The water supply line to our house is leaking right where it connects to the house.  Called out a plumber for an estimate figuring it would cost $1000 to replace the vertical section of pipe.  Plumber tells me it needs to be repiped with copper pipe (32' or 42' couldn't hear him well) all the way to city line at the street.  To pull permit, dig trench, run pipe, inspection, and cover trench.....$3,700.  

I'm not spending that kind of money without getting at least one more estimate.  So,  I'd appreciate recommendations for a good plumber/company that works in southwest Houston.

Fuck that guy, you could do that yourself in half a day for less than $500 WITH the ditch witch tool rental...

The hard work is digging the trench to access the water line. Then again it is low skill too. If you are capable soldering copper pipe without any leaks I would do it myself. In Texas I have found that there are very few good contractors (most are unskilled Mexicans) , and most of the 'good ones' are flaky about showing up.

He should just go to united tool rentals and get a ditch witch. Its Texas so the pipe probably doesnt have to go but a foot or two deep.

It probably is a foot to maybe 18" deep, the reason I would hand dig is all the lines going into a house. AT&T is currently putting in fiber cable into our homes, my lawn looks like a Christmas tree with all the marking of the different lines coming in my house, my water line runs less than a foot from my gas line. You don't want to hit a gas line or an electrical cable with any sort of trencher.

If you do want to use a trencher call 811 and have them mark where your lines all are. Cutting and line can be danderous and real expensive. The contractor putting in walls in our neighborhood hit trunk fiber cable, bill was just shy of $50,000 to fix it. Makes a $3700 plumbing bill look cheap.

I thought it as a bit high but wasn't sure.  I thought about doing the trenching myself and then just have a plumber pull the permit an do the connection to the city line.   That should bring the price down significantly.

It saves quite a bit doing your digging. I used to flip a lot of houses, and a guy that worked for my neighbor, him and his wife would come dig trenches and dig out stumps/plants for me. He made more working for me than he did on his job.

Fix the leak, no need to replace the line. $20

What was the reason for replacing the whole line vs just fixing the leak? Why copper and not pvc?

My boss woke up to water shooting 15 ft up in the air in his front yard. He called a plumber. He had it repiped with some kind of specific pipe. It is what the City of Plano required by code at the time, in 2005 or so. He had to have it inspected before filling in the ditch, or they were  going to make him dig it up to be inspected.

That would depend how old the main water line is. the old lines were galvanized pipe, galvanized pipe gets the inside filled with corrosion till you have next to no water pressure, so you need a new copper or a PEX that is designed to be buried if legal but code. Most galvanized if leaking needs to be replaced by code. Can't use PVC in most cities for main water lines.

I would first dig up the area of the leak, if it is copper in good shape a splice can be put in for a few dollars. Had a friend of mine that cut his water line with a pick axe on late Saturday afternoon. After HE dug the hole where he cut the line, I was able to splice a piece of piece of copper pipe in in around a half hour work, at less than $10. I saved his life, his wife was going to kill him when he cut line that late in the day.

One thing a plumber showed me to dig out a trench is use a demo hammer with a wide spade bit, makes digging easy in clay soils especially when it's in the 90's. You can rent one from the Depot.

The pipe itself has developed a pinhole leak so there is no "fixing."   This pipe is old.  I'm guessing it's the original pipe from when the house was built in the '70's.  I have been able to confirm that copper is required by city code so no getting around that.  I had hoped the leaking section could be cut and a new section put in with the proper connectors.  But as the original plumber pointed out the whole pipe is probably just as bad so I'd only be putting off the inevitable.

If anyone has a suggestion for a good (read: honest and reasonable prices) plumber please pass their info along.

Go to the houston public works building and solicit =D


A lot of those guys that work in the plumbing department work side-jobs doing the same thing.  Our guys do it.


Try contacting the public works director, or a supervisor and ask if anyone does work on the side.

Why is he saying it needs to go back to the main? Why can't you just replace the PVC/Copper from the house to the meter?

Definitely ask around and get a few bids.  Years ago at my old house the sewer line backed up.  Plumber came out to clean the line and found tree roots  through the line.  Their quote was like $2400 to redo the entire line which was only 20 to 25 feet from the clean out to the city sewer connection.  I rented a mini-excavator for $200 for the day and spent maybe $200 on materials (regular PVC, not the thin stuff) and did it myself.  I don't know what plumbers get paid per hour, but their quote seemed high and I don't mind doing stuff myself when I can.   A water line isn't very deep compared to a sewer line so it should be much easier to dig up if you have to.  $3700 to replace a water line, even with having to make 2 trips out for the inspection, etc seems like a lot.

You are only responsible from the meter to your house.
If I had a pinhole leak I would dig it up, cut the existing pipe and repair with a Shark fitting.
The next step up would be to dig up the old line from the meter to the house and replace with PEX, again with shark fittings.
If it was just a pinhole I would just dig it up and see what condition the water line is there. If it wasn't completely corroded I would simply fix the leak, not replace the whole line.

Hell, I had a sewer line break. It was the thin PVC. I dug it up using a shovel and replaced with schedule 40 PVC. I spent about $30.00 to replace mine from the slab to the sewer main including a new drop.

One thing to be careful about if doing a sewer line or water main yourself is if you are in a city you have to inspections of repairs. The city could easily have your water or sewer access shut off if not to code. If you are in the middle of nowhere you get a lot more leeway on what you can do.

But for a 40-45 ft water main line should be about $100 in materials using copper including the correct solder for plumbing. Even if you do it yourself it would be a good idea to pull a permit and have the inspections done.

If it is galvanized steel pipe and it has developed a leak from internal corrosion then entire pipe should be replaced.  You are correct that you will only be putting off the inevitable by only repairing the leak.  Galvanized steel pipe was fine in homes until they started importing it from China in 60s-80s.  I had to have my entire home re-piped because the galvanized steel pipe was bad.  After the first leak they started happening frequently.  The previous owner had the main from the meter to the house done before I bought the house.  I'll PM you the info from the plumber I used.  He has done a few houses on my street.

OP, I am guessing this is fixed by now. How did it play out? Were you insured?

No, hasn't been fixed.  Rough week at work so didn't have time to contact anyone else.  I've received names of a few plumbers so I'll be contacting them this week.  Thanks to all who replied.