How to Price a Repipe: A Plumber's Guide to PEX and Copper

How to price a repipe, in short: count the fixture connections, estimate crew hours for the pipe type, add materials, permit and drywall patching, and divide by one minus your margin. Our worked two-bath, 13-fixture PEX repipe costs $4,884.08 and sells for about $6,980 at a 30% margin, about $537 a fixture. The same house in copper comes to about $11,145.

More on this topic: Pricing, estimates and getting paid, every guide in one place.

Repipes are one of the bigger tickets a residential plumbing shop sells, and one of the easiest to underprice. The pipe is cheap next to the labor, the walls have to be opened and closed, and the customer is comparing your number with two others. This guide prices a repipe from your own costs, using the project crew rate from our sewer line replacement pricing guide, and turns the result into a base price plus a per-fixture price your techs can quote the same way every time.

Key takeaways

• Price by fixture connection, not square foot. Fixture count drives the hours; floor area doesn't.
• Use a project crew rate: our example is $177.13 per crew hour for a plumber and helper on site all day.
• Copper takes longer and costs more: our example allows 24 crew hours against 16 for PEX.
• Decide who patches the drywall and put it on the quote; it's the line customers ask about most.
• Permit fees vary by city: La Habra, California charges $43 for a whole-house water repipe plus a $28 issuance fee.
• Reuse the math: our example works out at a $2,470 base plus $350 per PEX fixture point.

What hourly cost should a repipe use?

A repipe should use a project crew rate, because the crew spends whole days on one site. Our plumbing price book works out $174.20 per billable hour for service calls at a 50% billable ratio. On a two- or three-day repipe, about 80% of paid hours are on the job, so the same costs give a lower rate per hour:

For reference, the BLS May 2025 median wage was $30.67 an hour for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters and $20.36 for their helpers. Replace every number with your own payroll and overhead.

Should you price a repipe per fixture or per square foot?

Price it per fixture connection, with a base charge for the work every repipe has. Square footage is a rough check, but two 1,600-square-foot houses can have 9 or 18 connections:

Count a “fixture point” as each place the new pipe connects: each toilet, sink, tub or shower valve, dishwasher, washer box, water heater, hose bib and refrigerator line.

How do PEX and copper change the price?

Copper raises both the material line and the labor line, so it isn't just a pipe upgrade. Example numbers for the two-bath house below; get a job quote from your supply house, because copper prices move:

A sanity check against what homeowners read: Bob Vila's repipe cost guide (updated April 2023) lists PEX at $0.40 to $2 a foot and copper at $2 to $8 a foot for the pipe alone, and a national average of $7,500 for a whole-house repipe, with a range of $1,500 to $15,000. It's three years old, so treat it as a rough guide to what your customer has seen, not a price.

Should you patch the drywall yourself or sub it out?

Either works, as long as the quote says who does it and the price covers it. Your options:

• Sub it out: get the drywall contractor's price after you've planned the openings, add it at cost and let the margin apply. Our example uses $900 for about 13 patches.
• Do it in-house: price the hours for patch, mud, texture and the return trip at your crew rate. It often takes two short visits for drying time.
• Exclude it: the customer hires their own patcher. Say so in bold on the quote, or you'll get the call anyway.

Paint is usually excluded. Say whether the patch is “ready for paint” or textured to match.

What does a repipe permit cost?

It depends entirely on the city, so price it from your local fee schedule. Two examples of how schedules are set up: La Habra, California's FY 2025–2026 plumbing fees list a flat $43 for a whole-house water repipe plus a $28 issuance fee per permit, while the same schedule charges $10 per fixture for new fixtures. Other cities charge per fixture or by pipe length. Our example uses $150 to cover the fee and the time to apply and meet the inspector; change it for your city.

How do you price a two-bath repipe, step by step?

Add the crew hours, materials, patching, permit and protection, then divide by 0.70 for a 30% margin. The house: single story, 1,600 square feet, two baths, attic routing, 13 fixture points (2 toilets, 2 lavs, a tub and shower, a shower, kitchen sink, dishwasher, washer box, water heater, 2 hose bibs and a refrigerator line). All figures are example numbers:

Then compare with your last few repipes. If the job ran 20 crew hours, not 16, price 20; our job costing guide shows how to track it.

How do you turn one job into a base and per-fixture price?

Split the worked job into the work every repipe has and the work that grows with each fixture, then price both parts with the same formula. For the PEX example:

Base plus 13 fixtures comes to $7,020, within rounding of the worked job. Add a second-story adder, a plaster-wall adder and a crawlspace adder from your own records, and build a separate copper line the same way. Load the base, the per-fixture price and the adders into your price book so every estimate starts from the same numbers.

What should a repipe quote say?

• Pipe material and what's included: the number of fixture points, new stops, the main shutoff and water heater connections.
• Water-off time: how many days, and whether water is back on each night.
• Wall openings and patching: who patches, and whether it's ready for paint.
• Permit and inspection, who books them, and the inspection timing.
• Exclusions: paint, the water service from the meter, and code corrections found once walls are open, each priced before work.
• Options: PEX and copper side by side, or a repipe with and without a new water heater. See good, better, best pricing.
• Deposit and payment terms. Our plumbing estimate template has a layout to copy.

What mistakes make repipes lose money?

• Quoting per square foot on a house with far more fixtures than usual.
• Using the service-call rate, which overprices the job against competitors, or a wage-only rate, which loses money.
• Leaving drywall vague. “Minor patching” turns into a free day of work.
• Last year's copper price on this year's quote. Set a short expiry date.

Where CrewRobin fits

CrewRobin's price book holds the base price, the per-fixture price and your adders on every plan. Put PEX and copper on one good, better, best quote the customer picks and signs online, with follow-up texts on day 2, 5 and 10, and ask for a deposit when it's approved, taken off the final invoice. Each job's checklist is built from the option the customer picked, so the crew sees whether it's the PEX or copper scope. See how it works for plumbers.

Frequently asked questions

How much should a plumber charge to repipe a house?

Price it from your own crew hours and materials. Our worked two-bath, 13-fixture PEX repipe costs $4,884.08 and sells for about $6,980 at a 30% margin; the same house in copper is about $11,145. Bob Vila's 2023 guide lists $1,500 to $15,000 for homeowners.

How do you price a repipe per fixture?

Split a past job into a base (main, water heater, setup, permit, pressure test) and the hours and materials per fixture point, and price both with the margin formula. Our PEX example gives a $2,470 base plus $350 per fixture point.

How long does a whole house repipe take?

Our example allows 16 crew hours, about two days with a plumber and a helper, for a two-bath single-story house in PEX, and 24 hours for copper. Two-story homes, plaster walls and slab reroutes take longer, so use your own records.

Is PEX or copper better for a repipe quote?

Offer both when the customer is open to it. PEX costs less in material and labor; copper costs more on both lines. Showing them side by side lets the customer pick, rather than asking you to drop the price.

Should a repipe price include drywall repair?

Say clearly either way. You can sub it out and add it at cost, do it in-house and price the hours including the return trip, or exclude it in writing. Paint is usually excluded.

Put it to work this week

Load your base and per-fixture repipe prices once, and quote every repipe the same way. CrewRobin is free until your first 10 booked jobs, no card up front. Start free or see pricing.

Sources

Figures from outside CrewRobin were checked against these pages in October 2026. Most industry benchmarks come from vendors and agencies, so treat them as ranges, not rules.

• Bob Vila: How much does it cost to repipe a house? (updated April 24, 2023)
• City of La Habra: Schedule of plumbing permit fees, FY 2025-2026 (PDF)
• BLS: Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025, Plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (47-2152)
• BLS: Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025, Helpers: pipelayers, plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters (47-3015), via the BLS Public Data API