By the third leak in a year, most homeowners stop asking whether the last repair held and start asking what the real problem is. Coopers Plumbing handles whole-home repiping in Asheville, NC, and nearby areas for houses where the supply lines have quietly given out behind the drywall. We'll look at what you've got, tell you where it actually stands, and let you decide from there.
Chris Cooper founded Coopers Plumbing in 1999, and it's still a family-owned, locally run plumbing company working out of Asheville, NC. Holding a P-1 Residential and Commercial Master License, we take on whole-home repiping for houses across Buncombe County and the surrounding mountain communities, replacing failing supply lines with copper or PEX from the meter to the last fixture.
Here's how it usually goes. A pinhole shows up in the crawlspace and gets patched for a couple hundred dollars. Eight months later another one opens under the kitchen. Then a joint upstairs starts weeping into a ceiling, and the drywall repair costs more than the plumbing did.
None of those leaks are isolated events. Supply lines installed at the same time, carrying the same water, under the same conditions, wear out on roughly the same schedule. Corrosion thins galvanized steel evenly across a whole system, and chlorinated water degrades polybutylene at every fitting at once. When one section fails, the rest are already most of the way there, so patching treats the symptom that surfaced first while forty other joints keep counting down.
Replacing the system all at once ends that cycle. We start by walking the house and mapping the existing runs, then plan the shortest, least invasive paths for the new lines, often using attics, crawlspaces, and closet chases instead of open walls. Access holes get cut only where they're needed. New copper or PEX goes in, every branch gets pressure tested before anything closes up, and we stage the work so your household has water overnight. Patching and paint follow once the system passes.
What you're left with is one project, one bill, and a supply system that will outlast the roof. Water comes out clear at full pressure from every fixture, the emergency calls stop, and you quit wondering what's soaking into the framing where nobody can see it.
Here's what changes around the house once the old lines are gone.
Spread across years, spot repairs and the drywall work that follows them add up to more than a repipe costs. Doing it once means one round of patching, one round of paint, and one crew in the house. Most whole-house jobs wrap up in a few days rather than dragging on.
Rust and scale come from inside the pipe itself, so filters only catch what has already broken loose. New lines end the brown water in the morning, the staining in tubs and sinks, and the metallic taste that shows up in coffee. Laundry stops coming out dingy as well.
Corroded steel narrows from the inside until a three-quarter-inch line passes water like a half-inch one. Replacing the runs brings flow back to what your fixtures were designed for. Running the dishwasher stops turning the upstairs shower into a trickle.
Plumbing shows up in every home inspection, and failing supply lines have derailed plenty of deals in this market. Documentation of a completed repipe answers the question before a buyer thinks to ask it. Appraisers and insurers tend to look on the upgrade kindly too.
Copper and PEX both handle the freeze-and-thaw swings we get here far better than old steel or poly. PEX in particular has some give to it, which matters in crawlspaces and exterior walls when temperatures drop. Either material should outlast nearly everything else in the house.
Not every house needs everything replaced, so here's how the rest of our pipe work fits together.
Homes built between the late 1970s and the mid 1990s often have gray poly running through them, and it fails at the fittings with very little warning. Polybutylene Pipe Replacement targets that material specifically, whether it runs throughout the house or shows up only in one addition.
Steel pipe rusts shut from the inside, which is why pressure fades slowly over decades in older homes. Galvanized Pipe Replacement swaps those corroded runs for copper or PEX, either across the whole system or in the sections causing the most trouble.
Sometimes the right answer is partial replacement, a targeted leak repair, or an honest assessment of how much life is left. Our broader Repiping Services cover that full range, from single-run work to diagnosing why your pressure keeps dropping.
Handing someone the keys to open your walls is a real decision, so here's who you'd be working with.
Chris has carried a P-1 Residential and Commercial Master License for years and has been repiping houses around here since 1999. That stretch covers homes built from the 1920s through the last decade, which means very little behind your walls will be unfamiliar territory.
Plenty of systems have a decade left in them, and we'll say so when yours does. Being upfront costs us work in the short run and earns the call when the pipes actually need replacing.
Investment firms have spent recent years buying up small plumbing shops across the country and running them from a distance. Ownership here has stayed with the Cooper family, so pricing gets set by the same people doing the work.
Drywall damage is the part homeowners dread most about a repipe, and keeping it contained comes down to planning routes before anybody picks up a saw. We map first, cut second, and clean up as we go.
Every job carries a one-year labor warranty, with additional coverage available on certain materials and equipment. Anything we installed that gives you trouble is ours to make right.
Most homes in the area take two to four days, depending on square footage, the number of bathrooms, and how accessible the crawlspace or attic is. Older houses with finished basements sometimes run a day longer because the routes are less direct. We'll give you a realistic window before anything starts.
No. We stage the work so water comes back on at the end of each day, which matters when you're living in the house through the project. Short shutoffs happen while we tie in new sections, and you'll know before each one.
Repiping generally requires a permit and an inspection, and we handle that paperwork as part of the job. Requirements vary slightly depending on whether your address falls inside Asheville city limits or out in the county, and we'll confirm what applies to yours.
Both perform well here. PEX flexes slightly when water freezes, which gives it an edge in crawlspaces and exterior walls during our hard freezes, and it usually installs faster. Copper has a longer track record and holds up well where lines stay exposed. We'll talk through which suits your layout.
Less than most people expect. Homes here typically have crawlspaces and attics that let us run most new lines without opening finished walls, so access holes end up concentrated near fixtures and manifolds. You'll see the planned cuts before any work begins.
FAQs reviewed by Chris Cooper, founder and owner of Coopers Plumbing and a licensed plumber serving Asheville, NC, since 1999.
Old supply lines only get more expensive the longer they sit. Reach out and we'll walk the house with you and give you a straight read on where things stand.
Business Name: Coopers Plumbing
Address: Asheville, NC, 28804
Phone: 828-254-0383
Business Hours:
Mon - Fri: 9:00 AM to 5:30 PM
Sat-Sun: Closed
24 Hour Emergency Service Available
As a Master Licensed contractor, we stand behind our workmanship with a 1-year labor warranty. Ask us about additional warranties.