A Poly B replacement means every run of polybutylene supply pipe in the house is taken out of service and replaced with new material. The old pipe is usually abandoned in place where it cannot be reached, and cut out where it can.
The same job goes by several names. Whole home repiping, a Poly B repipe, a Poly B retrofit, Poly B remediation and Poly B removal all describe it. A repiping company in Calgary will most often call it a repipe.
It is a bigger job than most homeowners expect on the drywall side and a smaller one than most expect on the plumbing side.
What a whole-home repipe actually involves
The work is mostly access. New pipe has to reach every fixture, and in a finished Calgary house that means opening walls and ceilings along the routes. A crew will typically work from the mechanical room outward, running new trunk lines through the basement ceiling and dropping or rising to each fixture group.
- Water is shut off at the main and the system is drained
- Access holes are cut at fixture drops, tees, and anywhere a run changes direction inside a finished wall
- New trunk lines are run, then branch lines to each fixture group
- Fixtures, the water heater and any treatment equipment are reconnected
- The system is pressure tested and flushed before anything is closed up
- Drywall is patched, taped, and finished, then repainted if that was in scope
In an average detached Calgary home the plumbing side is commonly two to four days. The restoration afterwards is often longer than the plumbing, and it is the part that varies most between quotes.
What replaces Poly B
PEX is the standard replacement in Calgary. It is a cross-linked polyethylene pipe, also flexible, but a different material with a different failure history and modern fitting systems. The relevant difference is not just the pipe: it is that a repipe done today uses expansion or press fittings rather than the acetal insert and crimp ring assemblies that caused most Poly B claims.
Copper is still used in places, generally for short exposed runs or where a specific detail calls for it. A full copper repipe of a house is uncommon now on cost grounds. What matters when comparing quotes is that the pipe type, the fitting system, and the manufacturer are all named in writing, because those three things drive both the price and the longevity.
What is and is not included
This is where two quotes for the same house end up thousands of dollars apart. Every line below is genuinely optional in the sense that some contractors include it and some do not.
| Item | Sometimes included | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Drywall patching | Often, at the board and tape stage only | Board and tape is not a finished wall. Someone still has to sand, prime and paint |
| Painting | Usually not | Matching existing paint on a 30-year-old wall is rarely a touch-up |
| Permits and inspection | Should always be | A repipe without a permit can surface later at sale or at a claim |
| Fixture reconnection | Usually | Older shut-offs and supply lines frequently fail on reconnection and get replaced |
| Water heater connection | Usually | Ask whether an old tank is reconnected as-is |
| Outdoor hose bibs and irrigation | Often not | Easy to miss in a walkthrough and awkward to add later |
| Removal of the old pipe | Partially | Abandoning inaccessible pipe in place is normal and not a defect |
| Cleanup and debris | Varies | Drywall dust migrates through a whole house |
How replacement differs from the repair path
The two paths are not the same job at different scales. They answer different questions.
A repair answers: this specific joint failed, what does it cost to make the water stop. A replacement answers: the original fittings throughout this house are all the same age and were all installed the same way, what does it cost to stop having that conversation.
That framing matters because it explains when each one is right. In a house with one leak, in an accessible location, with no prior history, a repair is a defensible decision and the cheaper one by an order of magnitude. In a house on its third leak, or a house where an insurer has attached a condition to renewal, a repair does not address what is actually being asked.
What changes the scope
- Number of bathrooms and kitchens, which sets the number of fixture groups
- Number of storeys, because vertical runs mean more wall opening
- Whether the basement is finished, which is often the single largest swing
- Ceiling type, since a textured or stippled ceiling is difficult to patch invisibly
- Whether the house is occupied during the work
- Accessibility of the mechanical room and the main
- Whether irrigation, a secondary suite, or a garage line is on the same system
- Condo or townhouse, where shared walls and a board approval process change the sequence entirely
A quote that does not reference the finished basement is a quote for a different house.