# Condo and HOA Repiping in San Francisco

> Condo repiping in San Francisco for single owners, HOA boards and TIC buildings: unit vs riser scope, a DBI permit per unit, shutoffs and lead-safe rules.

URL: https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/condo-hoa-repiping/

One unit's branches or the whole association's system, with the boundary between owner pipe and shared pipe drawn in the scope.

Last Updated: October 30, 2026

- **1 permit per unit** DBI requires a separate plumbing permit for each condominium unit
- **$290 or $549** DBI permit categories a single condo unit's repipe is filed under, confirmed per project
- **3 business days** Notice to occupants before lead-safe work in a pre-1979 building, under SF Existing Building Code Section 327
- **606.3** The San Francisco code section that requires shutoffs for each dwelling unit

A condo repipe can mean two different jobs: replacing the supply pipe inside one unit, from its shutoff to its fixtures, or replacing the shared system for the whole association. [Hilltop Repipe San Francisco](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/) offers and manages condo and HOA repiping in San Francisco, Daly City and South San Francisco, for individual owners, association boards and tenancy-in-common buildings, with the work carried out by licensed and insured contractors under a permit for each unit.

What separates this from an [apartment building repipe](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/apartment-building-repiping/) is who decides. In an apartment building, one owner signs the scope. In a condominium, the board decides about the pipe the association maintains and each owner decides about the pipe inside their own unit. The line between the two comes from the association’s governing documents, so a good scope draws it before anyone compares prices.

## What happens on the first visit

For a single unit, the walk-through starts at the point where the unit’s water leaves the shared riser. It looks for a unit shutoff, measures static pressure and flow there, and maps the branches to the kitchen, each bathroom, the laundry and any wet bar. Wall types are noted at each fixture: plaster, drywall, tile, or cabinetry that has to come out. The water heater is checked, whether the unit has its own or shares one. The owner is asked what the CC&Rs say about work hours, access and approval.

For an association, the visit adds the building: the main, every riser and the units each one feeds, the common areas the work passes through, and the board’s contact for access. The result is a written scope and price that separates association pipe from unit pipe line by line, names the material and the openings in each unit, lists the permits and says who patches what.

## Where the unit’s pipe ends and the association’s begins

Plumbing in a condo building has a natural split. The main and the risers serve many units; the branches beyond a unit’s shutoff serve one. Who maintains each part is set by the CC&Rs and the association’s maintenance rules, which differ from building to building. Where a unit has no shutoff of its own, there may be no obvious boundary at all, and the first leak in a wall turns into a question about whose pipe it is.

The scope settles it on paper. It names the exact valve or fitting where the unit’s work begins, lists what stays old on the other side, and keeps the association’s work and the owner’s work as separate lines. That matters for payment, for approvals and for any later claim. A unit repipe also leaves the building’s risers as old as they were, and the scope should say so plainly. The [partial repiping](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/partial-repiping/) page covers jobs that stop at a defined boundary.

## Repiping one unit

A unit-only repipe replaces every branch from the unit’s shutoff to its fixtures and leaves the riser alone. San Francisco code requires shutoffs for each dwelling unit and a control valve ahead of every fixture, and a unit that is remodeled has to meet those rules, so a valve missing at the riser connection is usually added as part of the job.

The connection to the riser needs care. Where new copper meets an older galvanized riser, San Francisco requires a dielectric or insulating fitting, or a brass nipple at least 6 inches long, to stop galvanic corrosion at the joint. Where the unit goes to [PEX](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/pex-repiping/) between metal risers, the electrical code allows the unit’s isolated metal piping to be bonded at the unit’s own panel, and the scope flags that for a licensed electrician to confirm.

Expectations need care too. New branches remove any restriction inside the unit, but water still reaches the unit through the riser. If the riser is galvanized and narrowed by rust, the unit’s flow stays limited by it. Measuring pressure and flow at the shutoff before work tells the owner which problem they are paying to fix. The [low water pressure guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/low-water-pressure/) explains the difference.

DBI requires a separate permit for each condominium unit. A single unit’s repipe is filed as Category 1P at $290 or 2PA at $549, depending on the work, and the category is confirmed for the project. Each re-inspection costs $259 per half hour.

## Repiping the whole association

A building-wide repipe is a board decision and usually follows the same steps as any large building project: a scope the board can compare bids against, a schedule each owner can plan around, and a plan for entering every unit. The [resources page](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/resources/) has a quote comparison checklist that helps keep bids on the same footing. The work itself runs like an apartment repipe: main first, then one riser at a time, with each unit’s branches cut over in a planned window. Buildings of four or more stories need a backflow assembly near the meter, and shared water heaters need valves so each unit’s hot water can be isolated.

Owners often want work inside their own unit while the walls are open, such as moving a fixture or adding a valve. The scope keeps those items in the owner’s column so the association’s cost stays clean. Permits follow the per-unit rule, so a building of eight units involves eight unit permits along with any common-area scope.

Routing deserves the board’s attention before approval. Homeowners report an association repipe of a four-unit building that moved the lines from under a slab into the attic, opened nine walls in one unit, and left cold taps running warm in summer afterward because the new pipe crossed a hot space. A board can ask for the route and the openings in each unit before it votes, and for how lines passing through hot or exposed spaces will be insulated or kept out of them.

## Tenancy-in-common buildings

In a tenancy-in-common building the owners share title to the whole property, and their TIC agreement plays the role CC&Rs play in a condominium. Repipe decisions, cost sharing and access follow that agreement. The permit rule does not change: DBI’s fee table requires a separate permit for each condominium unit or existing apartment unit, so a TIC building’s repipe is filed unit by unit. Where one of the units is rented out, the [apartment building repiping](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/apartment-building-repiping/) page covers the Rent Board rules that apply to occupied rental units.

## Lead, asbestos and shared hallways

Paint in a building built before 1979 is presumed to contain lead. Section 327 of the San Francisco Existing Building Code exempts interior work in an owner-occupied unit from its interior requirements, but debris still must not migrate to common areas or outside. A rented unit, a hallway or a stairwell gets the full treatment: plastic containment, a posted sign, three business days’ notice to occupants and HEPA cleanup. In a building of four or fewer units, opening textured or skim-coated walls can require asbestos sampling under Air District rules before work starts. The [guide to how invasive repiping is](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/how-invasive-is-repiping/) shows what the openings look like.

## Insurance and paying for it

Two policies may be involved: the association’s master policy and the unit owner’s own. Insurance generally addresses sudden water damage under the terms of the policy rather than planned pipe replacement, so check both before counting on either. The [insurance guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/homeowners-insurance-repiping/) explains the difference. How an association funds a building repipe is the board’s decision under its documents.

The price itself comes from the unit or the building: unit size and bathroom count, whether the riser connection is reachable, the finishes opened, association rules on work hours and common-area protection, lead-safe setup and the per-unit permits. No published local price range for a condo unit holds up, so each one is priced from the walk-through. The [repipe cost guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/repiping-cost/) covers the drivers, and the [repipe vs repair guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/repipe-vs-repair/) helps decide whether one recurring leak justifies a unit repipe.

## Condos in Daly City and South San Francisco

Outside San Francisco, the city’s own plumbing amendments, including the per-unit shutoff rule, do not apply. South San Francisco enforces the 2025 California codes and prices plumbing permits per trade by job valuation; Daly City’s Building Division lists a “Water Pipe Replacement” permit type and charges $101 to issue a plumbing permit plus $56.50 per water piping item. Requirements for a specific condo building are confirmed with the city that issues the permit. The [Daly City](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/service-areas/daly-city/) and [South San Francisco](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/service-areas/south-san-francisco/) pages cover each city.

## What's included

- A written boundary between unit pipe and association pipe, valve by valve
- Static pressure and flow measured at the unit's shutoff, so unit and riser problems are told apart
- New branches from the unit shutoff to each fixture, in PEX or copper as the scope names
- A unit shutoff and a control valve at every fixture where they are missing
- Listed transitions where new pipe meets an older riser
- An access and work-hours plan that follows the association's rules
- Protection for hallways, elevators and other common areas
- Lead-safe containment where the building was built before 1979
- Pressure test, flush and city inspection before walls close
- A separate DBI permit for each unit worked on
- A list of openings in each unit and who patches each one

## One condo unit or the whole association

|  | Unit-only repipe | Association-wide repipe |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Who decides | The unit owner, within the association's rules | The board, under the governing documents |
| What is replaced | Branches from the unit shutoff to its fixtures | Main, risers and, where the scope says so, every unit's branches |
| What stays old | The riser and main serving the unit | Only what the scope lists as retained |
| Permits | One DBI permit for the unit | A permit for each unit, plus any common-area scope |
| Water off | The unit only, once a shutoff exists | One riser at a time across the building |
| Watch for | Low flow that comes from an old riser, not the unit | Routes through hot or finished spaces in units |

## Related resources

- Learn [Do you need a permit to repipe a house in San Francisco?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/san-francisco-repiping-permit/)Yes, and the permit shapes the job: who files it, which fee category applies, when the inspector comes and what the inspector looks for before a single wall is closed.
- Learn [How invasive is repiping a house?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/how-invasive-is-repiping/)A repipe opens walls in planned places, not along every pipe. Where the old lines run, what the walls are made of and how the building is stacked decide how many openings there are and how much patching follows.
- Learn [Does homeowners insurance cover repiping?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/homeowners-insurance-repiping/)The line most policies draw between sudden water damage and pipe that wore out, what that means after a leak in an older San Francisco building, and how a planned repipe actually gets paid for.
- Learn [Why is my water pressure low in San Francisco?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/low-water-pressure/)Low pressure can start at the street, the service line, a valve, a pressure regulator, the pipe inside the walls or the fixture itself. In a city of hills and old galvanized pipe, measuring before blaming is the whole game.
- Decision Guide [Repipe vs repair: when is a full repipe worth it?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/repipe-vs-repair/)A repair fixes a defect. A repipe replaces a material that is failing everywhere. The work is telling the two apart, and the evidence is in the pipe, the pattern of leaks and the flow.

## How a repipe runs

1. The call Describe the building Building type, floors, number of baths and units, the pipe you can see in the garage or basement, and what you have noticed.
2. Walk-through Map the pipe The supply is traced from the meter: pipe map, wall types, the main valve, the water heater and where access is easiest.
3. Scope Written scope and price Material, layout, every planned opening, the permit and who patches what, on paper before work is booked.
4. The work Permit, new lines, pressure test The permit is filed, new lines are run while the old ones still serve, fixtures are switched over and the system is pressure tested.
5. Sign-off Inspection, then patching The city inspector signs off with the pipe still visible. Then the openings are closed.

## What this work looks like

New unit shutoff ball valve with a blank tag inside an opened hallway wall of a San Francisco condominium

Copper riser in an opened condominium wall with a tee takeoff through a ball valve to a red PEX branch

Floor runner and zippered dust sheeting across a doorway in a San Francisco condominium during a repipe

Opening behind a removed vanity with red and blue PEX lines to two shutoff valves in a San Francisco condominium bathroom

## Condo and HOA repiping questions

### Who pays for a leaking riser in a San Francisco condo building?

Whoever the association's governing documents assign it to. The CC&Rs, not the plumbing code, decide who maintains a riser that serves several units and who maintains the branch serving one. Read the maintenance provisions and ask the board before authorizing work on pipe outside your unit's shutoff.

### Can I repipe my condo unit without the HOA's approval?

Check the CC&Rs first. The permit for your unit is filed with DBI by a licensed contractor, but the association's documents can require board approval, set work hours and control anything that touches the riser or common areas. A unit repipe stops at the unit's shutoff, so the riser stays the association's decision.

### Does a condo unit need its own water shutoff in San Francisco?

Yes. The San Francisco Plumbing Code requires shutoff valves in each dwelling unit so its hot and cold water can be turned off without cutting water to other units, and any unit that is remodeled must be brought up to that rule. Many older buildings were built without them, so a unit repipe is the natural time to add one.

### Will repiping my condo fix low pressure if the building's risers are old?

Not necessarily. New branches remove any restriction inside the unit, but water still arrives through the riser. If that riser is galvanized and narrowed by rust, flow stays limited until it is replaced. Static pressure and flow at the unit's shutoff are measured first to tell the two apart.

### What makes one condo repipe cost more than another?

Unit size and bathroom count, whether the riser connection is reachable, the finishes opened, the association's work-hour and protection rules, lead-safe setup in a pre-1979 building and the per-unit DBI permit. There is no published local price range for a condo unit that holds up, so each one is priced from a walk-through.

## Related services

### Apartment building repiping

Mains, risers and unit branches replaced in occupied flats and apartment buildings, one stack at a time, with a permit for each unit.

Apartment building repiping

### Partial repiping

A defined part of the supply system replaced, such as the hot side, one floor, one bathroom group or one flat, with the old pipe that stays written down.

Partial repiping

### PEX repiping

New hot and cold supply in crosslinked polyethylene tubing, routed through joists and chases with fewer openings, tested and inspected.

PEX repiping