How to Quote a Whole-House Repipe | Reddit & LinkedIn

A repipe quote has five parts: plumbing labor, pipe and fittings, wall and ceiling access, the permit and inspections, and a contingency for what hides in an old house. The mistake that sinks fixed-price repipes is quoting the plumbing and forgetting the drywall and paint that access requires.

Start by mapping the system. Count fixtures, find the main, and trace the runs, then confirm what you are removing, whether galvanized, polybutylene, or failing copper, and what you are installing. That map is the backbone of an accurate estimate and a schedule the client can trust.

You cannot repipe a house without opening walls and ceilings, and that drywall cut-out, patch, texture, and paint is frequently the single largest non-plumbing cost. Decide where you must open and price it as its own scope, or state clearly whether the client or another trade handles patch and paint.

Access also drives labor time. A slab home with routing through the attic prices differently from a crawl-space or basement home. Walk the house and price the real access path, because a repipe quoted as if the walls are already open will lose you money on every job.

Estimate labor per fixture and per run for rough-in, plus the manifold or trunk-and-branch layout you are installing, over your loaded plumbing rate. PEX is generally faster to run than copper, while copper carries higher material cost and more skilled labor, so price the material the client actually chose.

List materials in detail: pipe, fittings, valves, hangers, and the permit, and add water heater replacement or pressure-regulation work if it is in scope. A detailed material list is what lets you defend the number when a client compares it to a vague one-line bid from a competitor.

Mark up materials 15 to 25% and add a contingency, usually 8 to 12%, for hidden conditions like buried code violations, slab routing surprises, or a section of wall that hides more than expected. Name the contingency and credit back what you do not use.

Tie payment to inspectable milestones: a deposit, a rough-in draw when the rough passes inspection, and a final payment at the passed final. ContractShield builds this quote from photos in about 25 minutes. Snap the job, say or type the scope, and the AI drafts labor and materials from your own price templates, line by line for you to approve. Every line shows whether the price came from your template or an AI estimate, and it never invents your labor rate or markup. Then the same tool invoices the milestones and chases any overdue balance for you, all for a flat 2% per job, 1% client and 1% contractor, capped at $250 per job, with no per-lead fees ever.