it in writing