What It Takes to Repipe a Home

Today we’re going to be talking about if you need to have the waterlines in your home replumbed. 

Why Would You Need to Replace the Pipes?

Now there are several reasons why you might need to get this done. One, if you have an older home (let’s say before 1970), there’s a good chance your house was either plumbed in copper, or it could have been plumbed in old galvanized waterlines. Well, with galvanized metal, nothing lasts forever, and it starts rusting out. You’ll get these stalactites and stalagmites growing inside the waterline. Once in a while, you’ll turn on your water and it’ll put out this kind of rusty-colored water; and that has to do with a chunk of rust breaking loose on the inside of that pipe. 

Another reason you might want to replumb your house is that from 1970 to about 1990, lots of homes were plumbed in what’s called gray polybutylene piping. And that piping was so “good” that there was a $950 million class-action lawsuit against it because it was breaking left and right. That lawsuit unfortunately is over now, but if you still are unlucky enough to have that type of pipe and you have had one or two or more breaks, you might want to just replumb the whole house and get rid of it. 

Different Methods to Replace the Pipes in Your Home

How you replumb a house depends on the house. If you have a crawl space underneath your house, which is how they used to build homes, it’s not that big of a deal to replumb the house and it doesn’t cost as near as much as if you don’t have one. 

Another way is if you have a slab foundation and you have a pitched roof in your house, we run the new lines up into the attic. We insulate them and we bring them down into the walls. To replumb this way, you have to tear up a lot of sheetrock inside the house. You have to cut from the ceiling down to the floor, to each bathroom. It’s a little bit more involved, and of course it costs more money. 

If you have a slab foundation house and a flat roof with no attic at all, then you have to tear up a lot more. Sometimes you have to go through the concrete. You have to go through ceilings. You have to go through walls. You have to open up an awful lot more sheetrock inside your house. It takes longer, and yes, it costs more money. 

We Specialize in Fast Repairs Done Right!

No matter what you have, Rocketman Plumbing can replumb your house. We’ll have it inspected, and you will have no more problems with your waterlines. Give us a call at (505) 243-1227 and we will work to resolve a problem as economically as possible for our customer.