Plumbing Repipe Cost (2026)

Plumbing Repipe Cost in Texas

A whole-house PEX repipe runs $4,500 to $8,000 on a typical three-bedroom Texas home, and copper costs roughly 50 percent more. Full repipes on larger or more complicated houses reach $15,000.

But most Texas homeowners do not arrive at this page shopping for a repipe. They arrive because a plumber just said the words “slab leak,” and the real question is narrower and more useful: do you open the slab, or do you abandon the line and reroute overhead? In slab-on-grade Texas that is the decision, and it is one national plumbing cost guides never address.

The Short Version

• Whole-house PEX repipe: $4,500–$8,000 (typical 3-bed). Copper: about 50% more
• Slab leak detection: $150–$600
• Spot repair through the slab: $1,500–$3,500
• Overhead reroute through the attic: $3,000–$8,000+
• Epoxy pipe lining: $2,000–$5,000
• Most DFW slab leak jobs land between $3,700 and $6,200, roughly 28–30% above the national average
• Texas requires a state-licensed plumber and a permit for a repipe. Permit fees run $50–$200
• If your house was built between 1978 and 1995, check for polybutylene before anything else

Estimate Your Repipe Cost

Use the calculator for a number based on your home size and pipe material, then read the reroute section — on a Texas slab home it usually matters more than the material choice does.

The Texas Question: Open the Slab or Reroute Overhead?

Most Texas homes are built on a concrete slab, with the water supply lines run underneath it or cast into it. When one of those lines fails, you have four options and they are priced very differently.

Approach	Cost	What it is
Leak detection	$150–$600	Locating the break, always the first step
Spot repair through the slab	$1,500–$3,500	Jackhammer down to the break, splice in new pipe, patch the floor
Overhead reroute	$3,000–$8,000+	Abandon the under-slab line, run new pipe up through walls and across the attic
Epoxy lining	$2,000–$5,000	Seal the pipe interior without opening the slab. Works for pinhole corrosion
Full repipe	$4,500–$15,000	Replace the whole distribution system rather than chasing failures

A spot repair is cheaper today. The problem is that a slab leak is rarely a coincidence. If the pipe failed at one point after thirty years under a slab that moves with the seasons, the rest of that same pipe has been through the same thirty years. Plumbers in North Texas see repeat leaks on the same line often enough that the second call frequently ends in a reroute anyway — and you will have paid for the spot repair, the flooring patch, and then the reroute.

Reroute usually wins when:

• This is the second leak on the same house, or the pipe is old copper with a history
• The leak is under a grade beam, a kitchen island, or a load-bearing wall, where slab access is difficult and expensive
• The flooring above is tile, stone or hardwood that cannot be patched invisibly — the floor repair alone can exceed the plumbing
• You are staying in the house long term and want the lines somewhere you can actually reach them

Spot repair is reasonable when the pipe is otherwise young, the leak is in an accessible spot with easy flooring, and there is no history of previous failures.

One Texas-specific point in favor of rerouting: expansive clay is not going to stop moving. Pipes above the slab are not subject to it. That is the same soil behavior that drives foundation repair across North and Central Texas.

If Your Home Was Built Between 1978 and 1995, Check for Polybutylene

Polybutylene supply pipe was manufactured from 1978 through mid-1995 and installed in up to 10 million American homes. Texas got a lot of it, because Texas was building fast during exactly those years.

It fails from the inside. Research at the University of Illinois at Chicago showed that common water disinfectants react with polybutylene and cause it to flake apart anywhere along the run — micro-fractures that deepen over years until the pipe wall is breached. Manufacturers argued most failures happened at improperly installed joints. Either way, class-action litigation against the manufacturers produced payouts reported at around a billion dollars, and those settlement programs have long since closed.

How to identify it:

• Stamped PB2110 on the pipe
• Usually grey, but also white, silver, black or blue
• Flexible, sometimes gently curved — not rigid like copper or CPVC
• Half-inch to one-inch diameter
• Supply lines only. If it is a drain or vent pipe, it is not polybutylene
• Look at the water heater, under sinks, at the main shutoff, and where lines enter from the wall

If you find it, this stops being a cost comparison and becomes a plan. Insurers know what polybutylene is. Homeowners with PB can face higher premiums or an outright refusal to write coverage, and it is a routine deal-killer in a home sale — buyers ask, inspectors flag it, and lenders notice. A $6,000 PEX repipe on a house with PB is not a repair, it is removing a liability.

PEX vs Copper vs CPVC

Material	Relative cost	How it does in Texas
PEX	Baseline — $4,500–$8,000 whole house	Flexible, fewer joints, tolerates freezing better, fast to install. The default
Copper	About 50% more	Long life and a premium reputation, but pinhole corrosion is real and it splits when frozen
CPVC	Similar to PEX	Rigid, inexpensive, becomes brittle with age and UV. Less common in new repipes

For nearly every Texas repipe, PEX is the right answer. It is not a budget compromise. It has far fewer fittings than a rigid system, which means far fewer places to leak; it can be pulled through walls and attics without cutting the house apart, which lowers the drywall repair bill; and it expands rather than splits when water in it freezes, which after the last several Texas winters is not a small consideration.

Copper still makes sense where it is exposed and visible, or where a homeowner simply wants it. Just be clear that you are paying about 50 percent more for a material that corrodes and freezes worse.

Texas Requires a Licensed Plumber and a Permit

Plumbing is one of the trades Texas licenses at the state level, through the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners. A repipe is not handyman work here, and it is not a legal DIY project on a home you intend to insure or sell.

A repipe also requires a permit, with fees generally running $50 to $200, and that permit brings an inspection. That inspection is worth more than it costs: it is an independent set of eyes on work that will be buried in your walls for thirty years.

Verify the license number with the state board rather than taking a truck sign at face value, and confirm in writing who is pulling the permit. A contractor who suggests skipping the permit to save you a couple hundred dollars is telling you what their work would not survive.

Signs You Need a Repipe, Not a Repair

• Repeat leaks. Two or more in a couple of years is a system telling you something
• Discolored water — rusty or brown at first draw points at galvanized steel pipe, which is well past its life
• Falling water pressure throughout the house, not at one fixture
• Polybutylene, at any age and with no leaks yet
• Galvanized steel supply lines, common in Texas homes built before about 1960
• A slab leak on a house with a history of them
• Pinhole leaks in copper, which almost never happen only once
• You are already opening the walls for a remodel — the cheapest time you will ever repipe

Pressure at a single fixture is usually an aerator or a supply valve, not the system. Start there before anyone quotes you five figures — and our symptom triage tool can help narrow it down.

What the Quote Usually Leaves Out

• Drywall repair and texture matching after the walls are opened — frequently a separate trade and a real number
• Paint on the repaired areas
• Flooring repair where a slab was cut
• Permit fees: $50–$200
• New shutoff valves at every fixture, which you should insist on while the system is open
• Water heater connections, and whether the heater is old enough to do at the same time — see our water heater cost guide
• Pressure reducing valve replacement if the incoming pressure is high
• Hose bibs and exterior lines, easy to forget and awkward to add later
• Insulation on attic runs, which matters a great deal in a Texas attic and again in a freeze

That last item deserves emphasis. If your new lines are being run overhead, they are now in a space that hits 140 to 160 degrees in summer and drops below freezing in a hard winter event. Insist that attic runs are properly insulated, and confirm it before the access is closed up. It is cheap during the job and expensive afterward. Our freeze-prep guide covers what else needs protecting.

Questions to Ask a Plumbing Contractor

• What is your Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners license number?
• Are you pulling the permit, and is the fee in this quote?
• Is this a full repipe or a partial, and exactly which lines are being replaced?
• Are you rerouting overhead or working under the slab, and why that choice for my house?
• What brand and type of PEX, and what fitting system?
• Is drywall repair included, and to what standard — patched, textured, or painted?
• Are you replacing the fixture shutoff valves?
• Will attic runs be insulated?
• How many days will the water be off?
• What is the warranty on materials and on your labor, separately and in writing?

Get three quotes, and make sure all three are pricing the same scope. A $4,500 bid that stops at bare pipe and a $7,500 bid that includes drywall, texture, paint and new valves are not the same job.

Will Insurance Pay for Any of It?

Usually part of it, and rarely the part you want. A Texas homeowners policy generally covers the damage caused by a sudden and accidental water leak — the wet drywall, the ruined flooring, the drying — but not the cost of the pipe itself, which is treated as maintenance. Many policies do cover access: tearing out and replacing the slab or wall to get to the failed pipe.

That is why the estimate matters. If the policy pays for slab access and the resulting damage, the incremental cost of doing the job properly may be smaller than it first appears. Ask your adjuster specifically about access coverage before you choose between spot repair and reroute.

Gradual, long-standing leaks are generally excluded, which is another argument for acting on a suspected slab leak quickly rather than watching the water bill for six months. Our water damage and mold guide covers the claim side in more detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a whole-house repipe take?

Two to five days for most homes. Water is typically off during working hours only and restored each evening. Add time for drywall repair, texture and paint, which often follows as a second trade.

Do I have to move out?

Usually not. It is dusty and disruptive, and there will be holes in your walls for a few days, but most families stay. Plan around the hours the water is off.

How do I know if I have a slab leak?

The classic signs are a warm spot on the floor, the sound of running water with every fixture off, an unexplained jump in the water bill, damp or buckling flooring, and the water meter’s low-flow indicator turning with everything shut. Any one of those is worth a $150 to $600 detection call, which is cheap next to what the leak does while you wait.

Is PEX safe for drinking water?

Yes. PEX is approved for potable water throughout the United States and is the dominant material in new residential construction. Some homeowners notice a slight taste in the first weeks; running the lines clears it.

Can I repipe part of the house?

You can, and it sometimes makes sense — replacing a failed run to one bathroom, for example. But the labor is in accessing the walls, not in the pipe, so the savings are smaller than you would expect. If more than a couple of areas need work, price the full job before committing to the partial.

The Bottom Line

Budget $4,500 to $8,000 for a whole-house PEX repipe on a typical Texas home, and treat copper’s 50 percent premium as optional. If you are here because of a slab leak, the real decision is spot repair at $1,500 to $3,500 versus an overhead reroute at $3,000 to $8,000 — and on a second leak, on old pipe, or under expensive flooring, the reroute is usually the cheaper answer over any reasonable time horizon.

And if the house was built between 1978 and 1995, go look at the pipes today. Grey flexible tubing stamped PB2110 is polybutylene, and it is worth replacing before it leaks, before it complicates your insurance, and long before you list the house.