Repiping in Germantown, MD

What happens when you call

The number on this page reaches an independent plumber who works in Germantown and the rest of upper Montgomery County. Expect a few questions up front: roughly when the house was built, whether it is a detached home or a townhouse, where leaks have appeared, and what pipe you can see near the water heater or the main shutoff.

A repipe is rarely priced over the phone. The plumber normally visits, traces the exposed lines, checks flow at a few fixtures and looks at how earlier repairs were made. You should come away with one of three recommendations: fix the leak in front of you, replace one branch such as a bathroom group, or replace every hot and cold supply line in the house.

What moves the price

• The number of bathrooms, the kitchen, laundry and outdoor faucets that need new connections
• Whether the basement ceiling is open or finished, since open joists make routing far simpler
• Townhouse shared walls and stacked floors, which limit where new lines can travel
• Material: PEX usually takes fewer labor hours than soldered copper
• Drywall repair and paint, which some quotes include and others leave to you
• Whether the main shutoff and water heater connections are redone at the same time

Germantown homes and water service

Germantown grew from farmland into a planned community of a downtown and six villages, and much of that growth followed a sewer line finished in 1974. In ZIP code 20874 the largest group of homes went up in the 1980s, and only about 18 percent predate 1980. Houses from that period were usually plumbed in copper, though some received plastic supply systems that are no longer installed, so it pays to identify what is inside the walls before anyone quotes a job.

WSSC Water supplies both water and sewer. It reports that all known lead pipe is gone from its distribution system, and it publishes a service line map that lists pipe materials, including the private side. In Montgomery County most plumbing work must be done by a plumber registered with WSSC Water under a WSSC permit, while the county's Department of Permitting Services handles building permits.

Checklist before the visit

• Clear a path to the main shutoff and the water heater
• List each leak you remember, with the room and rough date
• Note fixtures with weak flow or discolored water
• In a townhouse, check association rules on contractor access
• Pull out invoices from earlier pipe repairs