You’ve been dreading this. Someone’s going to cut into your walls, and you have no idea how long you’ll be living inside a construction zone. Fair worry. Here’s the honest answer: most whole-house repipes run 2 to 5 working days from start to finish. Not weeks. Not a month. And your water comes back on every single evening, so you’re never camping in your own home.
We’re Plumbing Express, a dedicated repipe specialist serving Metro Atlanta since 1989. We’ve completed 180-plus whole-house repipes across the metro in the past year alone, and thousands of homes over the years. This page walks you through exactly what those days look like, hour by hour, so nothing about the process is a surprise.
The short answer, and why it splits into two phases
A whole-house repipe runs in two phases, and knowing that is the key to understanding the timeline.
The plumbing takes 1 to 2 days. The sheetrock repair and paint takes another 1 to 3 days. Add them together and most repipes take 2 to 5 working days, depending on the size and complexity of your home. Your water is on each evening throughout, and you get the expected schedule before we lift a single tool.
Why does this matter? Because a lot of pages online quote just the plumbing phase and call it the whole job. That’s how people end up thinking a repipe is a one-day miracle or a two-week nightmare. Neither is true. The pipe goes in fast. The finish work that puts your walls back is its own separate skill, and we don’t rush it.
What a repipe actually is
A whole-house repipe means installing a brand-new water supply system for your home. New pipe, new valves, new fittings, with fresh hot and cold lines run to every fixture as one connected system, tested before we’re done.
It is not just swapping old pipe for new in the same holes. We run a new supply system regardless of where the old one sat. The new lines often follow a similar path, and we open some walls for access, but most of the old line stays right where it is, abandoned in place. That’s how a repipe stays fast and clean instead of turning into a demolition project.
The 2-to-5 day repipe, day by day
Day one: prep and the plumbing goes in
We start by protecting your house. Plastic sheeting over walls and furniture for dust control. Floor coverings down for any wood floors. Then we make strategic cuts in the walls and ceilings for access, and we set that drywall aside carefully. This is the part our customers rave about. As one verified Yelp review from Cindy A. put it: “Each sheetrock cut-out was numbered and neatly stacked for the next day. All pipes were replaced and water was back on by dinnertime that first day.”
That’s the normal experience, not the exception. We run the new hot and cold lines, connect them to your fixtures and shower valves, and install the new components that ride along with a repipe: all-new emergency stops, hose bibbs, a new PRV, a new thermal expansion tank, and new water lines to your water heater. On a smaller home, the plumbing wraps up here.
Day two: finishing the pipe and pressure testing
On a larger or multi-story home, the plumbing spills into a second day. Vertical runs between floors take longer than a single-level ranch, so a two-story home with several bathrooms lands here. Once every line is connected, we test the whole system under pressure before anyone touches the drywall. If something isn’t right, we find it now, with the walls still open, not after.
Water back on by evening. Every day. That’s the promise that surprises the homeowners who dreaded this most.
Days two through five: drywall and paint
Now the finish phase. This is where a lot of companies leave you hanging, waiting on a separate drywall contractor’s calendar. We don’t. Our drywall and paint work is done by our own in-house restoration people, working from the same job scope as the pipe crew. No handoff, no second company to chase.
Those numbered sheetrock pieces go back in, get mudded, sanded, and painted to match. One paint color goes faster. A house with several custom colors takes more careful matching and adds time. When we walk you through at the end, the goal is simple. Like a lot of our customers tell us, you can’t find where the work was done.
How long does it take to repipe a house by size
The size of your home is the single biggest factor in the timeline. Here’s roughly how it breaks down.
- Smaller home, 1 to 2 bathrooms: Plumbing often done in a single day. Total job frequently lands at the 2 to 3 day end of the range.
- Mid-size home, 3 to 4 bathrooms: Plumbing across 1 to 2 days, finish work 2 to 3 days. A solid 3 to 5 day project.
- Large home, 5-plus bathrooms or a big two-story: Full 2 days of plumbing, up to 3 days of restoration. This is the top of the range, and we’ve repiped homes around 10,000 square feet that run a little beyond it.
None of these are guesses on our end. We give you the expected schedule after a free in-home visit, and the number on the estimate is the number on the invoice.
What actually affects your repipe timeline
Two homes the same square footage can take different amounts of time. Here’s what moves the needle:
- Number of fixtures and how spread out they are. This is the real driver, more than raw square footage. Every sink, shower, toilet, washer, and icemaker is a connection.
- Number of stories. Vertical runs between floors take longer than a flat, single-level ranch.
- Foundation type. A slab needs more cuts than a home with a basement or crawlspace, where we have open access underneath.
- Island sinks on a slab. These can be the trickiest spot. We have an alternative connection method that doesn’t always require breaking the slab, which can save real time.
- Paint matching. One color, fast finish. Many custom colors, more careful work.
Living in your home during the repipe
You do not have to move out. That’s the headline most homeowners are looking for.
Your water is restored every evening, so you cook, shower, and go to bed normally through the whole project. During working hours there’s noise and dust, which is why we tape off and cover everything before we start. If someone in the home has an extreme sensitivity to dust or a serious medical condition, that’s a real conversation to have with us before we begin, and we’ll help you plan around it.
Here’s something worth knowing for after we leave. A repipe drains your whole system, dries it out for hours, and runs all new pipe. Older faucets and valves that sat wet and pressurized for years can occasionally act up afterward. A bit of debris in an aerator, low pressure at one fixture. It’s normal and minor. If the repipe stirs up a flow issue like that, we come back and take care of it. We don’t nickel and dime you after the fact. Other companies bill that callback as a brand-new service call. We don’t.
Where the timeline hits home in Metro Atlanta
We repipe across the whole metro, and demand clusters in certain places for a reason. Homes served by the Cobb County Water System see copper pinhole leaks group together, strongest in the older-copper neighborhoods of Marietta, Smyrna, Austell, and Powder Springs. Nearby homes tend to fail on similar timelines. It’s a pattern we’ve watched hold for years. We work across Cherokee, Cobb, Gwinnett, and the surrounding counties, from Woodstock and Canton down to Duluth, Lawrenceville, and Suwanee. See our full service areas to confirm we cover your neighborhood.
Polybutylene and certain earlier generations of PEX drive a lot of these jobs too. Not all PEX is a problem. Most of it performs well. But a pattern of repeated leaks tells you which kind you have, and once you’re paying for spot repair after spot repair, a repipe stops the cycle for good.
Frequently asked questions
How invasive is repiping a house?
It’s a big construction project, but a managed one, and less disruptive than most homeowners fear. We cover your walls, ceilings, and floors before we start, cut only where we need access, and number every piece of drywall so it goes back exactly where it came from. Your water is back on each evening, and when we’re done, most people can’t tell where we worked.
How much does it cost to repipe a house?
For most Metro Atlanta homes, a whole-house repipe runs $10,800 to $14,100, including sheetrock and paint match. That’s the range where the majority land, not the floor or the ceiling. Some homes cost a little less and larger homes cost more. The only way to get an exact number is a free in-home visit.
Do I need to move out during a repipe?
No. You stay in your home the entire time. We restore your water every evening, so you never lose the ability to shower, cook, or use your kitchen and bathrooms overnight.
Is one leak enough of a reason to repipe?
One leak in a failing pipe system is almost never the last. The first leak feels like bad luck. The third one is a pattern. If your home has polybutylene or a failing generation of PEX, the question isn’t whether the next leak comes, it’s where and when. A repipe stops you from throwing good money after bad on repeated repairs.
Ready to get your real timeline and price?
By the time most people are reading this, they already know what they want. They just want a number and a straight answer. We’ll give you both. Book a free in-home estimate and we’ll walk your home, inspect your water service line, and hand you a firm schedule and a fixed price. No pressure to move forward until you’re ready. Call Plumbing Express at (404) 236-6535 or start the free quote process online today.
