When Is It Time to Re-pipe a Home? - Wisler Plumbing & Air

First of all, what does it mean to re-pipe a home?  There are waterlines in the house that take hot and cold water to the faucets, tub, and/or whatever fixtures you may have. It’s generally going to start at the main entrance of the waterline into your home (where the service line comes into the house), and it goes all the way to the fixtures, where you see the supply tubes or cutoffs (maybe under the toilet or sink). Those are what I’d call the water distribution lines. When we re-pipe a home, we’re removing all those pipes and putting new ones back in.

Unless you’ve had water damage in your home and maybe also filed a claim, I think it’s common to drastically underestimate the amount of damage a water leak can cause and the expense involved in repairing that damage. I don’t want to sound dramatic, but it’s something you definitely need to be aware about. If you’re not sure of the security or integrity of those pipes, you might want to have them checked.

Pinholes are one issue that might make you become aware of a lack of pipe integrity. A pinhole in the piping system is generally caused by poor water quality. (Therefore, you can prevent pinholes by making sure you have good water quality.) If you’ve had a pinhole before, you’ll probably get another one at some point in the future. Re-piping is an option you need to consider in this case, because you definitely don’t want a leak to happen while you’re away, or in a space where you’re not even aware that it’s happening. These leaks often cause water damage that’s much more costly than simply re-piping the home.

We’ve also re-piped homes simply because of the age of the piping system. You may want to re-pipe a home if you have really old pipes and you don’t have very good pressure or flow at the fixtures. Sometimes old pipes can have buildup or rust inside of them. If you check a screen like the one located in the hose of a washing machine, you can determine if it’s catching any rust, which is an indicator that there’s buildup in the pipes.

We offer free consultations for water quality and free estimates for re-piping of the home. For more information, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.