If you keep patching the same supply system in different rooms, you don’t have a leak problem — you have a system problem. The pipes are telling you the system has reached the end of its useful life. Repiping is the cleanest way to put that behind you.

What a repipe actually is. I replace the entire supply system in your home — every hot and cold line from the main shut-off out to every fixture — with new copper or PEX. The drains, the gas lines, and the fixtures stay (unless you want them changed). What goes is the old material that’s been the source of your problems.

Four signs your house is ready for one.

1. Recurring leaks in different rooms. A leak under the kitchen this year, a leak in the upstairs bathroom next year, then the laundry. That’s the system, not the rooms.
2. Galvanized lines. Galvanized pipe was standard until the 1960s. It rusts from the inside, narrows the bore, and eventually fails. If your house has any galvanized still in service, it’s on borrowed time.
3. Low water pressure that no fixture fix solves. You’ve replaced the shower head, cleaned the aerator, swapped the cartridge, and pressure is still weak everywhere. The pipes themselves are restricted.
4. Rusty or off-color water from the hot side. Sediment in your water heater is one thing. Rust coming through the cold lines too is the supply system.

What the work involves. I plan the route before I cut into anything — where the new lines run, where the cut-ins land, what gets opened in drywall. I protect your finishes (drop cloths, plastic, masking) so the rest of the house keeps working while we work. Joints get pressure-tested and double-checked before drywall closes back up. On most homes the water-off window is one to two days; the drywall and finish work runs longer.

Copper or PEX. Copper is the traditional choice — durable, proven, and rebuilds resale value on older homes. PEX is faster to install, more flexible (good for retrofits where copper would mean opening more wall), and handles freeze-thaw better. Both are code-compliant in Oregon. I’ll quote both and walk through the trade-offs at your house.

The hardest part of a repipe isn’t the work — it’s deciding to do it. Most homeowners I repipe spent years patching first. If you’re already in that pattern, give me a call and we’ll look at the whole system together. Better to plan it than to wake up to it.

— Greg