# Whole-House Repiping in Austin

> Whole-house repiping in Austin: every hot and cold supply line replaced, permitted under Austin's plumbing code and pressure tested before walls close.

URL: https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/whole-house-repiping/

- **65 psi** Static pressure above which Austin's code requires a regulator and an expansion tank
- **R-4** Minimum insulation on water lines outside the thermal envelope, such as an attic run
- **218** Austin water repipe permits issued from October 2021 to October 2026
- **1994** Median year built for Austin's housing; 28.3% of units predate 1980

[Grackle Repiping Austin](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/) replaces the water supply pipe in houses across Austin, from the main shutoff valve to every faucet, toilet, shower and appliance connection. A whole-house repipe is the right scope when the pipe itself has become the problem: galvanized steel that has scaled shut, polybutylene from the 1980s and 1990s, or copper that keeps springing pinhole leaks. It is the wrong scope when one line under the slab has failed and the rest is sound, which is the situation a [slab leak reroute](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/slab-leak-reroute/) was made for.

## What happens on the first visit

The walk-through decides whether the house needs a whole-house repipe at all, and if so, where the new pipe can run. It covers four things.

**The pipe you have.** Material shows at the water heater, under sinks and at the main shutoff. Galvanized steel, copper, gray polybutylene, orange or cream CPVC and red and blue PEX each fail in their own way, and some houses carry two or three of them from earlier repairs. The [guide to identifying your pipes](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/what-kind-of-pipes-do-i-have/) shows what each looks like.

**The pressure.** A gauge on a hose bib reads static pressure. Austin’s amendment to the plumbing code requires a regulator with a strainer when it tops 65 psi, set at 65 psi or less, with an expansion tank after it. High pressure does not cause old pipe, but it shortens the life of whatever is installed, so a repipe in a high-pressure house includes the regulator.

**The routes.** On a slab house, new lines usually run through the attic and drop down interior walls. On a pier-and-beam house they run through the crawlspace. The walk-through checks attic headroom, crawlspace height and which walls back onto bathrooms and the kitchen, because those choices decide how many openings the job needs.

**The finishes.** Tile showers, built-in cabinets and plaster walls change how access is planned. The estimate lists each opening and how it will be closed.

## Why Austin repipes mostly run overhead

About 43% of Austin’s homes were built in 2000 or later, but the houses that come up for repiping are older: the City’s open permit data shows water repipes clustered in ZIP codes such as 78757, 78731, 78745, 78749 and 78704, where many homes date from the 1950s through the 1980s. Austin is a slab town: across five years of City plumbing permits, descriptions mention slabs more than three times as often as pier-and-beam crawlspaces. On a slab house, the original water lines run under or inside the concrete.

Breaking a slab to replace pipe in place is slow, messy and hard to justify when an attic sits above every room. So a whole-house repipe on a slab house abandons the under-slab lines and runs new pipe overhead. In the parts of central, south and east Austin that sit on Houston Black clay, a soil that shrinks and cracks in dry spells, getting supply lines out of the slab also takes them away from the ground movement that stresses buried pipe.

Overhead runs bring their own rules. Austin requires at least R-4 insulation, five-eighths of an inch thick or more, on water lines outside the building’s thermal envelope, which includes a vented attic. The lines also need support off the roof deck, where summer temperatures run hottest. The February 2021 winter storm, which produced 123 freeze-related plumbing permits in Austin between February and April that year, showed what happens to poorly protected lines in cold spaces.

## PEX or copper for an Austin repipe

Both are allowed for water distribution in a house under Austin’s code, and neither is the right answer for every house.

**PEX** is flexible tubing joined with crimp, expansion or press fittings. It snakes through attics and down walls in long runs with few joints, which means fewer openings and less labor on a slab house. It must stay out of sunlight and be supported to the manufacturer’s spacing. The [PEX repiping page](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/pex-repiping/) covers PEX-A and PEX-B and the choice between a manifold and a trunk-and-branch layout.

**Copper** is rigid, joined by soldering or press fittings, and tolerates heat and exposure better. It needs more joints and more access to route through finished walls, which shows up in the price. Austin Water lime-softens its water to a pH near 9.7, and its own report says the treatment helps coat pipes and prevent corrosion, and copper levels in its 2024 tap sampling were far below the action level. The [copper repiping page](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/copper-repiping/) explains when copper earns its cost.

The [PEX vs copper guide](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/pex-vs-copper/) compares them in detail.

## How much a whole-house repipe costs in Austin

A typical Austin-area range for a single-family whole-house repipe is $4,500 to $15,000+. Larger homes, slab homes with long overhead runs and copper jobs can run higher. With PEX and typical attic and wall access, a typical home falls at about $4,500 to $9,000.

What moves a particular house within that range:

- the number of bathrooms and fixture groups, and whether there is a second story
- whether the new lines can run through an attic or crawlspace, and how long those runs are
- PEX or copper, and a manifold or trunk-and-branch layout
- tile, built-in cabinets and plaster walls that make access slower
- a pressure regulator and expansion tank where pressure tops 65 psi
- the scope of drywall patching and painting
- the City plumbing permit and its inspections

The [Austin repipe cost guide](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/repipe-cost-austin/) breaks these down, and the [cost estimator](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/tools/repipe-cost-estimator/) gives a range for your house without a phone call.

## Permits and inspection

The City of Austin issues repipes as plumbing permits. Under Austin’s amendment 104.1.1, only a responsible master plumber licensed by the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners and registered with the City can obtain one. The inspector checks the new piping, supports and test before walls are closed. The suburbs run their own offices: Round Rock and Cedar Park, for example, permit plumbing under the International Plumbing Code rather than the Uniform Plumbing Code. The [repipe permit guide](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/repipe-permit-austin/) covers both.

## Living in the house during a repipe

Most families stay home. Water is shut off while each section is cut over and is normally back on at the end of the work day. Openings are cut where lines reach fixtures, furniture near them is covered, and the patch scope is written down before work starts. The [repipe timeline guide](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/how-long-does-a-repipe-take/) goes through a typical schedule.

## When a whole-house repipe is not the answer

Low pressure is the most common reason people ask about repiping, and pipe is not always the cause. A failing pressure regulator, a partly closed main valve or clogged aerators produce the same symptom. The [low water pressure guide](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/low-water-pressure-austin/) explains how each is checked. Rusty water can come from the water heater rather than the pipe. And one leak under the slab, in a house whose other pipe is sound, is usually a reroute, not a repipe.

A whole-house repipe also does not touch the drain and sewer lines, which are a different system with different failures; the [guide on drains](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/does-repiping-include-drain-pipes/) explains the line between them.

## What's included

- Hot and cold distribution piping from the main shutoff to every fixture connection
- New supply connections at the water heater
- Kitchen, bathroom, laundry, ice maker and hose bibb connections the piping serves
- New shutoff valves at fixtures where the old ones are seized or corroded
- A static pressure reading, and a regulator and expansion tank where the code calls for them
- The City of Austin plumbing permit and its inspections
- A pressure test before walls close, then a full flush after cutover
- A written list of wall and ceiling openings and how each one is closed

## How a whole-house repipe changes with the house

|  | Slab ranch, one story | Two-story slab house | Pier-and-beam house |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Where new pipe runs | Through the attic, dropping down interior walls to each fixture group | Attic for upstairs fixtures; downstairs lines drop through walls or a chase, sometimes from the floor above | Under the floor in the crawlspace, coming up through the floor at fixtures |
| Typical Austin areas | Postwar and 1970s neighborhoods across the city | 1980s and newer subdivisions in the north, northwest and southwest | Older central neighborhoods such as Hyde Park, Clarksville and parts of East Austin |
| What moves the price | Attic access and run length | A second floor of drops and more wall openings | Crawlspace height and how much of the floor framing is reachable |
| Freeze and heat | Attic lines need R-4 insulation and support off the hot roof deck | Same in the attic; interior walls stay warmer | Crawlspace lines need insulation against cold air under the house |

## Guides for this work

- Cost Guide [How much does a repipe cost in Austin?](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/repipe-cost-austin/)What a whole-house repipe typically costs in the Austin area, what sits inside that price, and the handful of things that move one house from the low end to the high end.
- Learn [How long does it take to repipe a house?](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/how-long-does-a-repipe-take/)There is no honest single number for how long a repipe takes. The schedule is a chain of phases, from the first visit to the last patch, and each one stretches or shrinks with the house. This guide walks through them.
- Learn [Do I need a plumbing permit to repipe a house in Austin?](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/repipe-permit-austin/)A repipe in Austin is permitted work. This guide covers who can pull an Austin plumbing permit for a repipe, what the inspector checks and when, what a failed inspection costs, and how the rules change in Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Kyle and the other suburbs.
- Learn [Do I need a pressure reducing valve in Austin?](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/pressure-reducing-valve-austin/)Austin's plumbing code sets the line at 65 psi: above it, a house needs a pressure reducing valve with a strainer and an expansion tank after it. Here is how the rule works, how a valve fails, and how it fits into a repipe.
- Decision Guide [Is repiping worth it, or should I keep fixing leaks?](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/is-repiping-worth-it/)Repiping is worth it when the pipe itself is the problem: leaks keep coming in different places, the material is known for failing, or the house is being bought or sold with it. When one line has failed in otherwise sound pipe, a repair or reroute is the better buy.
- Learn [Does repiping include drain pipes?](https://gracklerepipingaustin.com/guide/does-repiping-include-drain-pipes/)No. A repipe replaces the pressurized water supply lines, and drains, vents and the sewer line are a separate system with separate failures. This guide shows where the line falls, how to tell which system is leaking under a slab, and where the line from the meter fits.

## Order status

1. Called First callWhat you're seeing, how old the house is, whether it sits on a slab or a crawlspace, and any reports you already have.
2. Assessed Walk-through at the housePipe material at the water heater and fixtures, static pressure at a hose bib, attic access, and where walls can be opened with the least damage.
3. Piped The workNew lines run, fixtures and the water heater reconnected, and the old pipe cut out or capped and abandoned in place.
4. Closed Tested, inspected and patchedA pressure test and flush, the City inspection before walls close, then the access openings patched to the agreed scope.

## What this work looks like

A ladder leaning up into an open attic access in the ceiling of an Austin house, a work light lit in the attic above

Red and blue PEX branches dropping through a top plate toward the kitchen in the attic of a single-story Austin house

Red and blue PEX lines feeding a recessed washer box inside an opened laundry wall in an Austin house

A mudded drywall patch beside the tub in an Austin bathroom, a drop cloth still on the floor

## Whole-house repiping questions

### How long does a whole-house repipe take in Austin?

Most of the time goes into running new lines and cutting each fixture group over, then the inspection and patching. A one-story slab house with good attic access moves fastest; a second story, tile walls and long runs add days. The estimate gives the schedule for your house.

### Do I have to choose between PEX and copper?

Austin's 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code allows both for water distribution in a house. PEX bends through attics and walls with fewer joints; copper is rigid and suits short exposed runs. The choice comes down to the layout, the budget and what you prefer living with.

### Will the water heater be replaced too?

No. A repipe reconnects the existing water heater's supply lines. Replacing the heater is separate work, though the walk-through will note its age and condition if it affects the connections.

### Does a whole-house repipe include the line from the meter?

No. A repipe covers the pipe inside the house from the main shutoff. The buried line from the meter to the house is a separate job, covered on the water line replacement page.

### What happens to the old pipe?

Old pipe that can be reached is cut out. Pipe buried in the slab or closed up inside walls is usually capped and abandoned in place, because removing it would mean breaking concrete or opening far more wall than the job needs.

## Related services

### PEX repiping

A whole-house or partial repipe in PEX tubing, with the tubing type, fittings and layout chosen for the house and run to Austin's attic and pressure rules.

Details →

### Slab leak reroutes

A leaking water line under the slab is confirmed, capped and abandoned, then replaced with a new line run overhead through the attic and down the walls.

Details →

### Galvanized pipe replacement

Scaled, rusting galvanized steel supply pipe replaced with PEX or copper, with the restriction, rusty water and the service line sorted out first.

Details →