How the repipe estimates are made

The formula

Every estimate on the site comes from one formula. First we count fixtures. A fixture is anything a supply line feeds: a toilet, sink, tub, shower, dishwasher, washing machine or hose bib. A house starts at 5 fixtures (kitchen sink, dishwasher, washing machine and two hose bibs), then adds 3 for each full bath and 2 for each half bath. The count is kept between 4 and 40.

The estimate is the fixture count times a per-fixture installed price, plus a plumbing permit. The low end uses the low per-fixture price and the low permit fee, the high end uses the high price and the high fee, and the midpoint sits halfway between. All three are rounded to the nearest hundred dollars. The per-fixture price covers pipe, fittings and labor as the plumbers we cite describe it.

The reference house

Headline figures are for a reference house with 2 full baths and no half baths, which is 11 fixtures, repiped in PEX. Nationally that comes to $4,000–$7,500. The repipe cost calculator runs the same formula for any bath count, either material and any state.

Sources^1,2,3

Per-fixture prices

Prices come from plumbing companies that publish what they charge for a repipe. We keep the sentence that states each price, one observation per company per material. When a company publishes a whole-house price for a stated number of baths, we divide it by the fixture count from the formula above.

A national band takes the median of the observed low prices and the median of the observed high prices, rounded to $10. We publish a band only with at least 6 PEX observations from at least 4 states, and at least 4 copper observations. Today the national PEX band is $360–$660 per fixture from 8 plumbers, and the copper band is $730–$1,070 per fixture from 5. A state gets its own bands when two or more of its plumbing companies publish a repipe price. Each band is built by the same rule from that state's prices for the material, even when only one company prices that material. Texas, California and Florida have their own bands today. In California and Florida the copper band rests on one company's price.

Sources^{1,4,5,6,7,8,9,10}

The wage index and its limit

Every other state's band is the national band scaled by that state's mean hourly wage for plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters, divided by the national mean of $34.70, from the Bureau of Labor Statistics May 2025 release. The scaled band is rounded to $10.

The index is applied to the whole installed price, including pipe and fittings. Pipe costs about the same in every state while labor does not, so the index stretches the gap between states a little more than it should. The stretch is larger for copper, where the pipe is a bigger share of the price. State pages that use the index say so.

Sources¹¹

Permit fees

Each state's permit line comes from one published city or county fee schedule, named on the state page. Where a schedule charges a base fee plus a fee per fixture, we compute the fee for the 11-fixture reference house and keep the fee rule as published. Across the 16 jurisdictions we have read, the reference-house fee runs from $37 to $275. Your city or county may charge more or less than the one we cite.

Sources^2,3

Housing age

State pages show the median year homes were built and the share built before 1960, from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates. Age is context only. It does not enter the estimate, and it does not tell you what pipe a particular house has.

Sources¹²

What the estimate leaves out

The estimate covers a full repipe of the supply lines in a house. The published prices behind it do not say what foundation they assume. In a house on a concrete slab, the new lines are often run through the attic or rerouted, which can cost more than the estimate. The estimate does not price:

• extra access work in houses with three or more stories;
• CPVC pipe;
• drain, waste and vent lines;
• partial repipes of one bathroom or one run of pipe;
• wall and ceiling repair after the plumber finishes, which some plumbers include in their price and others charge separately.

States with no published repipe prices and no permit schedule we could read have no page yet.

Other published estimates

Some pages show repipe cost ranges from cost estimate websites in a separate table, labeled with the publisher's name. Those figures are for comparison. They never feed an estimate on this site.

How often figures are re-read

We re-read plumber price pages, permit fee schedules and the wage release at least once a year, and when the Bureau of Labor Statistics or the Census Bureau publishes a new release. Each state's price file carries the date it was last rebuilt, and each page shows the date it last changed. Every source is listed with the date we read it on the sources page. The national figures are on the cost to repipe a house.