Repipe Cost Calculator — Whole-House Repipe
Most repipe estimates get the pipe right and the access wrong. Fishing new lines through open framing and fishing them through plaster over lath are the same drawing and wildly different jobs — on this calculator's defaults the gap is $7,200 on one house. Set the area, the material and how open the walls really are.
Price the repipe
The biggest single lever. Walk the house before choosing.
Each one past two adds a branch group.
Set to zero if you quote pipe only.
Estimated installed cost
Wall access alone moves this job between $9,150 and $16,350 — a $7,200 spread on the same house.
Likely range
$9,308 – $12,592
Per square foot
$6.08/ft²
See the breakdown
Planning estimate on 2026 US national-average pricing, not a quote. Slab work, asbestos or lead abatement, fixture replacement and painting are not included. Walk the house before committing to a fixed price.
How the estimate is built
A rate per square foot, then the multipliers that describe how hard the house is to work in.
Access is a 2× spread
0.8 to 1.6 is a doubling, and it applies to the labour-heavy part of the job. On this house it is worth $7,200 — more than the whole permit and drywall allowance combined.
Square feet is a proxy
What actually drives cost is pipe runs and fixture groups, and floor area correlates with both. A long single-storey ranch costs more than a compact two-up two-down of the same area — adjust the access factor if the layout is unusually spread out.
Drywall is the argument
Patch, tape, texture and paint are four separate scopes and different contractors include different subsets. Whatever you include, spell it out — this is where repipe quotes go wrong with clients far more often than the pipework does.
What is not in here
Slab penetration, asbestos or lead abatement, fixture replacement, and painting. Any one of them can exceed the pipework, and none can be estimated from floor area.
Worked examples
The defaults, the same house in copper behind plaster, and the case where a repipe is not worth it.
1,800 ft² ranch, PEX, average access
access ×1.0, single storey ×1.0, 2 bathrooms → no extras
+ $450 permit + $1,500 drywall
total = $10,950 = $6.08/ft²
band $9,308 – $12,592
Result: $10,950. This is the straightforward case — accessible walls, one floor, common material.
The same house in copper, behind plaster
difficult access ×1.6 = $25,920
+ $450 + $1,500 = $27,870
versus $10,950 for the PEX easy case — over 2.5×
Result: the two choices compound. Copper alone adds $7,200; difficult access alone adds $5,400; together they more than double the job. This is why "how much to repipe a house" has no single answer.
When a repipe is not the answer
One pinhole leak in an otherwise sound 15-year-old copper system, in an accessible basement.
repipe: $9,150 even at easy access
→ repair is 3% of the repipe
Result: repair it. A repipe earns its place when leaks are recurring, when the material is polybutylene or scaled galvanized, or when access is about to be opened up anyway. One leak in sound copper is a leak, not a system failure — and 15-year-old copper often has decades left.
What wall access is worth
The default 1,800 ft² PEX job with only the access factor changed. Computed from the same code the calculator runs.
| Access | Factor | Total | Per ft² |
|---|---|---|---|
| Easy — open walls, crawlspace or basement | ×0.8 | $9,150 | $5.08 |
| Average — drywall, some fishing | ×1 | $10,950 | $6.08 |
| Difficult — plaster, tile, slab or finished ceilings | ×1.6 | $16,350 | $9.08 |
What the material is worth
| Material | Rate | Total | Per ft² |
|---|---|---|---|
| PEX | $5/ft² | $10,950 | $6.08 |
| CPVC | $6/ft² | $12,750 | $7.08 |
| Copper, Type L | $9/ft² | $18,150 | $10.08 |
Cost by house size
Average access, single storey, two bathrooms, with the permit and drywall allowance included — which is why the per-square-foot figure falls as the house gets bigger.
| Floor area | PEX | PEX per ft² | Copper |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,000 ft² | $6,950 | $6.95 | $10,950 |
| 1,400 ft² | $8,950 | $6.39 | $14,550 |
| 1,800 ft² | $10,950 | $6.08 | $18,150 |
| 2,400 ft² | $13,950 | $5.81 | $23,550 |
| 3,000 ft² | $16,950 | $5.65 | $28,950 |
Sources & standards: these are market assumptions, not code — 2026 US national-average retail pricing with a ±15% band and the same 0.85/1.00/1.25/1.50 regional ladder the electrical cost calculators use. Pipe materials must comply with IPC Chapter 6 and the relevant ASTM standard; some jurisdictions restrict PEX in specific applications. Replace these rates with your own from recent jobs before quoting.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about repipe cost, PEX versus copper, and what drives the price.
How much does it cost to repipe a house?
For a 1,800 ft² single-storey house in PEX with average wall access, the estimate here is $10,950, or $6.08 per square foot, with a band of $9,308 to $12,592. Change the access to difficult and the same house is $16,350; change the material to copper and it is $18,150.
What actually drives the price?
Two things, and only one of them is the pipe. Copper adds $7,200 over PEX on this house. Difficult access — plaster over lath, tile, finished ceilings, slab — adds $5,400. Access is the one clients never expect to pay for and the one that most often blows a fixed price, because you cannot see it from the driveway.
Is PEX or copper better for a repipe?
PEX is faster to install, needs far fewer fittings, tolerates freezing better and costs roughly half as much fitted. Copper is rigid, UV-stable, holds up to high temperatures, and has decades of proven service. The honest summary is that PEX wins on cost and speed, copper wins on longevity and resale perception, and both are code-compliant nearly everywhere. Some jurisdictions restrict PEX in specific applications — check locally.
Why does a second storey add cost?
Vertical risers, more fishing between floors, and far more of the work happening in finished ceilings rather than an accessible crawlspace. The model here adds 15% per storey above the first. In practice the penalty is worse when the ground floor ceiling is finished and better when there is an attic to work from.
Does the price include drywall repair?
Here it is a separate, editable line — the default is $1,500 — because plumbers differ on whether they carry it. Some quote repipe as pipe-only and leave the client to hire a drywall finisher; others include patch, tape and texture but not paint. Whatever you do, say so explicitly on the quote: it is the single most common source of dispute on a repipe.
How long does a whole-house repipe take?
For a typical single-storey house in PEX, roughly two to four days of pipework plus drywall repair and paint afterwards. Copper takes longer. Water is usually off during working hours and restored each evening. Difficult access can double the schedule as easily as it doubles the labour.
When is a repipe worth it rather than repairs?
When you are on the third or fourth leak in a year, when the pipe is polybutylene or galvanized steel that has scaled internally, or when a slab leak makes access ruinous anyway. The usual trigger is repair spend approaching a meaningful fraction of the repipe estimate — at that point you are renting a solution you could have owned.
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