Whole House Repipe Cost 2026: $4,500–$15,000 Typical

Repiping the hot and cold supply in a US single-family house — one to three bathrooms, PEX, pipes reached from an open basement, fixtures reconnected, the existing water heater tied back in — often clusters around $4,500–$15,000. That is the typical cost to repipe a house, and the typical whole house repipe cost, for that scope. The wider national spread, about $3,500–$26,000, covers a very open one-bath basement in a lower-cost area at the low end and a four-bath copper repipe on a slab, with drywall patch and paint, at the high end. A new water heater, a main sewer line, or a bathroom remodel can clear that spread. These are typical planning ranges, not a survey and not a quote.

This page is the potable supply: the hot and cold lines from the main shutoff to the fixtures. It is not the drain in the yard, which is the sewer guide, and it is not the fixture drains inside a bathroom or a kitchen that is being moved. It is not a new water line from the city meter to the house. A tankless water heater ties into these lines. It does not replace them.

The coil price is not the job. A roll of PEX can look cheap beside a stick of copper. The bid is the path through the house, a fitting at every fixture, the shutoff, the permit, and the walls or ceilings you open to get there. Price the house a plumber has looked at, not a per-foot rate from a forum.

The rows below are ways to read one job. They are not added together. The bathroom rows are a whole-house PEX repipe reached from an open basement: existing fixtures reconnected, the existing water heater reconnected, a main shutoff replaced at the location it already occupies, and a permit where the city requires one. Drywall patch and paint are not in those rows. The material rows are that same job on a 2-bathroom basement house, so the PEX row and the 2-bathroom row are one scope. The house-type rows are a 2-bathroom PEX house, so the basement row is that same scope again. Use an add-on row only when the bid left that line out, or when the walls actually have to be finished.

Scope	Typical planning range
1 bathroom	$4,500–$8,000
2 bathrooms	$6,000–$11,000
3 bathrooms	$8,000–$15,000
4 bathrooms	$11,000–$20,000
PEX	$6,000–$11,000
Copper	$9,000–$18,000
CPVC	$6,000–$12,000
Basement	$6,000–$11,000
Crawl space	$7,500–$14,000
Slab	$9,000–$18,000
Drywall patch and paint	Often $500–$3,500 extra
Permit, when the bid leaves the city fee out	$100–$500
Main shutoff, when the bid leaves it out	$200–$700
Water heater connections, when the bid leaves them out	$250–$800

One bathroom is typically $4,500–$8,000. Bath count is how this page reads house size, and one bathroom is the small house: a short run of pipe and an open basement. The low end of the wider spread, near $3,500, is that same job in a lower-cost area when almost nothing is buried in a finished ceiling. It is not a three-bath house someone discounted. Two bathrooms are typically $6,000–$11,000. Three bathrooms are typically $8,000–$15,000, which is the top of the typical band. Four bathrooms are typically $11,000–$20,000. The floor of that row still touches the typical band. The top leaves it and stays inside the wider spread.

The repipe cost per bathroom is not the whole-house price split by the number of baths. The first bathroom carries the main, the shutoff, the water heater connections, and the permit. On this PEX basement scope, the step from one bathroom to two is typically about $1,500–$3,000. The step from two to three is typically about $2,000–$4,000. The step from three to four is typically about $3,000–$5,000. The step grows because the house is larger and the runs are longer, not because the fourth toilet has its own fixed price. Use the bathroom row for the count you have. Adding the step on top of that row double-counts it.

PEX, on a 2-bathroom basement house, is typically $6,000–$11,000. That is the PEX repipe cost for this page’s baseline job, and it is the same reading as the 2-bathroom row and the basement row. Copper on that house is typically $9,000–$18,000. Copper vs PEX repipe cost is those two rows side by side. They can meet around $9,000–$11,000, where a high PEX bid and a straightforward copper bid overlap. A copper price under the PEX row is a reason to ask what was left out. CPVC on that house is typically $6,000–$12,000. It usually lands with PEX. The extra room at the top is the slower glued joints, not a different kind of house.

A basement, for a 2-bathroom PEX house, is typically $6,000–$11,000. The pipes are in the joists, the ceiling is open, and the crew is not cutting a finished floor. A crawl space is typically $7,500–$14,000. The premium is the tight access and the slower day, on a crawl the crew can still move through. A crawl that has to be dug out, or that is too shallow to enter, leaves that row. A slab is typically $9,000–$18,000 for the same 2-bathroom PEX house. The new lines usually run through the attic and drop down the walls, because the old supply is often buried in the concrete. Breaking the slab for the whole house can leave that row. A 3-bathroom crawl often sits toward the top of the typical band or just past it. A 3- or 4-bathroom slab, or copper on a slab, is how a bid leaves $15,000 and approaches the wider top. Do not add the slab row to the 3-bathroom row. Those are two readings of two different houses.

Drywall patch and paint of the openings the repipe makes is often $500–$3,500 extra. The low end is a handful of holes in a basement house. The high end is the many wall and ceiling cuts on a slab, still limited to the openings. A bid that already includes the patch is one number, not the scope row plus this row. Painting whole rooms the plumber did not open can clear $3,500. That is a different project from the holes.

A permit is often $100–$500 when the bid leaves the city fee out, and it is already inside the scope rows when the bid includes it. Add that line once. A main shutoff replaced at the valve you already have is inside the scope rows. When the bid leaves the valve out, it is typically $200–$700. If the old valve will not close, the utility may have to shut the curb stop before anyone cuts pipe. Ask who calls them. That trip is not the valve row. Water heater connections — tying the existing heater back onto the new lines — are inside the scope rows. When the bid leaves them out, they are typically $250–$800. A new tank or a new tankless unit is not this row.

Polybutylene pipe replacement cost, when the supply in the house is polybutylene, is the whole-house row for the bath count and the access you have. It is not a coupon off the PEX price, and it is not a single fitting. Galvanized supply pipe is the same kind of whole-house job. How to tell those pipes from PEX, and when one leak is still a repair, is under repair or replace.

What the range includes

The typical band assumes an existing single-family house, one to three bathrooms, the hot and cold supply replaced in PEX, and an open basement the crew can walk in. It includes the new pipe and fittings, reconnection of the sinks, toilets, tubs, showers, and hose bibbs that stay, reconnection of the existing water heater, a main shutoff at the old location, and a permit where the city requires one and the bid includes that fee. A one-bath house in a lower-cost area sits toward the floor. A three-bath house, a longer run, or a high-labor city sits toward $15,000.

A home-run manifold, with a separate PEX line from a manifold to each fixture, uses more pipe than a trunk with branches. It can sit toward the top of the PEX row. It does not get its own add-on, and it is not required for the typical band. The bid should say which layout it is. Either one is still a whole-house repipe.

How long the work takes depends on access and material, and the bid’s schedule is the one that counts. A 1- or 2-bathroom PEX repipe in an open basement is often one to three working days. A 3-bathroom house, or a crawl space the crew can move through, is often two to five. Copper, a slab, or a 4-bathroom house is often three to seven working days. It runs longer when the city has to see the open pipe before the walls close, or when patch and paint are in the same contract. These are typical planning spans. Ask which days the water is off, and whether an inspection adds a trip.

Living at home during the work is the usual plan. The water is off while the crew cuts the old pipe out and ties the new pipe in. On a job that runs past one day, the house is often back on water by evening, on the lines already finished, so a toilet and a shower work overnight. Dust follows any cut in a finished wall. Keep a path to the basement, the crawl hatch, or the attic, and to the water heater. A household that needs water through the workday, or a house whose only bathroom has to stay torn open, is the case for sleeping somewhere else. That stay is not in the plumbing bid.

Homeowners insurance and a home warranty are contracts, and this page is not a reading of yours. A standard homeowners policy is built around a sudden and accidental discharge of water. Replacing a supply system because it is old, galvanized, or polybutylene is the kind of work those policies commonly treat as wear or maintenance. Water that damages a ceiling after a burst is a different question from the cost of the new pipe. An insurer can ask for a repipe, or decline to renew, without agreeing to pay for it. A home warranty may name plumbing and still exclude pre-existing conditions, polybutylene, or any amount over a low dollar limit. Read the form before you treat either one as the budget. Neither one is inside the planning range.

The floor of the national spread, near $3,500, is a very open one-bath basement in a lower-cost area. The top, toward $26,000, is where a four-bath house, copper, a slab, and drywall patch and paint usually land together. A new line from the meter to the house, a water heater, or a bathroom remodel stacked on the repipe can clear that top. Treat a number above it as a different scope and ask which driver caused it.

None of the bands include a bathroom remodel, a new tank or a tankless water heater, a main sewer line, a sump pump, or a new service from the street to the shutoff. A sump pump is the basement drain, not the supply. Weak hot water is the heater. A backup at the floor drain is the sewer. A new shower valve behind tile, while the wall is already open, belongs on its own line. A tub that becomes a shower, with the rest of the supply staying, is the tub to shower conversion guide. A softener on the main, with the pipe staying, is the water softener guide. Do not fold the repipe into the tile allowance, and do not fold a new tank into the pipe bid.

As a cross-check, not a bid: a 2-bathroom PEX house with a basement is $6,000–$11,000, and that number is the 2-bathroom row, the PEX row, and the basement row. A 3-bathroom version of that house is $8,000–$15,000. If a whole-house bid and that reading are far apart, the bid is copper, a slab, a crawl, a fourth bathroom, or patch and paint the reading left out.

What moves the price

Driver	How it changes the bid
Bathrooms	One bathroom is typically $4,500–$8,000. Two are $6,000–$11,000. Three are $8,000–$15,000. Four are $11,000–$20,000. The steps are about $1,500–$3,000, then $2,000–$4,000, then $3,000–$5,000. Dividing the total by the baths misses the main and the permit.
Material	On a 2-bathroom basement, PEX is typically $6,000–$11,000, CPVC is typically $6,000–$12,000, and copper is typically $9,000–$18,000. The PEX row and the 2-bathroom row are the same job.
House type	Basement is the $6,000–$11,000 baseline. A crawl the crew can move through is typically $7,500–$14,000. A slab, with the new pipe in the attic and down the walls, is typically $9,000–$18,000.
Walls and paint	Patch and paint of the openings is often $500–$3,500 extra. A basement with an open ceiling may have almost none of it. A slab opens more walls.
Shutoff, permit, heater	A same-spot shutoff, an ordinary permit, and reconnection of the existing heater are inside the scope rows. Left out, they are typically $200–$700, $100–$500, and $250–$800. A new heater is its own guide.
Layout	A trunk and branches is the ordinary PEX job. A home-run manifold uses more pipe and sits toward the top of the PEX row.
Region and access	The same scope in a lower-cost area sits toward the floor of the row. A high-labor city, a finished ceiling, or a crawl that has to be dug out sits toward the top and can leave it.

PEX is the usual whole-house material on this page because it bends, it makes long runs with fewer joints in the walls, and a retrofit can pull it through joists. It has to stay out of sunlight. It can be punctured. The bid should name the fitting system, crimp, clamp, or expansion, and whether the layout is a trunk or a manifold. PEX is the replacement for polybutylene. It is not the same pipe. A gray line stamped PEX is not a gray line stamped as polybutylene.

Copper is rigid. The joints are soldered or pressed, the material costs more, and the day is longer, which is why the copper row sits above PEX on the same house. It is a reasonable choice where the new pipe will stay exposed and might get bumped. One pinhole is a repair question. Pinholes in more than one room are a reason to price the whole house. The bid should name the wall thickness it is using. Thicker copper sits higher in the copper row. It does not become the PEX row.

CPVC is rigid plastic, glued at the joints, and it can carry hot water. The installed price usually lands with PEX, in the $6,000–$12,000 row for a 2-bathroom basement. It does not snake through a retrofit the way PEX does, so a tight joist bay is slower. It is the less common whole-house choice for that reason. Ask which plastic the bid is. A CPVC price and a PEX price are not interchangeable just because both are plastic.

If the old supply is metal, and the house uses that pipe as part of the electrical ground, the bid should say who bonds the new system. Taking the metal out can open that path. It is a reason the work is a hire. It is not a second copy of the PEX row.

DIY or hire

Hire the repipe. The work is a permit in most cities, a shutoff that actually holds, a new line to every fixture, and an inspection before the walls close. A leak at a fitting you cannot see, or a shutoff that will not close once the pipe is cut, is how a weekend becomes a flood. Soldering, crimping, or gluing a whole house is not owner maintenance.

A careful owner can find the main shutoff, make sure it closes, clear a path in the basement, and note which fixtures exist before anyone bids. That is preparation. It is not the repipe. Shutting the water off for a dripping supply stop, and turning it back on, is ordinary. Cutting the supply out of the joists is not.

Hire even more clearly when the house is on a slab, the crawl space is tight, the pipe is polybutylene or galvanized, or the old metal pipe may be part of the ground. Those are the jobs where a wrong fitting, a missed fixture, or an unbonded system shows up after the crew is gone.

Repair or replace

The signs that usually lead to a whole-house price are ordinary. Leaks show up in more than one room, or they come back after a patch. The water runs rusty or brown at every fixture, not at one faucet. Pressure is weak through the whole house, and cleaning an aerator does not fix it. A home inspector, a buyer, or an insurer has named the pipe. You can see gray plastic at the water heater, or threaded steel that flakes and that a magnet sticks to. One slow faucet, with the other fixtures fine, is that faucet. It is not, by itself, a whole-house repipe.

Polybutylene is plastic supply pipe widely installed from the late 1970s into the mid-1990s. It is often gray, sometimes blue or black, and a stamp such as PB2110 is the marking to look for at the water heater or along a basement run. The failures people repipe for are often at the fittings, and the pipe can go brittle. A new crimp on one fitting leaves the rest of the system in the walls. Once you have identified it, the planning job is the whole-house row for your baths and your access. That is the polybutylene pipe replacement cost. PEX replaced it. A line marked PEX, in red, blue, or white, is already the newer pipe.

Galvanized supply pipe is threaded steel. It looks intact from the outside while the inside closes with rust, so pressure falls and the water runs brown. A magnet sticks. Replacing the rusty piece you can see at the water heater, and leaving the rest in the walls, keeps the restriction. Plan on the whole-house row when the supply is galvanized and the symptoms are the whole house. Drain pipe can be a different material. A failed drain is the sewer guide when it is the line in the yard, or the bathroom guide when a remodel is moving a fixture. It is not this bid.

Repair when the leak is one accessible joint or one pinhole, and the rest of the supply is copper or PEX that still looks sound. Ask for that repair price beside the whole-house row for your bath count. A repair that is a large fraction of the $4,500–$15,000 band is usually the wrong purchase. Replace the supply when a second leak shows up, when the pipe is polybutylene or galvanized, or when a buyer or an insurer will not move forward on the material you have. Do the work on your schedule. A leak that starts on a weekend is the same pipe plus an emergency opening and a wet ceiling.

Repiping is worth pricing in those replace cases. It is not a way to lower the water bill. The change you are buying is fewer leaks, pressure the fixtures can use, and a supply system someone else can look at when you sell or renew a policy. If the heater is also at the end of its life, price it on the water heater guide or the tankless guide while the lines are open. Keep it as its own number.

How to use this number

Ask for a written price that names the material, PEX, copper, or CPVC, the fitting system, trunk or manifold, the bath count, whether the pipes are reached from a basement, a crawl space, or a slab, who patches and paints, whether the permit and the main shutoff are included, and whether the existing water heater is reconnected. Compare a 1- to 3-bathroom PEX basement job with $4,500–$15,000. Compare one bathroom with $4,500–$8,000, two with $6,000–$11,000, three with $8,000–$15,000, and four with $11,000–$20,000. Compare copper on a 2-bathroom basement with $9,000–$18,000, a crawl with $7,500–$14,000, and a slab with $9,000–$18,000. Keep drywall patch and paint, a water heater, a tankless water heater, a main sewer line, a sump pump, and a bathroom remodel as their own lines.

A very low bid on a whole-house repipe is a reason to ask whether the permit, the shutoff, the water heater connections, and the patch are included, not a reason to celebrate. A copper quote inside the PEX row usually means a different scope. Confirm the material in writing. A high bid should point at bath count, copper, a slab, a crawl, or the walls. Two or three local bids on the same material and the same access are the number that matters. How this site sets the band is explained on the methodology page.