Pipe Repair & Whole-Home Repiping in Copper or PEX
Some pipes need one repair. Others have been failing quietly for thirty years and the next leak is already on its way. We survey what you actually have, tell you honestly whether a repair or a repipe is the better spend, and price both. The quote is approved before any wall is opened.
- Whole-home repipes in copper or PEX
- Replacing failing galvanized supply pipe
- Pinhole leaks and thin-wall copper
- Partial repipes of the worst runs
- Slab and under-floor pipe leaks
- Repairs to hose bibs, risers and manifolds
- Wall and ceiling access, patched and closed up
Signs You Need Pipe Repair and Repiping
Catching these early is almost always cheaper than waiting for the failure.
Pressure has dropped, especially upstairs
Galvanized steel closes up from the inside as it rusts, so the bore gets smaller every year. Hot side usually goes first. If a shower drops to a trickle when a tap runs elsewhere, the pipe is restricting flow rather than the fixture being at fault.
Water runs rusty after the house sits unused
Brown or orange water on the first draw, clearing after a minute, is corrosion coming off the inside of steel pipe. It stains basins and washing. A filter treats the symptom; the pipe itself is the cause and it will keep shedding.
Repeated pinhole leaks in copper
One pinhole is bad luck. A second and third in the same house means the whole run is thinning, often on the hot side or where a pipe sits in an aggressive spot. Patching each hole as it appears usually costs more over a couple of years than replacing the run.
Damp patches on walls, ceilings or flooring
A pressurised leak inside a wall shows as a soft patch, a stain or paint lifting, sometimes a long way from the actual hole. Warm flooring in one spot can mean a hot line leaking under a slab. Both need locating properly before anything is cut.
The water meter creeps with everything turned off
Shut every tap and appliance, then watch the meter dial. Any movement means water is escaping somewhere between the meter and the house, or inside it. This is the simplest whole-property leak test there is, and it is worth doing twice a year.
The bill has climbed with no change in use
A slow underground or under-slab leak rarely announces itself in any other way. A steady rise across two or three billing periods, with the same household, the same season and the same habits, points at water being lost somewhere rather than used.
Copper, PEX, Partial or Full
Copper repipe
Rigid, long established and what many older homes already have, so joints and transitions are straightforward. It takes up little room in a wall cavity and stands up to heat well. It is the more labour-intensive option to install because every joint is soldered or pressed, and hard water will scale it over time like anything else.
PEX repipe
Flexible tubing run in long lengths with far fewer joints, which means fewer places to leak. It threads through existing cavities and crawl spaces with less wall opening than copper, so the making-good afterwards is usually lighter. It also tolerates movement well, which matters where a house sits on ground that shifts.
Partial repipe
Where only part of the system has failed — typically the original galvanized still feeding the bathrooms while the kitchen was redone at some point — we replace the bad runs and tie into what is sound. It is a sensible middle path, provided the joint between old and new is properly transitioned to avoid corrosion between dissimilar metals.
Targeted repair
A single split at a fitting, a damaged hose bib riser or a length crushed during other work does not justify repiping a house. We cut out the failed section, replace it with matching material and pressure test it. We will tell you if we think the rest of the run is close behind.
How We Plan and Run a Repipe
Survey what is really in the walls
We check the material at the meter, at the heater and at exposed points in the crawl space or garage, look at pressure and flow, and work out which runs are original. Houses are rarely all one thing, so the survey decides how much actually needs doing.
Quote the options side by side
You get a price for the repair and a price for the repipe, in copper or PEX, so you can weigh them against each other rather than take our word for it. The quote covers access points and making good, and it is approved before we start.
Stage the work around the household
Most repipes run over a small number of days, and we plan the sequence so water is back on each evening. If the house is occupied we work section by section rather than opening everything at once, and we tell you in advance which days will be disruptive.
Run the new pipe and test it
New lines go in through the smallest sensible access openings, supported and isolated properly, with shutoffs where they are useful rather than where they are convenient. The system is pressure tested before anything is closed up.
Close up and restore
Access holes are patched and the walls and ceilings brought back to a finished state. We agree beforehand exactly how far that restoration goes so nobody is surprised — patched and ready for paint, or fully finished.
Old Pipe in Older Bay Area Homes
Plenty of housing here dates from before the 1960s and was plumbed in galvanized steel. It was a reasonable choice at the time, but it corrodes from the inside, and a sixty or seventy year old supply line has often lost much of its bore. The symptoms come on so gradually that people adjust to them: weak showers, hot water that takes an age, rusty first-draw water in the morning. Replacing it usually restores flow that the household had forgotten was possible.
Copper is not immune either. Pinhole failures show up in homes plumbed decades ago, and once a system starts producing them it tends to keep going. Our hard water adds scale inside the pipe and at fittings, which narrows the bore and holds moisture against the metal at joints. When we find a third pinhole in the same house, we will say plainly that patching is no longer the cheaper route.
Ground movement matters more here than in many places. Expansive clay soil swells and shrinks with the seasons, which works away at anything rigid running under or through a slab, and a leak under concrete is expensive to reach. We are also in Hayward Fault country, so flexible connections at the water heater and at appliances, and proper strapping and support, are not optional extras. PEX earns its keep partly because it tolerates that movement.
A repipe is disruptive, and we would rather set expectations properly than sell it comfortably. It means access holes, a few days of trades in the house and some redecoration afterwards. What it buys is a system with far fewer joints, valves that work, pressure at the top of the house and an end to the cycle of chasing one leak after another. We do not subcontract our service area, so the crew that quotes it is the crew that does it.
What Affects the Price
We quote every job up front, so you approve the price before anything starts. These are the things that move it:
- Number of bathrooms and fixtures, and how far apart they sit
- Choice of copper or PEX
- Single or two storey, and whether pipe runs sit in accessible cavities
- Slab construction versus a crawl space, and the height of that crawl space
- Full repipe against a partial replacement of the worst runs
- How much wall and ceiling has to be opened, and how far you want it restored
- Condition of the incoming service, main valve and hose bibs, which are often replaced at the same time
Most quotes are free and can be done from photos or video you send us. Some on-site estimates carry a fee based on distance, and we tell you that before we come out.
Looking After New Pipework
Turn everything off and watch the dial for a few minutes. No movement means no leak. It takes five minutes and catches slow underground losses long before they show up as a bill or a wet patch.
High incoming pressure hammers joints, fixtures and the water heater. If taps bang when they close, or fixtures keep failing early, the pressure regulator is worth checking before anything else is blamed.
Turn the main and each angle stop fully closed and open again once a year. Hard water scales valves shut if they never move, and a valve that will not close is useless in an emergency.
Hard water lays scale down fastest where the water is hottest. Flushing the water heater on schedule protects the heater and reduces the debris that ends up in aerators and cartridges downstream.
Take a few photos of the pipework before the walls close up. Knowing exactly where a line runs saves guesswork and unnecessary holes if anyone ever needs to work near it.
Pipe Repair and Repiping — Frequently Asked Questions
Straight answers, without the sales pitch.
How do I tell whether my house has galvanized pipe?
Look where pipe is exposed — at the water heater, in the garage or under the house. Galvanized steel is dull grey, threaded at the joints and magnetic. Copper is obviously copper coloured and joined with soldered fittings. Scratching a clean patch helps. If the visible pipe near the heater was replaced at some point, the original material may still be feeding the rest of the house.
Copper or PEX — which should I choose?
Both are sound. PEX runs in long flexible lengths with far fewer joints, so it needs less wall opened and copes better with ground movement. Copper is rigid, familiar and simple to transition to existing fittings. We price both and explain the trade-offs for your particular layout rather than pushing one, because the right answer depends on the house.
Can I stay in the house during a repipe?
Usually yes. We sequence the work so the water is back on at the end of each day and plan which areas are opened when. Expect dust, noise and restricted access to some rooms while it runs. If a bathroom will be out of use for a stretch, you will know that before we start rather than on the morning it happens.
Is a partial repipe a false economy?
Not always. If a previous owner already replaced the kitchen and laundry runs and only the bathroom feeds are original, replacing those runs is a sensible spend. It becomes false economy when the remaining old pipe is the same age and condition as what you are replacing, because you will be back doing the rest within a few years.
What causes pinhole leaks in copper?
Localised corrosion eating through from one side, generally the inside. Water chemistry, high velocity from oversized pressure, sediment sitting in a low run and poor support that lets pipe rub can all contribute. The practical point is the pattern: repeated pinholes in one property mean the run has thinned generally, so patching each one buys progressively less time.
Do you patch the walls afterwards?
We agree the level of restoration in the quote so there is no argument later. As standard we close and patch the access openings ready for decoration. If you want the finish taken further, say so at quoting stage and it goes in the price. What we will not do is leave you with open holes and a vague promise.
Do you charge extra for nights, weekends or holidays?
No. We do not add overtime charges, ever. The rate you are quoted is the same whether we come out on a Tuesday morning or at 2am on a holiday weekend.
Are you licensed and insured?
Yes. Power Plumbing USA holds California contractor license #1082507 and carries full liability insurance. All work is performed to California Plumbing Code, and we pull permits where the job requires them.
Where We Provide This Service
We cover 15 Bay Area cities from our Union City base. See the full service area →