PEX Repiping in Cypress, CA

Signs your house is ready for a repipe

• Two or more slab leaks or pinhole leaks in the last few years
• Green or crusty spots on exposed copper under sinks or at the water heater
• Low water pressure throughout the house
• Rusty or discolored water from older galvanized lines
• A remodel coming up that will open walls anyway
• Gray plastic polybutylene pipe in a home or manufactured home from the late 1970s to mid-1990s - see our post on polybutylene pipes

Why PEX is the usual choice

PEX is cross-linked polyethylene tubing, color-coded red for hot and blue for cold. It has become the standard material for repipes in Southern California for practical reasons:

• It bends. PEX can be pulled through attics and down inside walls in long continuous runs, which means fewer openings in the drywall.
• Fewer joints. Long runs mean fewer fittings, and fittings are where leaks usually start.
• It doesn't corrode. Hard water and changes in water chemistry that thin copper from the inside don't affect PEX the same way.
• It handles freezing and expansion better than rigid pipe - less of a concern in Cypress, but a sign of how forgiving it is.

Copper is still an option, and some homeowners prefer it. A plumber can explain the trade-offs for your house.

How a repipe works in a Cypress slab home

Most homes here have their original water lines under the concrete. A repipe usually abandons those lines in place and runs new ones overhead:

1. Plan the routes from the main shutoff, through the attic, to each fixture and the water heater.
2. Protect the house - floors and furniture covered, work areas sealed off.
3. Cut small access openings where lines drop down the walls to fixtures.
4. Run the new lines and connect them with new shutoff valves at each fixture.
5. Pressure-test the whole system before anything is closed up.
6. City inspection - repiping generally needs a permit.
7. Patch the openings - ask in advance whether drywall repair and texture matching are included.

Many single-story Cypress homes are repiped in a few days, with water off only for parts of each day.

Two-story homes and condos

Two-story houses mean routing lines between floors, which takes more planning and sometimes more openings. In condos and townhomes, check with the HOA first: plumbing inside the walls may be shared, and associations often have rules about contractors, work hours and which pipes belong to whom.

Good questions before you choose

• PEX or copper, and why for this house?
• How will lines be routed, and how many openings will there be?
• Are new fixture shutoffs and a new main valve included?
• Is drywall patching included?
• Who pulls the permit and schedules the inspection?
• What warranty comes with the work and materials?

And check any contractor's license with the California Contractors State License Board.

Repipe or keep fixing leaks?

If you've had one leak, a single reroute may be all you need - see slab leak repair. But each leak comes with its own disruption, water damage and repair. After the second or third, many Cypress homeowners find a repipe is the more sensible long-term decision.