Free tool
San Francisco Repipe Cost Calculator
This repipe cost estimator gives a San Francisco-area budget for replacing the water supply piping in a house, with the permit line for your city, and the drivers that decide the price for flats, condo units and apartment buildings. No contact details needed, and the result changes as you answer.
Estimate your building
A handful of answers. The range depends only on the building type and the bathroom count; the permit and the service line are shown as their own lines, so you can see what each part of the cost is.
typical San Francisco-area range for a whole-house PEX repipe
$12,000 to $22,000
Multi-story or hard-to-reach houses can run higher. Before wall finishing, unless the quote includes it.
Copper: Copper usually costs more than PEX for the same home. Sources put the premium anywhere from about 10% to 60%, so no single copper figure is shown.
What moves the price
- Pushes toward the high end A garage or crawlspace under the house keeps the main runs reachable. Finished ceilings and a third floor mean more openings, which pushes toward the high end.
- Pushes toward the high end Every sink, toilet, tub, shower, hose bibb and appliance is a connection to make and test.
- Pushes toward the high end Plaster or drywall opened at fittings and turns, and who closes the openings. In buildings from before 1979, lead-safe work rules apply when painted surfaces are disturbed.
Permit: San Francisco DBI (Department of Building Inspection)
A whole-house repipe takes the residential plumbing permit. The fee is flat for a house.
| Plumbing permit, no underground workup to 3 inspections ($809 with underground work) | $549 |
|---|
- Each re-inspection is $259 per half hour.
- A licensed contractor (C-36 or C-4) files the permit on PermitSF.
Rebates and help
- No rebate or tax credit covers repiping inside a building.
- SFPUC offers free lead testing to owners it has notified about a galvanized customer-owned service line; otherwise its lead test is $25 per tap.
Not in the range
- Patching and painting, unless the quote lists it
- A new water heater or new fixtures
- Drain, waste and sewer lines, which are separate work
- The water service line from the meter, unless you add it above
These are budgeting figures, not a quote. The permit lines are the agencies' published fees; the price for your building comes after a walk-through that starts at the meter and the main shutoff.
How the estimate works
The ranges are typical San Francisco-area budgeting ranges for a whole-house PEX repipe, drawn from Bay Area project figures. They are not the contractors' rates and not a quote. No answer stretches them: there are no multipliers and no square-foot scaling, and multi-story or hard-to-reach houses can run above the top of the range.
The permit lines come from the DBI plumbing permit fee table and the Daly City master fee schedule. The only arithmetic is the Daly City fixture line: $14 times the fixture count you choose.
What you get for each answer
| Your answers | The estimator shows |
|---|---|
| House, 1 bathroom | $8,500 to $16,000, a typical San Francisco-area range for PEX |
| House, 2 bathrooms | $12,000 to $22,000, a typical San Francisco-area range for PEX |
| House, 3 bathrooms | $14,500 to $28,000, a typical San Francisco-area range for PEX |
| Copper, or not decided | The PEX range, with the note that copper usually costs more |
| Flat, condo unit or apartment building | No range: the drivers for that building and its permit facts, priced after a walk-through |
| Water service line added | $2,000 to $6,000, a national budgeting range, as its own line |
Never inside the range
- The permit, shown as its own line ($549 for a house in San Francisco)
- A new water heater, and new fixtures
- Patching and painting, unless the quote lists it
- Drain, waste and sewer lines
Questions about the estimator
Why does the estimator give a range for a house but not for a flat or an apartment building?
A range is published only where San Francisco-area project figures support one: $8,500 to $16,000 for a one-bath house, $12,000 to $22,000 for two baths and $14,500 to $28,000 for three, with PEX. Flats, condo units and apartment buildings vary too much with risers, occupied units and access, so the estimator shows what drives the price and leaves the number to a walk-through.
Why is there no separate copper price in the estimator?
Copper usually costs more than PEX for the same home, but sources put the premium anywhere from about 10% to 60%. A single copper figure would be false precision, so the estimator shows the PEX range and says that copper runs higher.
Does the San Francisco permit fee go up with the size of a house?
No. DBI charges a flat $549 residential plumbing permit for a house or a building of up to six units, or $809 when the work includes underground piping. Larger buildings move to categories set by unit count, from $1,045 for 7 to 12 units.
Get an Exact Quote
Send the building details and a walk-through turns this range into a price for your building. Your estimator answers are added to the request.
Hilltop Repipe San Francisco946 Geneva Ave, San Francisco, CA 94112office@hilltoprepipesanfrancisco.comSan Francisco, Daly City and South San FranciscoTell us about the building