Cost to Repipe a House: PEX vs Copper, by Home Size
A whole-house repipe runs $4,000 – $12,000 in PEX and $8,000 – $20,000 in copper, installed. A typical two-bath, single-story home lands around $4,500 – $8,500 in PEX. Crews price either by the fixture ($400 – $1,500 each) or as a flat whole-house number, and the single biggest swing on your quote is whether drywall repair is in it or left out.
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| Material | Installed range | Note |
|---|---|---|
| PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) | $4,000 – $12,000 | The current standard: fast, flexible, freeze-tolerant |
| CPVC | $3,500 – $11,000 | Rigid plastic, lower material cost, more joints |
| Copper (Type L) | $8,000 – $20,000 | Soldered, long-lived, roughly double the labor of PEX |
| Home size | Installed range | Typical layout |
|---|---|---|
| 1 – 1.5 bathrooms | $3,500 – $7,000 | Small single-story, fewer fixtures to plumb |
| 2 – 2.5 bathrooms | $4,500 – $8,500 | The standard repipe most crews quote |
| 3+ bathrooms | $6,500 – $14,000 | More fixtures, longer runs, often two stories |
| Two-story home | $6,000 – $15,000 | Vertical runs and second-floor access add labor |
| Slab home, no attic access | $7,000 – $16,000 | Overhead reroute through walls and ceilings |
| Item | Range | When it applies |
|---|---|---|
| Per-fixture pricing | $400 – $1,500 | Each sink, tub, shower, toilet, hose bib, water heater |
| Permit & inspection | $150 – $600 | Required for a repipe in most jurisdictions |
| Drywall patch only | Often included | Holes closed, but not taped, textured or painted |
| Full drywall: patch, texture, paint | $1,500 – $5,000 | The line that separates a real bid from a low one |
| New shutoff valves & supply lines | $200 – $600 | Usually replaced at every fixture during the repipe |
| Main line or PRV work | $300 – $1,200 | If the meter-to-house line or regulator is also failing |
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What a whole-house repipe actually includes
A repipe replaces every supply line in the house, from where the main enters to each fixture, while leaving the drain and waste system in place. The crew opens walls and ceilings at strategic points, runs new pipe through the attic, walls or crawl space, ties in new shutoff valves and supply lines at every sink, tub, shower, toilet and the water heater, then pressure-tests the system before any wall closes back up.
On a standard two-bath house, the rough plumbing takes 2 to 4 days, and the crew restores your water each evening so the home stays livable. Pricing comes two ways: a flat whole-house number, or per-fixture at $400 – $1,500 each. Count your fixtures (every faucet, the water heater, the outdoor spigots) and the per-fixture math usually lands inside the whole-house range, which is a useful sanity check on any bid.
The drywall trap: why two quotes can be $4,000 apart
The single most common repipe surprise is drywall. Almost every quote includes the pipe, the labor, the valves and a pressure test. What varies wildly is wall restoration. A lower bid often means the crew closes the access holes with a rough patch and stops there: no taping, no texture, no paint. You are left with a wall that needs a finisher.
A complete bid carries the full finish, patch, texture and paint, and that line alone runs $1,500 – $5,000 depending on how many openings and how textured your walls are. When two repipe quotes are thousands apart, drywall scope is usually the reason, not the plumbing. Ask every bidder one question: does this number return my walls to paint-ready, or just closed? Get the answer in writing.
Where the new pipe surfaces, fixtures, valves and access can expose other tired parts. If your home still has original galvanized supply, the repipe is also the moment to retire it, which we price in detail on the galvanized pipe replacement cost page.
PEX vs copper vs CPVC: where the money goes
PEX is the default for a reason. It snakes through walls with far fewer joints, installs in roughly half the labor hours of copper, tolerates a freeze better, and lands a whole-house job at $4,000 – $12,000. For most homeowners replacing failed galvanized or leaking copper, PEX is the pragmatic call.
Copper costs $8,000 – $20,000 because every connection is cut, cleaned and soldered, and the material itself is far pricier per foot. It earns its premium with a 50-year-plus service life and resistance to UV and rodents, which is why some buyers and some jurisdictions still prefer it. CPVC sits in the middle on material ($3,500 – $11,000) but uses rigid runs and many glued joints, so labor is closer to copper than to PEX.
One signal points toward copper specifically: recurring pinhole leaks. If your existing copper is failing from the inside out, that is a water-chemistry conversation, and we cover the warning signs on the burst and pinhole pipe page before you re-pick a material.
When a repipe is the answer (and when it is not)
A repipe is the right call when the failure is the pipe itself, not a single fitting. The classic cases: galvanized supply that has rusted shut and dropped your pressure, copper riddled with repeat pinhole leaks, or polybutylene flagged on an inspection. In all three, patching one section just moves the next leak down the line.
If you have one isolated failure in otherwise sound pipe, a repipe is overkill: a single burst repair or a slab leak fix handles it for a fraction of the cost. The deciding question is whether you are chasing leaks. A third leak in two years, or whole-house low pressure that a pressure regulator swap did not solve, is the signal that the pipe has reached the end of its life and a repipe stops the bleeding.
What the repipe visit looks like
Day one starts with the crew laying drop cloths and locating access points: the attic, under sinks, behind the water heater and at each wet wall. They run new manifold or trunk-and-branch lines, leaving the old pipe in the walls (pulling it out is rarely worth the labor). Water is shut off during the day and restored each night.
By the final day the system is under test pressure, the inspector signs off, and the access holes are closed to whatever drywall scope you bought. Expect the crew to ask before cutting any finished surface and to walk you through every opening at the end. Budget 2 to 4 days for a single-story two-bath, longer for two-story or slab homes where the runs go overhead.
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