# Repiping Homes in Daly City, CA > Repiping in Daly City: post-war houses, the city's Water Pipe Replacement permit and per-item fees, DWWR inspections and a Hetch Hetchy and well water blend. URL: https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/service-areas/daly-city/ Last Updated: October 30, 2026 - **Daly City Building Division** issues the plumbing permit (City of Daly City) - **2025 California Plumbing Code, as enforced by Daly City** sets the pipe materials and tests - **Daly City Department of Water and Wastewater Resources** supplies the water ## What starts a repipe in Daly City ### Brown water in a 1940s or 1950s house Houses from the first post-war decades can still hold galvanized lines. Rusty water after the house sits empty for a few days points toward them. ### A second pinhole leak in the copper Where a house was plumbed in copper, repeated pinholes on one run say something about that run. They do not prove the whole house is failing. ### Mains along a garage ceiling Where living space sits over the garage, the trunk lines usually run overhead there and can be replaced from below with fewer openings upstairs. ### The water heater is due as well A repipe reconnects the heater anyway. Daly City lists the water heater as its own item on the plumbing permit fee schedule. ## Services in Daly City ### [Whole-house repiping](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/whole-house-repiping/) Every hot and cold supply line from the main valve to each fixture, in PEX or copper, tested and inspected. Whole-house repiping ### [Galvanized pipe replacement](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/galvanized-pipe-replacement/) Old threaded steel supply pipe replaced with PEX or copper, with listed transitions, a flush for loosened rust and a city inspection. Galvanized pipe replacement ### [Copper repiping](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/copper-repiping/) New hot and cold supply in rigid copper tube, joined by solder or press fittings, with dielectric transitions where it meets steel. Copper repiping ### [Water heater replacement](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/water-heater-replacement/) Gas tank, heat pump or tankless, installed with the permit, straps, valves, venting and relief piping the code asks for. Water heater replacement A house on the Daly City side of the county line can share its form with houses in the Sunset and still answer to a different permit counter, a different water utility and a different fee schedule. [Hilltop Repipe San Francisco](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/) brings [whole-house repiping](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/whole-house-repiping/), [galvanized pipe replacement](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/galvanized-pipe-replacement/) and [copper repiping](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/copper-repiping/) to Daly City, working through licensed and insured contractors who pull the Daly City permit. Those differences change the paperwork and the inspections more than the pipe. Knowing them up front keeps a repipe from stalling between agencies. ## Built after the war Daly City’s housing is younger than San Francisco’s. Of its 35,922 housing units in the Census Bureau’s count, 8.9% were built in 1939 or earlier, 32.9% between 1940 and 1959 and 36.5% between 1960 and 1979, for a median year built of 1965. About 63% are single-unit buildings and roughly a quarter are in buildings of five or more units. That timeline matters for what is in the walls. Houses of the 1940s and 1950s straddle the change from galvanized steel to copper, so a house from those years may have either, or galvanized mains with copper added in a later remodel. Houses of the 1960s and 1970s are more likely to have been built with copper. The two fail differently: galvanized narrows from the inside as it rusts and leaks at its threads, while copper tends to fail at pinholes and joints, with no single cause behind every pinhole. The [rusty water guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/rusty-water-from-pipes/) and the [copper pinhole leaks guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/copper-pinhole-leaks/) cover each. Age is context only; tracing the pipe in the house is what tells. ## Houses over a garage, south of the county line San Francisco Planning’s context statement on Sunset District builders describes houses with living space over an integrated ground-story garage and says the format has no known examples outside San Francisco, “and later, Daly City.” Where a Daly City house follows that pattern, the main supply lines usually run along the garage ceiling, and a repipe can replace that trunk from below and bring each branch up to its fixture, with openings upstairs limited to where lines climb into walls. Where the garage has been finished into living space, the ceiling is opened and patched like any other. The [Sunset and Parkside page](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/service-areas/sunset-parkside/) describes the same layout across the line. ## A permit type named for the job Daly City’s Building Division takes permit applications through its online portal, which lists a “Water Pipe Replacement” application type for water pipe repair and replacement at a residential property, alongside separate types for drain repair, gas pipe repair and water heater installation. Quick permits are applied for there. Whether a particular whole-house repipe is issued as a quick permit or needs more review is not published, so it is confirmed with the Building Division for each address. The city also requires a Daly City business license to work there, and home improvement projects over $500 in labor and materials must be done by a licensed contractor. An owner who pulls their own permit signs the city’s owner-builder disclosure. ## Fees counted by the item San Francisco charges a plumbing permit by category; Daly City builds it from items. Its fee schedule sets plumbing permit issuance at $101, then adds $56.50 for each installation, alteration or repair of water piping or water treating equipment, $14 per plumbing fixture and $28 per water heater or vent. An electrical permit, if the bonding of remaining metal pipe needs electrical work, has its own $101 issuance fee. How many water-piping items a given repipe counts as is set when the permit is issued, so the permit line in a Daly City estimate is itemized rather than a flat figure. ## Two inspecting agencies Inside the house, the Building Division inspects. Its residential guidelines call for a rough plumbing, or top-out, inspection after the supply piping is installed and tested and before walls are covered, an under-floor inspection before floor sheathing goes down, and a final once fixtures work. Outside the house it is different: all plumbing beyond the building envelope, including the sewer lateral, is inspected by the Department of Water and Wastewater Resources, and water service inspections are listed among its utility inspections. A repipe that also replaces the line from the meter to the house therefore has two agencies to schedule. The pressure test the state code requires, at least 15 minutes at working pressure or 50 psi of air where the pipe allows it, happens before the rough inspection. [Water service line replacement](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/water-service-line-replacement/) covers that outside run. DWWR also turns water off at the meter on request, around the clock, and asks owners not to operate the meter themselves, since a damaged meter or service can become the owner’s cost. ## Water from Hetch Hetchy and from wells Daly City’s tap water is a blend. Its latest Consumer Confidence Report puts SFPUC’s Hetch Hetchy supply at about 60% of average daily demand and local groundwater at about 40%, pumped from Westside Basin wells averaging about 300 feet deep, three of the city’s five wells in service. The report’s table of non-regulated minerals describes the SFPUC-supplied water, so it gives no hardness figure for the blended tap water, and none is assumed here. Lead monitoring is clean: at 50 homes sampled, none exceeded the lead or copper action level, and the city reports no known lead service lines in its system. A Daly City repipe is a decision about the age and material of the house’s own pipe, not about lead in the street. ## What changes, and what doesn’t, at the county line San Francisco’s local plumbing amendments, such as a shutoff for each dwelling unit and air chambers at quick-closing valves, are San Francisco’s. Daly City enforces the 2025 California Plumbing Code, and any amendments of its own are confirmed before the scope is written. San Francisco’s Rent Board rules and SFPUC’s service-line letters do not reach Daly City either. Much stays the same. The state code still lists PEX and copper for water distribution, requires dielectric unions where dissimilar metals meet in housing, calls for a pressure regulator and expansion tank where static pressure exceeds 80 psi, and requires water heaters to be strapped in their upper and lower thirds. The Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s asbestos rule covers Daly City as it does San Francisco, so textured or skim-coated walls can need sampling before they are opened. The [PEX vs copper guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/pex-vs-copper/) compares the two materials. ## Pricing a Daly City repipe A Daly City house follows the same typical San Francisco-area range as one across the line: about $8,500 to $16,000 for a one-bath whole-house PEX repipe, $12,000 to $22,000 for two baths and $14,500 to $28,000 for three, with multi-story or hard-access homes running higher and copper usually costing more. The permit line is Daly City’s itemized fee rather than DBI’s. The [repipe cost guide](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/repiping-cost/) explains what moves a price within the range. ## Neighborhoods and coverage - Westlake - Serramonte - Southern Hills - Crocker - Bayshore ### Landmarks - Serramonte Center - Westlake Shopping Center - Mussel Rock Park - San Bruno Mountain ### Routes - I-280 - CA-1 - John Daly Boulevard - Mission Street / El Camino Real - Daly City BART ## Daly City questions ### How much does a whole-house repipe cost in Daly City? The same typical San Francisco-area range applies: about $8,500 to $16,000 for a one-bath PEX repipe, $12,000 to $22,000 for two baths and $14,500 to $28,000 for three, with copper usually higher. The permit line is built differently, from Daly City's $101 issuance fee plus per-item charges such as $56.50 for each water-piping item. ### Does Daly City have a permit type for replacing water pipes? Yes. The city's online permit portal lists a Water Pipe Replacement application, described as water pipe repair and replacement at a residential property. Whether a whole-house repipe is issued as a quick permit or needs more review is confirmed with the Building Division for each address. ### Who inspects the water line outside a Daly City house? The Department of Water and Wastewater Resources, not the Building Division. Daly City's inspection guidelines assign all plumbing outside the building envelope to DWWR, so a repipe that also replaces the line to the house has a second agency to schedule. ### Are there lead service lines in Daly City's water system? Daly City reports no known lead service lines in its distribution system, and in its latest round of tap monitoring at 50 homes none exceeded the lead or copper action level. That puts the focus of a Daly City repipe on the age and condition of the house's own pipe. ### Do San Francisco's per-unit shutoff rules apply to a Daly City duplex? Not directly. The rule that each unit get its own shutoff is a San Francisco amendment to the state code. Daly City enforces the California Plumbing Code, and any local amendments it adds are confirmed with the Building Division before the scope is written. ## Related guides - Cost Guide [How much does it cost to repipe a house in San Francisco?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/repiping-cost/)Typical San Francisco-area ranges for a whole-house repipe by number of baths, what sits inside the price, the permit fees by city, the programs that help and why two quotes for the same house can differ. - Learn [What causes pinhole leaks in copper pipes?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/copper-pinhole-leaks/)There is no single cause. Water chemistry, flow speed, workmanship, sediment and electrical conditions can each thin a copper wall until it opens, and where the leaks appear is the most useful clue to which one is at work. - Learn [Why is rusty water coming from my faucet?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/rusty-water-from-pipes/)Brown water has three usual sources: the utility's mains, the water heater and old galvanized pipe. Which taps, which side and how long it lasts tell them apart before anyone opens a wall. - Learn [How long does it take to repipe a house?](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/how-long-does-repiping-take/)A repipe runs in stages: scope, permit, new lines, cut-over, test, inspection, patching. The pipe work is only one of them, and the building decides how long each one takes. ## Nearby service areas - City and County of San Francisco [Sunset and Parkside](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/service-areas/sunset-parkside/)San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (PermitSF) permits, water from San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). - City of South San Francisco [South San Francisco](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/service-areas/south-san-francisco/)South San Francisco Building Division permits, water from California Water Service (Cal Water), Bayshore District. - City and County of San Francisco [Mission and Noe Valley](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/service-areas/mission-noe-valley/)San Francisco Department of Building Inspection (PermitSF) permits, water from San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC).