What is a whole-home repipe?
A repipe is the wholesale replacement of a house's water supply piping — the lines that carry hot and cold water from the meter to every fixture — while leaving drain lines alone unless they're also failing. We open small sections of drywall at each fixture, run new PEX (or copper where it's called for), pressure-test the new lines, then close up and texture-match the patches. The old pipe stays in the walls, dead, or gets pulled if it's in the way.
This is different from a spot repair. If you've had three pinhole leaks in copper in the last two years, or a plumber has told you your galvanized is "on borrowed time," patching one leak at a time is a losing game. A repipe replaces the whole system once, on your schedule, instead of on the pipe's.
When does a Portland house actually need this?
Three pipe materials cause most of the repipe calls we get in the metro:
Galvanized steel — common in homes built before the 1960s across inner Portland, and still original in a lot of unrenovated bungalows in Southeast and North Portland. Galvanized corrodes from the inside; the pipe narrows with mineral buildup until pressure drops to a trickle, and it eventually rusts through. If your water pressure has dropped over the years and your water runs rusty-colored after the house sits unused, that's galvanized talking.
Polybutylene ("poly-b") — gray or blue plastic pipe installed in a lot of Portland-metro construction and remodels from the late 1970s through the mid-1990s. It was cheap and fast to install, and it fails from the inside out in ways that don't always show until a fitting lets go. Insurers in Oregon are increasingly asking about it at renewal, which is often what actually gets homeowners calling.
Copper with pinhole leaks — Portland's water is treated but on the soft, slightly acidic side, and over decades that chemistry can pit copper pipe from the inside, especially in homes built in the 1970s–80s. One pinhole leak is a repair. Two or three in different rooms within a year or two is a sign the whole run of pipe is at the same age and condition, and more are coming.
If any of that matches your house — or you're renovating a kitchen or bath in an older Portland home and don't want new fixtures fighting old pipe — it's worth a look before you commit to a repair.
How the visit goes
First visit is a walkthrough, not a demo day. We look at what's accessible — crawlspace, basement, attic, under sinks — trace the pipe material and layout, and note how many fixtures and how many stories we're dealing with. That tells us whether this is a PEX repipe (most residential jobs) or copper (some jurisdictions, additions, or owner preference), and how much drywall access we'll need.
On repipe days, we work room by room so you're not without water in the whole house at once — typically water is off in a section during the day and restored by evening. We pull permits through the local jurisdiction, and the rough-in gets inspected before walls close. Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties each run their own permitting, and Portland proper has its own bureau process on top of that — we handle the paperwork so it isn't your problem.
Drywall patching is part of the job; we're not painters, but we leave patches ready for paint. Most whole-house repipes on a typical single-family home run two to five days depending on size, number of fixtures, and how much of the house is easily accessible versus finished on all sides.
What affects the scope and time
- House size and number of fixtures — more bathrooms and hose bibs means more supply lines and more access points.
- Access — a full unfinished basement or crawlspace goes faster than a house with finished ceilings below and finished walls on every run.
- Pipe material chosen — PEX is faster to run and more forgiving around framing; copper takes longer and is more common in commercial or code-specific situations.
- Water heater and shutoffs — if your water heater or main shutoff is also original and past its life, it often makes sense to address it in the same visit rather than open walls twice.
- Stories and layout — multi-story homes and additions with awkward chases add time for routing.
- Permit and inspection scheduling — jurisdiction inspection windows can add a day or two of calendar time even when the work itself is done.
We walk the house and give you a scope based on what we actually find, not a phone-quote guess.
What's specific to Portland-area houses and water
Portland's older neighborhoods — inner Southeast, North, Northeast, and much of the west side's pre-war stock — carry a lot of original galvanized pipe that's now 60-100 years past installation. Add the seismic factor: this region sits in earthquake country, and older galvanized and rigid connections are more prone to fatigue cracking at joints over time than PEX's more flexible runs.
The metro's slightly soft, acidic water is easier on PEX and slower to pit copper than harder municipal water elsewhere, but it hasn't been kind to the copper installed decades ago before treatment practices caught up. And with wet winters and freeze snaps that do happen most years, any exposed pipe in a crawlspace or unheated garage is worth a look while walls are already open.
Each jurisdiction we work in — the City of Portland, Multnomah County, Washington County, Clackamas County — has its own permit desk and inspection scheduling, and a repipe that isn't pulled and inspected properly can become a real problem at resale. We handle that as part of the job, not an add-on.
Why work with Sheltons Construction
We're a licensed Oregon plumbing contractor working Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties day in and day out, on everything from a single pinhole repair to a full repipe. We tell you what we find in your walls and crawlspace, give you a scope in plain terms, pull the permit, and get it inspected. If a water heater or main shutoff needs attention while we're already in the walls, we'll say so — and if it doesn't, we'll say that too.
What to do now
If you've got a leak right now, don't wait on a repipe conversation — see emergency plumbing or leak detection & pipe repair first. If you're planning ahead after a leak history, an insurance letter about poly-b, or a remodel, contact us for a walkthrough, or check the FAQ for common questions. While you're at it, if your water heater is original to the house, it's worth pairing that conversation with water heater repair & installation or tankless water heaters. If drains or sewer are also acting up, we also handle drain cleaning, hydro jetting, sewer camera inspection, and sewer line repair & replacement.
We work repipes across the metro: Portland, Beaverton, Hillsboro, Gresham, Tigard, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, and West Linn.