# Do I Need to Repipe My House?

> Do you need to repipe your San Francisco house or building? 10 plain questions about rusty water, pinholes, pressure and SFPUC letters sort out the next step.

URL: https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/tools/repiping-assessment/

Free tool

Whether you need to repipe a San Francisco house, a building of flats or an apartment building comes down to what the pipe is and what it is doing. Answer 10 plain questions about what you can see or remember. Nothing to open or test, and nothing is sent.

## Answer the questions

Answer from memory, a look at the meter or the water heater, or an inspection report. "Not sure" is a fine answer. A leak happening now shows its result straight away.

## How the result is decided

The rules run in a fixed order and the first one that matches decides the result, so the same answers always give the same result. The result lists the answers that decided it.

| If you said | The result |
| --- | --- |
| Water leaking now | Act now: limit the damage and call a plumber. This outranks every other answer. |
| Galvanized, or a gray and copper mix, plus constant rusty water, weaker flow upstairs or two or more leaks | Plan to replace the piping; a partial for the galvanized that is left when the mix shows one sign. |
| Copper with two or more leaks | Plan to replace the piping, after the walk-through looks for the cause. |
| An SFPUC or utility letter about the service line | Diagnose first, starting with the service line. |
| Weak water on every floor | Diagnose first: find where the pressure is lost. |
| One symptom: rusty water at first draw or from the hot tap only, one weak fixture, one leak, a damp spot | Diagnose first: one symptom has more than one possible cause. |
| A kitchen or bathroom remodel planned | Plan the piping with the remodel. |
| Not sure what the pipe is, in a building from before 1980 or of unknown age | Diagnose first: find out what the pipe is. |
| None of the above | No repipe indicated yet. |

## What this check cannot tell you

It cannot see inside walls. It does not know how far galvanized pipe has corroded or where a leak will come next. Those answers come from a walk-through that starts at the meter and the main shutoff.

It does not say whether any piping is safe. Brown water, low pressure and leaks each have more than one possible cause, and the service line, a valve or a water heater can produce the same signs as old piping. That is why several results say to diagnose first.

Repiping replaces the water supply piping. Drain and sewer lines are separate work and are not part of this check.

[Next: estimate the cost for your building](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/tools/repiping-cost-estimator/)

[How to identify your water pipes](https://hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.com/guide/how-to-identify-pipe-material/)

## Questions about the check

### Can a plumber tell whether a building needs repiping without opening walls?

Enough to plan the job, yes. The walk-through starts at the meter and the main shutoff, where the pipe is exposed, often in the garage, and compares flow at the lowest and highest fixtures. With the leak history, that shows whether the piping or something upstream is the problem. Walls are opened later, during the work, at fittings and turns.

### Does an inspection note about galvanized pipe mean the building has to be repiped?

Not by itself. The note records what the inspector saw, not how far the pipe has corroded inside. Galvanized with brown water, weaker flow upstairs or repeated leaks points to planning a repipe soon. Galvanized with none of those can be replaced on your own schedule, ideally before a remodel or a sale rather than after a failure.

### What happens after the check says to plan a repipe?

A walk-through, then a written quote. The quote should list the wall openings and who closes them, where old pipe stays, the material, the permit, the working days and the water-off windows. During the work the new piping is pressure tested before the walls close and flushed after cutover.