Mon–Sat 7am–6pm · 24/7 Emergency Line
Serving Santa Ana & Central OC
A whole-house repipe makes sense when you’re facing recurring pinhole leaks, aging galvanized or copper pipe, or a slab leak that keeps happening in different spots. Instead of paying for one repair after another, a repipe replaces the failure-prone pipe once, using new PEX or copper lines, a pressure test, and a permitted final inspection. In Santa Ana it typically runs $6,000 to $15,000, is usually finished in a few days rather than weeks, and carries a 2-year workmanship warranty.
We quote every repipe as a range confirmed on-site, back our own labor with that warranty, and never ask a Santa Ana homeowner to choose between waiting out one more leak and tearing up the whole house to fix it.
A whole-house repipe is the right call when the problem is the pipe itself, not one unlucky spot. Two patterns point toward it: pinhole leaks that keep recurring in copper supply lines, or a home with galvanized steel pipe old enough that corrosion and mineral buildup are restricting flow throughout the house, not just at one fitting.
Homes built before the 1960s in Santa Ana are more likely to still have original galvanized supply lines, and homes from the 1960s through the 1980s more commonly have copper that's now reaching the age where pinhole corrosion becomes a repeating pattern rather than a one-time event.
This pattern shows up most often in Santa Ana's older neighborhoods, Floral Park, Washington Square, Wilshire Square, and French Park among them, where pre-1980s construction is common.
A repipe is not the answer to a single, isolated leak in an otherwise sound system. If you've had one leak, in one location, in pipe that's still relatively young, a spot repair is usually the more proportionate move, and our slab leak detection and repair in Santa Ana service handles exactly that. The distinction matters because a repipe is a bigger investment, and we'd rather tell you honestly which one you actually need than sell you the larger job by default.
Repiping a house means replacing the water supply lines throughout it, rather than repairing one failure at a time. Whole house repiping and whole home repiping describe the same job, and some plumbers call it replumbing. Plumbing repiping is the same work again, just named after the trade rather than the house.
The distinction that actually matters is not the word, it is the scope. A PEX repipe replaces supply lines with flexible PEX; a copper repipe replaces them in copper. Neither touches your drain or sewer lines, which are a separate system with separate problems. Both are governed by the California Plumbing Code, published by the California Building Standards Commission, which is the same rulebook every city's building department inspects against. If a quote you are comparing says “repipe” without naming which lines are included, that is the question to ask before you compare prices.
Worth being explicit about, because “repipe” gets used loosely and it is a reasonable thing to misread on a $6,000 to $15,000 quote.
A whole-house repipe replaces the pressurised supply lines — the pipes carrying clean water to your taps, showers, appliances and water heater. It does not replace the drain, waste and vent lines that carry water away, and it does not touch the sewer lateral running out to the street.
Those are separate systems with separate problems and separate prices. If your drains are the issue, that is sewer line repair, and it starts with a camera inspection rather than a repipe quote. A house can genuinely need both, and if yours does we would rather you knew that before signing for one of them.
You tell us what you’ve noticed. We locate the leak with acoustic and thermal equipment before anything is opened up. We mark the exact spot and explain what we found in plain language. You get a written quote on site, and the same crew does the repair.
The detection visit is a flat $150 to $500, credited toward the repair if you go ahead. The full sequence — what helps before we arrive, what happens at each step, and the four things you get at the end — is on what happens on a leak detection visit.
Once your quote is confirmed, the on-site work follows the same sequence on nearly every job: we access your existing pipes through walls, ceilings, or the attic, run new PEX or copper lines, pressure-test the new system, then patch the access points before pulling a final permit inspection.
Naming the permit step here matters because it's the part of a repipe that's easiest for a corner-cutting contractor to skip, and the part most likely to cost you later if it's skipped.
PEX and copper are the two materials we install, and each has real, different tradeoffs, not a clear universal winner. PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) is a flexible plastic tubing that resists the pinhole corrosion that eventually affects copper, runs through walls and joists with fewer fittings, and generally costs less to install because it requires less labor time.
Copper is a rigid metal pipe with a long track record, holds up well to UV exposure and high heat near a water heater, and remains the material some homeowners prefer for resale or personal preference reasons even though it typically costs more per linear foot installed.
| Factor | PEX | Copper |
|---|---|---|
| Material type | Flexible cross-linked polyethylene | Rigid metal pipe |
| Corrosion resistance | Not subject to pinhole corrosion | Can develop pinhole leaks over decades, especially with hard water |
| Installation | Fewer fittings, snakes through existing framing, generally faster | More fittings and soldered joints, generally slower |
| Typical installed cost | Usually lower | Usually higher |
| UV / high-heat exposure | Should stay shielded from direct sunlight | Handles heat and UV well |
| Common homeowner reason to choose it | Cost, fewer future pinhole leaks | Familiarity, resale expectation, all-metal preference |
Neither material is “the best” outright. We help you weigh your home's layout, budget, and priorities and recommend the one that fits, not the one that's easiest for us to sell. For the full material-by-material breakdown, see our PEX vs. copper repipe comparison.
It is the right question to ask, and the honest answer is that it depends on the house — how many bathrooms, how many storeys, how many fixtures need new lines, and which rooms have to be opened.
What we will not do is give you a general answer that turns out not to apply to your job. Which rooms are affected, when, and how the water supply is handled while the work runs is set out in the written quote before anything starts — not discovered on the day. Ask for it in writing from any contractor you are considering, including us.
A little preparation on your end keeps the project moving at the pace we quote you, and five things help most.
Cost, and how the decision compares to just fixing the next leak when it happens, is what's left to weigh at this point, so that's where we turn next.
A whole-house repipe in Santa Ana typically runs $6,000 to $15,000, depending on your home's size, the number of fixtures, and whether you choose PEX or copper. We confirm the exact number with a firm written quote after seeing your home, never a phone-estimate final price.
The cost moves with what is coming out, what is going in, and how reachable the runs are. Fixture count and access drive the labor more than floor area does, which is why the cost to replumb a 1,500 sq ft house with an accessible attic can land below a smaller two-story with finished ceilings underneath. Larger homes, more bathrooms and fixtures, multi-story access, and more drywall repair all move the number toward the higher end of that range; smaller, single-story homes with fewer fixtures tend to land toward the lower end.
What is being replaced matters as much. Galvanized steel is the most common reason for a whole home repipe: it corrodes from the inside until water pressure at the fixtures visibly drops, and no single repair restores it. Copper failing by pinholing, from internal corrosion, is the other common case, and it tends to announce itself as repeated pinholes rather than lost pressure.
The layout going back in is a choice, not a default. A manifold configuration gives each fixture its own run from a central distribution point, so one fixture can be isolated without shutting off the house. A conventional trunk-and-branch layout costs less in material.
Before we quote how much to repipe a house, we establish what is actually in the walls, non-invasively wherever possible, and if that diagnostic visit cannot establish it, the no-find-no-fee guarantee applies to it. Homeowners comparing repipe quotes are usually comparing numbers built on different assumptions; ask each contractor what they inspected before quoting.
A repipe is a real investment, and we don't pretend otherwise. If spreading the cost over time matters for your household, raise it during your on-site quote, that's the right moment to talk through payment timing for a project this size, before you commit to anything.
For the full cost breakdown, including what drives the number and how PEX and copper compare on price, see our full whole-house repipe cost breakdown.
Ask who is actually doing the work, whether the permit and final inspection are included, and exactly what the warranty covers. Those three answers separate a properly run repipe from a cheap quote, and none of them is visible in a price. The material choice and the range above are the straightforward part of this decision. What follows is the harder part: the team who will be in your home, how a multi-unit property changes the plan, whether a repipe is even the right call against one more repair, and what we stand behind once the crew leaves.
Those three are the repipe-specific ones. The general questions worth asking any contractor — and how to check a licence yourself — are on how to choose a leak detection company.
A whole-house repipe is a different job than a routine service call, and it deserves a team whose focus is the repipe itself, not a general plumber fitting it in between other work. Carlos Mendez leads our repipe projects from the initial walk-through through the final permit inspection, and the same technicians who plan your repipe are the ones who install it, not a crew that hands the job off partway through.
Carlos is also fully bilingual in English and Spanish, so Santa Ana's Spanish-speaking homeowners can discuss a $6,000-plus decision directly with the person doing the work, not through a translator. Read more about our bilingual service.
We serve homeowners and property managers throughout Santa Ana and the surrounding Orange County cities in our service area, and every repipe quote starts with an in-person look at your home, not a phone estimate.
Property managers and HOAs dealing with aging multi-unit plumbing face a version of the same decision homeowners do, just at a bigger scale: keep patching individual units as they fail, or plan a phased repipe across a property before tenant complaints and emergency calls become the norm.
We set that out in detail on our repipe planning page for property managers and HOAs. We work with property managers and HOA boards to document the condition of existing supply lines, prioritize the units with the highest failure risk, and phase the work in a way that limits how many units are out of service at once. If you manage rental or association property with galvanized or aging copper supply lines, this is a conversation worth having before the next leak forces it. Contact us to start that conversation.
Repipe when the same aging line has already failed more than once; repair when a single leak sits in otherwise sound pipe. A first slab leak in copper that is still in good condition elsewhere is a spot repair, not a reason to replace the whole system. A second or third failure on the same run is telling you the pipe itself is at the end of its service life, and each new repair is buying less time than the last one.
The repair history is the deciding factor, not the size of the current leak. If you are weighing a repipe versus repairing one more slab leak, that page works through what a repipe does and doesn't fix, so you can compare the two paths on their real trade-offs rather than on urgency.
Every repipe we complete is backed by our 2-year workmanship warranty, and PEX manufacturers typically offer their own separate warranty on the material itself. We'll confirm the exact manufacturer terms for your project once materials are selected, and we won't quote you a specific number of years on that manufacturer warranty until we know which product we're installing on your job.
David Herrera, founder of Leak Detection Santa Ana, sets the direction on every repipe recommendation this company makes before Carlos Mendez, our Repair & Repipe Technician, takes it from planning through installation himself. Kevin Nguyen, our Field Inspector, documents the completed work, the same paperwork that matters later for a warranty claim or if a future buyer's inspector ever asks whether the repipe was done to code.
We're a new company, and we say so directly rather than pretending otherwise. What we can offer instead of a long review history is a named team, transparent published pricing, and the two guarantees on this page, stated in plain language rather than buried in fine print.
A whole-house repipe is the biggest plumbing decision most Santa Ana homeowners make, and it's normal to have real worries about it before you commit. Here are the ones we hear most, answered directly.
Recurring leaks or aging pipe? We assess your home in person, then quote the repipe in writing.
(714) 386-7923Call or text, day or night Schedule a VisitNeither is universally better. PEX generally costs less to install and resists pinhole corrosion; copper has a longer track record and holds up better to direct heat and UV exposure. The right choice depends on your home’s layout, budget, and priorities. See our full PEX vs. copper comparison for the complete breakdown.
Yes. A whole-house repipe replaces a home’s main water supply piping, which requires a building permit and a final inspection under the California Plumbing Code. We build the permit and inspection into every repipe project rather than treat it as optional.
In Santa Ana, a whole-house repipe typically runs $6,000 to $15,000, depending on home size, fixture count, and material choice. See our full repipe cost breakdown for what moves the number.
Epoxy lining coats the inside of existing pipe rather than replacing it, and can be a fit for certain sewer-line situations. For water supply lines specifically, we perform whole-house repiping in-house; if a lining approach is relevant to your situation (most commonly on sewer lines, handled through our trenchless service), we’ll discuss that option directly with you rather than assume it applies here.
Most whole-house repipes take a few days, not weeks. The exact timeline depends on your home’s size, number of stories, and how many fixtures need new lines, which is why we confirm a specific schedule as part of your written quote rather than promise a fixed day count up front.
It depends on the house — how many bathrooms and storeys, and which rooms have to be opened. Rather than give a general answer that might not apply to your job, we set out which rooms are affected, when, and how the water supply is handled in the written quote before anything starts.