How long does a repipe take, and what happens each day?

A whole-house repipe sounds like a house torn apart for a week. In practice it is a series of small drywall openings, one long day without water, a visit from the inspector, and a patch crew. On a single-story slab home in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, or Lehigh Acres, the pattern is the same from house to house. What changes is how many bathrooms you have and how fast the inspection gets scheduled.

Here is how a typical repipe runs, day by day, and what you do on each of those days. Treat it as the shape of the job, not a promise. Your estimate should give the schedule for your house.

Before the crew arrives

The estimate visit sets everything up. The plumber counts fixtures, finds the water heater, the main shutoff, the washer box, and the attic access, and names the material and fitting system that will go in. The permit is pulled before the first day of work.

Your prep list is short and worth doing the night before:

• Clear under every sink and the cabinet floor, in the kitchen and every bathroom.
• Clear a path to the water heater, the washer, the attic hatch, and the wall behind each toilet.
• Move furniture a few feet off any wall that backs a bathroom or the kitchen. The crew will cover what stays.
• Empty the closet under the attic hatch. Insulation dust falls when the hatch opens.
• Plan for pets. A closed bedroom with no fixture in it, a neighbor, or a day at daycare. Doors will be open and strangers will be walking through.

Day one: protection and the attic

The crew arrives early, especially in summer. Attic work in Southwest Florida is done in the morning for a reason, and a crew that starts at seven is doing you a favor.

Floors get covered from the door to each work area. Furniture gets plastic. Then the crew marks and opens the drywall at each fixture: behind the shower valve, under or behind the sinks, behind the toilets, at the washer box, and at the water heater. The openings are as small as the work allows.

With the openings made, the new lines go in. On a slab home they go up the wall at the water heater, run across the attic, and drop down inside the walls to each fixture. Most of day one is spent in the attic, and on many jobs the old lines stay live so you have water that night. Ask; it depends on the house.

What you do on day one: stay out of the work rooms, keep the pets contained, and expect noise from drills and saws. Nothing you need to decide.

Day two: the changeover, and the day without water

This is the day the water is off. The crew cuts and caps the old lines at the main and the water heater, connects the new system, and reconnects every fixture. Depending on the plumber and the house, the new lines meet at a central manifold with a labeled valve for each run, or in a trunk-and-branch layout like the old system. New shutoff valves go in at each fixture, along with new supply lines to faucets and toilets, and the water heater and hose bibs are tied in.

Then the system is filled, the air is bled out at each faucet, and the whole thing sits under pressure while the crew checks every joint. Water is usually back on that evening.

What you do on day two:

• Fill a few pitchers and a bucket for flushing before the crew turns the water off.
• Plan to be out for dinner, or plan a simple one.
• When the water returns, unscrew the aerators, run cold water at every fixture until it clears, then hot. A little cloudiness or a few sputters of air are normal for a day.

Waiting for the inspector

The walls stay open until the inspector has seen the new lines under pressure. In Lee and Collier County that is a required step, and it protects you: an inspector looking at every run before it is closed is the reason a repipe does not show up as a ceiling stain a year later.

The wait is the least predictable part of the whole job. It can be the next morning or several days out. The house is fully usable in the meantime, with small openings behind fixtures. Do not have anyone patch them early.

Patch, texture, and paint

After the inspection passes, the openings are closed, taped, mudded, and textured to match the wall. Knockdown and orange peel, the two textures in most homes here, need drying time between coats, so this is two or three short visits over several days rather than one long one. Painting is often left to the homeowner or a painter, and your estimate should say exactly where the patch work stops: taped and mudded, textured, or primed and painted.

Where the line is for a homeowner

None of the plumbing in a repipe is a DIY project. It is permitted work, it is inspected, it involves attic work in heat that hospitalizes people every summer, and one bad joint in a wall is a slow leak you will not find for months. The parts that are yours are the prep, the pets, the flushing when the water returns, and paying attention for the first few weeks: a valve that drips at the handle, a fixture with weak flow, a spot on a ceiling. Report those right away; they are quick fixes under a new system.

If you are planning a repipe and want the day-by-day for your own house, send us the year it was built, the number of bathrooms, and a photo of the pipes at the water heater. We will walk you through the schedule, what will be open, and for how long.