I’ve gone through three copper repiping projects while owning my own home over the past eleven years.   Two of the actual projects were incidental and an afterthought after I had begun other remodeling efforts.  The other effort was a planned upgrade with my Dad helping me over the Holiday’s one winter.    Hopefully from my experiences you can determine how much it will cost you if you are interested in upgrading your home’s plumbing system by doing a copper repipe upgrade.   In this article we’ll talk about what it cost me to do the project myself and then also what I paid professionals  when they did it.

My first copper pipe upgrade was when I decided to remove the slop sink in my basement.  It was a 500 lb cement sink that had been in place since the day the foundation was poured on my house back in 1955.  In fact I’m guessing that the contractors who poured my foundation had some leftover cement and ended up pouring the cement sink as a favor to the original purchaser of the home.  It certainly wasn’t a favor to me.  (lol)    Anyways, my Dad came over for the weekend and we smashed the cement sink apart and removed it completely and then went about repiping the water pipes that ran back to my main water valve.   Because my father is a retired pipe fitter, he obviously had some good experience and the right tools to do this job.  If it were just to me, it would not have gone as smoothly.   As for materials, we bought about 2 sixteen foot 1/2 inch copper pipes, some copper joints and reducers, and some flux stuff which is used when sweating pipes. Then my dad bent, shaped, and installed all the proper piping for me.  I basically was his “apprentice” and did the dirty work while he sweated the copper, fixed up the fittings and got the water valve back in order.  In the end, we managed to install a single plastic slop sink with both a hot and cold water valve and everything worked nicely with no leaks.  We managed to pull out about 10 feet of galvanized steel piping and get rid of it.  It was completely corroded shut with rust and calcium deposits.   The water pressure was greatly improved.  Total cost of doing it yourself  (not including your time)  …. About $350.00

The second project was a few years later when we upgraded/remodeled our single upstairs bathroom.  This turned out to be more of a “surprise” as once we started on the remodel, it turned out that there had been some mold and other rotting wood that had accumulated over the many years that the house was in use.   I decided to spend the money and make sure we wouldn’t have to revisit any structural problems again in the future.  Because of this decision, the contractors essentially gutted the bathroom down to the studs.  When that happened, I noticed the piping in the bathroom leading up to the faucet and shower valves was also all galvanized.  I decided to do a change of work order and have the contractors replace the piping with all copper since the walls were open.  Because we were going to install ceramic tiling on the walls, I didn’t want to have to redo any of that work in the future if some of the galvanized pipes completely closed up.   So in the end, water pressure was tremendously improved and we can now not have to worry about messing with these pipes again for a long time.   The total amount of piping we removed was about 25 feet plus all the valves and fittings.  The length of copper we put in included the vertical runs from the basement up through the floor and all the associated piping for the shower, sink and toilet.   The total cost of this repiping  project was $1200.00.

The final copper repiping project I did was just last year.   It was similar in nature to the bathroom remodeling but instead it was when we remodeled our kitchen.   One main difference going into this project was that I knew that I wanted to gut the kitchen down to the studs and also to replace the galvanized piping.  This galvanized steel piping was the last of the remaining steel piping in my home and I wanted to make sure to get rid of it while the walls were open and it was easily accessible.  This was the most expensive of the three projects, but also it was the most involved and had the most copper.   We replaced all the piping to the sink, dishwasher, and then also added piping to the refrigerator for the automatic icemaker.  I think in total, we replaced about 40 feet of galvanized pipe, plus the contractors got rid of all the old drains and put in new PVC drainage.    They also did some fancy rerouting of the pipes through the studs because of the positioning of the new cabinetry.  The total cost of the copper repiping part of this overall kitchen remodel project was about $4000.00.

So you can see, the easy answer for “How much does copper repiping cost?” is really not a one size fits all answer.  Instead it really depends on your circumstance and how much work needs to be done.  I hope this article helped you to see what I paid and gives you some idea of where your project might fall.  As always, I recommend contacting a good plumber or contractor to give you a reliable honest quote.  If you have trouble finding one, check out Angie’s List.

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