When pipes leak again and again or your water comes out rusty, repipe specialists in Sacramento can swap out all the water lines in your home without you having to move out. Call now, because quotes for the identical job can differ by $2,000 to $5,000 depending on the firm, and the crew that comes out will look at your house before setting a firm number. That single visit is what changes a ballpark guess into a figure you can actually budget with.
What a repipe specialist actually does
This is a trade with a narrow focus: the specialist installs new water lines in houses, and that's nearly the whole job. A Houston firm says it well: repiping is the only thing it does, and its quotes cover fixing the walls, handling the permit, getting the inspection passed, and backing the work with a lifetime warranty.
Some quotes leave parts of that out. Find out exactly what yours covers so a later drywall bill doesn't catch you off guard.
Most households stay put during the entire job, so there's no hotel to budget for.
Repipe cost in Sacramento
Labor makes up roughly 70 percent of a repipe bill, so local plumber pay drives what you'll pay. Plumbers around Sacramento earn somewhere near $36.75 an hour — a bit more than the $34.70 US average, and slightly under California's $39.58.
The numbers below assume PEX, a flexible plastic pipe that usually comes red for hot lines and blue for cold ones. The figures also suppose the home sits over a crawl space, the shallow area beneath a raised floor. A slab, by contrast, is a concrete base laid right on the ground with pipes running under or inside it, and it raises the price because those pipes are harder to get at.
| Sacramento-area home | Cost estimate |
|---|---|
| 1,800 sq ft, two baths, 1 floor, PEX over a crawl space | roughly $6,700–$12,300 |
| That home on a slab | roughly $8,700–$17,000 |
| That home in copper | roughly $9,800–$19,600 |
| 2,400 sq ft, three baths, two floors, PEX over a crawl space | roughly $8,500–$16,800 |
Keep in mind these figures are this site's rough numbers for the homes above, not quotes. The smaller house takes about 2 to 3 days.
Bedrooms don't drive the price — repipes are priced by bathrooms and square footage, and a house with 3 bedrooms typically has 2 baths.
Call now and a repipe company will come out, walk your house, and quote you a firm price.
Checking the company's license
California licenses its plumbers and plumbing contractors through the Contractors State License Board, which covers about 285,000 contractors. Get the license number and verify it before any work begins, since a valid number is your proof the firm is legally cleared for this kind of work.
Reading the written price
Get the price on paper and check 4 things: is the permit included, is drywall patching included, is the final inspection included, and how long the warranty runs. A cheap price that skips the patching can wind up costing you more than a pricier one that covers it all.
Repipe numbers for Sacramento
| Plumber wage in the Sacramento area | $36.75 an hour |
| Plumbers working in the area | 3,120 |
| California average | $39.58 an hour |
| 2-bath PEX repipe, crawl space | $6,700 to $12,300 |
| 2-bath PEX repipe, slab | $8,700 to $17,000 |
Wages from the Bureau of Labor Statistics wage survey for plumbers (Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom, CA); prices from this site's calculator.
Repipe specialists in other cities
Common questions
What does a slab foundation add to the cost?
A slab pushes labor up by 25 to 50 percent, which adds roughly 30 to 38 percent to the total bill.
Can I figure out what pipes I have now?
This site's pipe identifier can pick out 8 different kinds of pipe by how they look and how they handle — polybutylene, Kitec, galvanized steel, copper, PEX, CPVC, cast iron, and Orangeburg. Once you know your pipe type, you can describe your house before anyone comes out.
Does this site favor any single company?
No — it doesn't name or rank local companies. Your call goes to a repipe company serving the Sacramento area, and the call is free.