Repipe or repair: how we decide
A single pinhole leak in copper is a repair. The third one in two years is a pattern. The rule we use, with the numbers behind it.
Every repipe estimate starts with the same question from the homeowner: can we just fix the leak? Often, yes. Here is how we decide.
The two questions
- How old is the pipe? Galvanized steel from before 1980 is at end of life whatever it looks like from outside. Copper varies with water chemistry.
- Is this the first leak? One pinhole in twenty years is bad luck. Three in two years means the wall thickness is gone everywhere, not just where it showed.
What a repipe actually involves
Most Albany ranch homes take two days. We open drywall in a handful of places, run PEX through the same paths, and close up the same day so nothing is left open overnight.
Day 1: supply lines, manifold, fixture stubs
Day 2: pressure test, drywall patches, cleanupCost
A repair is a few hundred dollars. A repipe on a three-bedroom home is several thousand. The repair is the right call until the pattern says otherwise, and we will tell you which one you are looking at before any work starts.