What is repiping
Repiping means removing the existing water supply lines throughout the house and replacing them with new pipe. The new material is typically copper or PEX (cross-linked polyethylene). The job touches every fixture in the home: every faucet, toilet, shower, and appliance that uses water gets disconnected from the old line and reconnected to the new one.
Galvanised steel: the corrosion timeline
Galvanised steel pipes were standard in Houston homes built from the 1950s through the early 1980s. The pipe is coated with zinc to prevent rust, but the zinc layer erodes from the inside over decades. Once the zinc is gone, the bare steel corrodes, and rust deposits build up inside the pipe. The deposits narrow the bore and reduce water pressure gradually enough that the homeowner adjusts without realising it. A shower that used to blast now trickles, but it happened over five years, not overnight.
The other sign is water colour. Rusty water at the tap, especially after the system has been idle overnight, means the corrosion is advanced enough that particles are breaking free. Running the tap for a minute clears it, but the pipe wall is thinning from the inside, and a pinhole leak is a matter of when, not if.
Polybutylene: the material recall
Polybutylene (poly-b, sometimes marked PB2110) was installed in millions of homes between roughly 1978 and 1995 as a cheaper, easier-to-install alternative to copper. The material reacts with chlorine and chloramines in treated water, and the reaction makes the pipe brittle over time. Failures are not gradual: a poly-b fitting or pipe section cracks suddenly and floods the house. The material was the subject of a class-action settlement (Cox v Shell Oil, 1995), and while the settlement fund is long closed, the failure risk has not changed.
If a home built between 1978 and 1995 still has its original plumbing and the pipes are grey, white, or blue flexible tubing with copper crimp rings at the fittings, those are polybutylene. Replacing them before a failure is less expensive and less disruptive than repairing the water damage after one.
Signs the pipes need replacing
- Water pressure has dropped over the past few years with no explanation from the city supply
- Rusty, brown, or discoloured water at the tap, especially in the morning
- Pinhole leaks appearing in more than one location
- Visible corrosion or green patina on exposed copper fittings
- The home is 30+ years old and still on its original supply lines
What the process looks like
A technician inspects the existing system, maps the layout, and determines which material and routing make sense for the house. PEX is the most common choice for repipes today: it is flexible, resists corrosion, handles freeze-thaw cycles better than rigid pipe, and installs faster because it can be routed through walls and ceilings without as many joints.
The crew opens small access points in walls and ceilings (typically patches of drywall, not full demolition), runs the new lines, connects every fixture, pressurises the system, and tests for leaks. The drywall patches are closed but not finished to texture or paint, because most homeowners prefer their own painter or handyman to match the existing finish. A typical whole-house repipe for a three-bedroom home takes two to three days.
Partial repipe vs full repipe
A partial repipe replaces only the most deteriorated sections, usually the horizontal runs under the slab or the trunk lines feeding the bathrooms. It costs less and takes less time, but it leaves aged pipe in the system that will need replacing later. A full repipe removes every inch of the old material and starts clean.
The right call depends on the pipe's condition. If the corrosion is localised to one section (often the hot-water lines, which corrode faster), a partial repipe buys time. If the technician finds widespread corrosion during the inspection, a full repipe is the durable answer.
Abacus Plumbing handles full and partial repipes across Houston and Austin. Master Plumber licence M-20628. Call (713) 766-3605 for an inspection.