Re-piping a full house...has anyone here done it?

[rcooled]

Replacing old 1940s galvanized piping (supply only, no drains) in the kitchen, a bath and laundry room with PEX-A and getting quotes that seem a bit high...$15-$18K range for a 3-day job. That's $5K/day for a plumber & one helper, includes materials, but no drywall repairs. House isn't all that big and there's adequate access underneath to work.

I realize this is California and all, but does that seem like a lot of $$$ for a job like this?

[sc_rufctr]

It does seem high but I haven't had any major plumbing work done for a long time (more than 30 years).

No doubt someone local will chime in shortly.

[Evans, Marv]

Get a bunch of quotes. Take a little time and ask around as many people as you can. I wouldn't want to have to get plumbing, elecrical, etc. done now days. I had patio roofing replaced late last year - removal of existing tile and replacement with standard roofing. $8,750 for about 1,200 s.f.

[look 171]

That's a 12-15k job all day long. That's what my plumber would have charge me. But most of my work would have been demoed out so that price drops a little bit, maybe 2k.

[sc_rufctr]

Originally Posted by look 171

That's a 12-15k job all day long. That's what my plumber would have charge me. But most of my work would have been demoed out so that price drops a little bit, maybe 2k.

That seem high Dude. I was thinking $8,000.

[look 171]

Crawl space and how much wall needs to be ripped out and cleaned up?

Pete, if you think that's bad, plumbers charge 1000 + per drop on drains. For example, if the house is gutted, for every relocation or change out of drain pipe, including vent is over 1000 bucks. Same if its sink drain, or toilet. If walls are out, this is a 3-5 job with open access to raised foundation. That's what they charge so we often do a lot of it in house and pass that savings along to the home owners. If you think about the numbers, we bill out 1120 per day, one man plus materials so it comes out to be about 8-900 per drop.

[sc_rufctr]

^^^^ Okay I can see your point.

[DavidI]

I had my house replumbed with Pex A about 6 years ago in SoCal and it cost about $8,000. I took care of all the drywall repair. It's a two story 2500 sf home built in 1985.

Your quoted cost seems high. Does your city require a permit from the building and code section at your local city or county hall? If so, the Public Record Act allows you to review any permits requested within your area. They are required to allow you to access it. In some areas, they are online and others are viewable in the city hall. I went both to the city hall and online and searched for others in my area to review what companies were most used the most and the cost of the job. This gave me insight to reputable companies and the associated costs.

Good luck, David

[Zeke]

Plumbers and electricians have learned to take advantage of the dearth of good craftsmen. And that is if they themselves are that good or not. That's the bad part. I won't deal with them.

[Bugsinrugs]

I got an estimate at $14,000. Three and one half bath, laundry room and kitchen. That’s with me opening the walls and doing the drywall repairs.

[NY65912]

Using PEX is not repiping. Replumb yes. So much easier than using copper tubing.

[wdfifteen]

Based the cost of work on my rental house, that doesn't seem too high. It was a one-story, one bath, 1200 square foot house. Built on a slab. Iron pipes embedded in the slab were clogged with calcium deposits. They ran PEX to a bathroom and a kitchen. Maybe 60 feet of tubing. They ran it in the corners of the ceilings. It cost $8000 plus $5000 for a carpenter to conceal the pipes. This is in Ohio.

[911 Rod]

Not a DYI job?

[Alan A]

at 15k for three rooms i'm cutting drywall and sweating copper myself.
it's far from rocket science and you know it's been done right.

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by DavidI

Does your city require a permit from the building and code section at your local city or county hall?

Yes, a permit will be required.

I went both to the city hall and online and searched for others in my area to review what companies were most used the most and the cost of the job.

Good advice...thanks.

Originally Posted by look 171

Crawl space and how much wall needs to be ripped out and cleaned up?

Crawl space is about 3' high with good access. About 5-6 sq ft of wall will need to be opened and then repaired.

Originally Posted by 911 Rod

Not a DYI job?

Not for me. I have a lousy track record with plumbing jobs...


Thanks for all the input everyone...

[Zeke]

$2000 per day for a one man truck fully equipped should be profitable but not making anyone rich. Helpers are profitable (if they are workers, not goof offs) as they can be relatively low paid but billed out at a good factor. So let's say a helper all in with company profit added is $400/day.

Supplies for Pex are not cheap but copper is outrages. So let's say $1000 in materials Using that formula I get $8200 as a reasonable bid. As I said, truck plus a journeyman @ $250/hr is not making anyone rich, but add in the helper profit and the picture improves. Still, a company with min office staff should be able to operate at those prices.

No business should be supporting a physical office with staff with too small an operation. In order to do that a contracting business should plan on at least 12 employees in the field every day.

[jyl]

Old house, two floors plus finished basement, we are removing all old water and waste pipe except the main stack, installing PVC and PEX, for commercial kitchen, coffee bar, five floor sinks, three floor drains, grease interceptor, three bathrooms, another kitchen, multiple new roof vents, 1” supply line, to commercial code. Significant problem solving needed to fit all into skinny existing walls and floors - furring out two walls, one drop ceiling, special shallow floor sinks, etc. Still in progress but total cost will end up about $25,000 including materials about $7,000, excluding demo (lot of demo) and needed framing. Basically an entire month of work from the plumber, plus a few days of helper.

[Zeke]

^^^Does that plug into my formula at all? You need to know the total hours on a job that stretches out, IOW, not on the job every day all day.