Whole-Home Repiping in Melbourne, FL

A repipe makes more sense than another spot repair once the same system keeps failing -- not just one fitting that gave out. A single leak in an otherwise sound pipe run is a repair. But repeat slab leaks in different spots, a second or third pinhole in copper lines, or any polybutylene or aging cast iron are signs the material itself is at the end of its life. At that point every dollar spent chasing individual leaks is buying time, not a fix.

The honest test we walk homeowners through: is this the first failure in a healthy system, or the latest failure in a system that is wearing out everywhere at once? When it is the second, replacing the whole run of pipe costs less over the next few years than opening walls and slabs one leak at a time -- and it ends the slow water damage that recurring leaks cause behind drywall and under floors. It also stops the surprise-shutoff pattern, where a hidden pipe lets go while you are at work or asleep and you find out from a water bill or a soaked ceiling.

None of that means every old home needs a repipe tomorrow. Plenty of houses have decades of life left in their pipes. The point of an inspection is to tell the difference honestly, so you spend on the fix your home actually needs and not the one that sounds most urgent.

The Space Coast has a housing stock built across several plumbing eras, and each one has a material that ages out. Knowing what is in your walls tells you whether you are looking at a repair or a repipe.

Pre-1975 cast iron drain and sewer lines corrode from the inside. The pipe scales up, the bottom channel rusts thin, and sections crack or collapse -- often showing as slow drains, sewer smells, or backups before any visible leak. Florida's older neighborhoods still have plenty of original cast iron underground and under slabs.

Polybutylene (gray plastic pipe stamped "PB") went into millions of homes from the late 1970s into the mid-1990s. It reacts with chlorine in municipal water, turns brittle, and cracks without warning. Many insurers now decline or surcharge homes that still have it.

Galvanized steel was standard before the 1970s. The zinc coating wears off, the steel rusts internally, and you get low pressure and rusty water long before the pipe finally springs a leak.

Pinhole-leaking copper is the sneaky one. Copper is a good pipe, but Brevard County's hard water, sandy soil, and salt air push it toward pitting corrosion -- tiny pinholes that show up in one spot, then another, then another. A first pinhole is a repair; a pattern of them is a system telling you it is done.

Recurring slab leaks are one of the clearest signals that a home's supply lines have reached the end of their life. Most Melbourne homes are built slab-on-grade, with water lines run through or under a concrete slab. When those buried lines start leaking in more than one place, jackhammering the slab to fix each spot gets expensive fast -- and it does nothing about the next section that is about to go.

That is where the two services meet. Shaw's slab leak detection pinpoints exactly where a line is failing under the concrete, using electronic leak detection so nothing gets opened up on a guess. If the detection shows an isolated failure, we repair it. If it shows a pattern -- the same aging lines leaking again and again -- a repipe reroutes fresh supply lines above the slab and takes the buried pipe out of service for good. Homeowners who came to us for a slab leak often end up choosing a repipe because it ends the cycle instead of restarting the clock.

A whole-house repipe replaces the supply lines that carry water to your fixtures with new, modern pipe. It is real work, but a planned repipe is far less disruptive than most homeowners expect. Here is what it involves:

PEX (cross-linked polyethylene) is the most common choice for Florida repipes. It is flexible, resists scale and chlorine, tolerates temperature swings, and uses fewer fittings -- which means fewer potential leak points.

Copper is the long-standing standard for longevity and is naturally antimicrobial. It costs more than PEX and, in our corrosive coastal water, needs correct installation to reach its full life.

CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride) is a rigid plastic that handles hot and cold water, resists corrosion, and is approved under Florida building code.

Which one fits depends on your home and budget -- we walk you through the trade-offs honestly instead of pushing the most expensive option.