If your home was built before roughly 1960 and nobody has repiped it, there’s a good chance the supply lines are galvanized steel — and galvanized has a finite life that most of these homes reached some time ago.
How to tell what you have
Find an exposed section, usually at the water heater or under a sink, and scratch it lightly with a screwdriver.
- Silver-grey, magnetic, threaded fittings — galvanized steel.
- Copper-coloured underneath, soldered joints — copper.
- White, grey or blue plastic — PVC, CPVC or PEX.
A magnet is the quick test: it sticks to galvanized and not to copper.
Why galvanized fails
Galvanized pipe is steel with a protective zinc coating. That coating erodes from the inside over decades, and once it’s gone the steel corrodes. Rust builds inward, narrowing the bore — a pipe that started at three quarters of an inch can close to the diameter of a pencil.
Typical life is 40 to 60 years. A 1950s home with original supply is well past that.
Symptoms: brown or rusty water, especially on first use in the morning. Pressure that has faded gradually for years. One fixture with noticeably worse flow than the rest. Visible rust or bulging at threaded joints. Pinhole leaks appearing more frequently.
Copper has a life too
Copper is a large improvement, but it isn’t permanent. Depending on water chemistry and installation quality it runs 50 to 70 years, and it fails by pinhole corrosion — small perforations that appear in clusters once the pipe wall thins. Copper laid in a slab has the additional problem of abrasion against concrete.
The tell with copper: multiple pinhole leaks within a short period. One is bad luck; three in a year means the system is at the end of its life.
When repiping is the right call
- Rust-coloured water at any tap.
- Two or more leaks in the last twelve months.
- Pressure poor throughout the house rather than at one fixture.
- Galvanized supply confirmed and the home is 50+ years old.
- You’re renovating anyway — walls are open, and the marginal cost drops sharply.
Repeatedly patching a system in this state is the expensive path. Each repair buys months, and meanwhile you’re risking the water damage that comes with the next failure.
What repiping involves
Copper or PEX, run through walls, attic and crawlspaces. Most homes take two to four days. Access holes get cut in drywall and patched afterwards — ask whether the quote includes drywall repair and paint, because that’s the line item contractors most often leave out.
A permit is required, and there’s an inspection. Anyone proposing to skip it is telling you something about how they work.
Get an assessment
We’ll tell you honestly whether you need a repipe or a repair — plenty of homes we look at need neither yet. Pipe repair and repiping across San Dimas, Claremont, La Verne and Pomona. Call (949) 355-5640.
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