If you're weighing a PEX vs copper repipe, the choice mostly comes down to cost and time. Copper usually costs $3,000 to $7,000 more and needs about one or two extra days on the job, but it holds up longer. PEX is a bendable plastic pipe for water, with red pipe carrying hot water and blue carrying cold, and it usually lasts 40 to 50 years in a home. Copper pipe is metal, joined with solder, and it usually holds up 50 to 70 years in a home.
What a whole-house copper repipe costs
Most homes pay $8,000 to $18,000 for a complete copper repipe, according to a national guide. Two things push the price up: the metal costs more than plastic, and fitting it takes more hours. Solder is a metal heated with a torch until it melts and joins two pipes, and that careful, slow work drives the labor cost.
Copper pipe sells for $2 to $8 a foot, while PEX runs from 40 cents to $2 a foot, per a national guide.
Picture an 1,800 square foot house with one level and two bathrooms, paying typical rates for US plumbing work. This site figures copper at roughly $9,400 to $18,800, with 3 to 5 days of work. Done in PEX, the same house lands near $6,400 to $11,800 with 2 to 3 days of work.
Those numbers assume a crawl space, the low open space beneath a raised floor where pipes are simple to reach. If your home sits on a slab, meaning a concrete floor poured at grade with pipes underneath or inside it, the PEX job on that same house climbs to roughly $8,300 to $16,300.
Keep in mind these are rough figures for the house just described. Your repipe company sets a firm price after it walks through your home, so use the range as a rough guide rather than a promise.
PEX repipe vs copper side by side
This table shows an 1,800 square foot house with one level and two bathrooms, built over a crawl space, paying typical rates for US plumbing work.
| PEX | Copper | |
|---|---|---|
| Price for each foot of pipe | 40 cents to $2 | $2 to $8 |
| Full-home price, national guide | $4,000 to $10,000 | $8,000 to $18,000 |
| What this site figures for that house | roughly $6,400 to $11,800 | roughly $9,400 to $18,800 |
| Workdays for this house | 2 to 3 | 3 to 5 |
| Expected lifespan, in years | 40 to 50 | 50 to 70 |
Going with copper instead of PEX typically means $3,000 to $7,000 more on the total, per a national guide.
Before you decide, note two limits on PEX. Sunlight can damage the pipe, which rules it out for outdoor runs, and a few building departments won't approve it at all. If either one applies where you live, copper may be worth the higher price.
This site's calculator treats labor as about 70 percent of the bill, and copper costs more for two reasons: the pipe itself and the labor needed to solder the joints.
PEX A or PEX B for your repipe?
What separates the two is how easily they flex. PEX-A, made with peroxide, bends more easily than any other PEX tubing, while PEX-B is a bit stiffer, according to a national guide.
That guide puts the lifespan of PEX at 40 to 50 years overall, without splitting the two types. The smart move is to check with your plumber on which tubing they'll use and their reasons for it, so you understand what's being installed behind your walls before work begins.
Common questions
Which pipe should you choose for a repipe, PEX or copper?
A national guide says most homeowners pay around $7,500 for a repipe, and PEX is usually the cheaper of the two. Copper makes sense when pipes must go outside or local rules bar PEX. Weigh the firm price your repipe company quotes after seeing the house in person, since every home calls for its own answer.
Is copper piping no longer used?
Copper hasn't disappeared from plumbing, though it's no longer the go-to choice. About 60 percent of new homes are now built with PEX, according to a national guide.
What would a 2,000 square foot house pay for a copper repipe?
For a home with two bathrooms over a crawl space, figured at typical US wages, this site puts copper near $9,800 to $19,500. In PEX, that same house runs near $6,800 to $12,500.
Does your home state affect the price?
It does, since plumber wages vary by state and labor takes the largest slice of what you pay. Take a 1,800 square foot, two-bath, single-story PEX home above a crawl space: expect roughly $5,400 to $9,900 in Florida, $5,700 to $10,500 in Texas, $7,000 to $13,000 in California, and $7,400 to $13,700 in Washington.