House Repiping w/pex?

5 years ago

We’ve recently discovered that we have a leak in the copper pipes that run through our slab (23-year old house). I have been advised by various people NOT to touch the slab, and since we have very hard water in our area, this is likely a problem we will encounter more and more.

We’re considering repiping the house by running pex through the attic. I’m having trouble getting people to show up to provide quotes, so I’m trying to get a sense as to whether the one quote we received for $11k is reasonable- we have a 2300 square foot 2-story house. The second story only covers half the house, if that makes a difference. On the first floor we have the water heater, a washer, kitchen sink, fridge water supply, two toilets, three bathroom sinks, a shower stall, and a soaker tub. On the second floor we have a sink, a toilet, and a shower/tub combo.

I really appreciate any perspective or advice on this issue. We purchased the home less than a year ago, so we’re feeling a bit of sticker shock but also want to make the best choices for a home that we imagine we will live in for decades.

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Comments (5)

Bruce in Northern Virginia
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
My house was built in 1996 with sleeved copper pipe in the slab, and over the years we have dealt with 3 slab leaks by having pipes rerouted through the attic. The house is in San Antonio, so it took minimal insulation to keep the pipes in the attic from freezing. If your house is in a cold climate it might be a challenge to route PEX pipe through the attic and still avoid freezing.

Whether $11k is reasonable is extremely dependent on the layout of the house. In my house the hot and cold supply lines run (in slab) from the water heater to five locations - Three bathrooms, kitchen and laundry. If I was going to directly replace all the in-slab pipes with PEX I would need ten 3/4" PEX lines (five hot, five cold) to the copper manifold for each area, and then from the manifold there are existing in-wall copper pipes for each fixture.

If I wanted to reduce the number of pipes in the attic I could probably run a single 3/4" hot and cold line to each side of the house and then use a PEX manifold or T fittings there to make further connections to each of the existing copper manifolds. As I said before, its very dependent on the exact layout of your house.

Bruce
formulaross20
5 years ago
IMO, the $11K quote is probably an indicator that the plumber doesn't really want the job. Probably also why you're having trouble getting people to show up to provide quotes,
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Stax
5 years ago
last modified: 5 years ago
Not to mention the pandemic!
Sarah Rowe
Original Author
5 years ago
Unfortunately we don’t have the luxury of waiting. The leak is getting worse and will start to cause serious damage.

Bruce, we’re in south Texas, so more worried about never having cold water than about pipes freezing. Does that price seem within the realm of reasonable, even broadly?
yardbones
5 years ago
Pex is extremely DIY friendly. My fiancé and I and installed a pex manifold and ran all the new supply lines ourselves and then had plumbers come out to check our work and install the trickier things like shower valves (where we switched back to copper) and hot water heater and we probably spent ~$500 total Including supplies. Look up what’s involved and see if it’s something you might take on. I promise, it’s easier than you think!