Whole-House Repiping
Replacing a failing supply system in one planned project instead of paying for the same leak four more times.
Learn moreabout Whole-House RepipingPipe Repair
Fix the pipe, or fix the reason it failed.
A section repair when the run is otherwise sound, a partial when one branch keeps failing, and an honest conversation when the whole system is the same age and material.
4.9 on Google (200+)Licensed OH #2368324/7 emergency service
Central Ohio housing stock spans eighty years of piping fashion, and each material fails in its own way and on its own schedule. Galvanized steel in pre-1970 Worthington and Delaware houses corrodes closed from the inside, so it strangles your pressure years before it ever leaks. Polybutylene, the grey plastic used commonly between 1978 and 1995, shows up in the earliest Dublin and Powell subdivisions and fails at fittings without warning. Copper from the 1990s and 2000s building boom in Powell and Lewis Center is now twenty-five to thirty years old and starting to produce pinhole leaks. Knowing which of those is in your walls changes the repair, and often changes whether a repair is the right answer at all.
The location matters as much as the material. We see the same failures in the same places: crawlspaces and unheated garages, the exterior kitchen wall where a builder ran a supply line through insulation instead of behind it, attic runs above a cold ceiling, and hose bibs that were never frost-proof. When a pipe splits in one of those spots the repair is only half the job - if we leave the run where it was, we will be back next February.
So the conversation we have is about scope, not just about the leak in front of us. One failure in an otherwise sound run is a section repair, and that is what we will recommend. A branch that has failed twice is a partial replacement. A house where every line is the same age and the same material and the leaks have started is a repiping conversation, and we would rather have that one honestly with you than sell you the same repair four more times.
What we do
Pipe Repair work we take on
Copper, PEX and CPVC supply repairs
Pinhole leaks in copper, split PEX at a fitting or a freeze point, and CPVC joints that have gone brittle with age and heat. Most of these are a section repair: isolate, cut out the failed run, replace with matched material and proper transitions, pressure-test, restore. Where copper pinholes keep appearing on the same run, that is a pattern rather than bad luck, and we will say so.
- Section repairs with matched material and proper transitions
- Every repair pressure-tested before the wall goes back
- Repeat failures flagged as a pattern, not patched silently
Galvanized and polybutylene replacement
Galvanized steel has an industry-typical service life of twenty to fifty years, which puts every galvanized house in this county decades past due. It rusts inward, so the first symptom is usually weak pressure rather than a leak, and rust-coloured water on first draw is the confirming clue. Polybutylene - grey, flexible, commonly installed 1978-1995 - fails at fittings and is worth replacing before it chooses its own moment.
- Failing branches replaced in copper or PEX
- Rust-coloured water and pressure loss diagnosed properly
- Polybutylene identified and quoted before it lets go
Cast iron and buried drain lines
Cast-iron drain stacks in houses built before the mid-1970s scale internally and eventually crack along the bottom of horizontal runs, which is where you get slow drains, recurring backups and sometimes a smell with no visible leak. Buried lines under basement floors and yards fail from root intrusion, ground shift in this county's clay soil, and simple age. We camera them first so the repair is where the problem actually is.
- Cast-iron stack and horizontal run replacement
- Camera inspection before any floor or yard is opened
- Spot repair when a spot repair is genuinely enough
Outside and underground lines
Main water service between the meter and the house, hose bibs and yard hydrants, irrigation supply and exterior spigots that froze because they were never frost-proof. Underground work starts with locating and with establishing whose pipe it is - that boundary is drawn differently by Del-Co, Columbus, Westerville, the City of Delaware and the Mid-Ohio district, and it decides who pays.
- Service line located before anything is excavated
- Frost-proof sillcocks fitted on exterior replacements
- Responsibility boundary established before we quote a dig
Common problems
What usually goes wrong
Symptoms homeowners call us about, what tends to be behind them, and how we approach the fix.
A pinhole leak in copper pipe
Usually caused by
- Pitting corrosion from water chemistry and dissolved oxygen
- High velocity from pressure above roughly 80 psi eroding the wall
- Poor workmanship at an old joint, or flux left in the line
- Copper in direct contact with dissimilar metal
One pinhole is a section repair. Three pinholes on the same run is the pipe telling you the wall thickness is gone in that whole length, and repairing the fourth one is throwing money at it. We check static pressure while we are there, because pressure over 80 psi is a common and fixable cause that most homeowners never measure.
Rust-coloured water and weak pressure everywhere
Usually caused by
- Galvanized supply lines corroding closed from the inside
- Corrosion scale breaking loose and discolouring first draw
- Mineral scale narrowing an already-restricted line
- Failed pressure-reducing valve compounding the restriction
This is the classic older-Worthington and older-Delaware complaint, and it is a diagnosis you can partly make yourself: if the discolouration clears after running the tap for a minute and the pressure is poor at every fixture, the pipe is the problem. We confirm with a gauge and by cutting a sample section, and then price honest options - branch replacement or a whole-house repipe.
A pipe froze and split
Usually caused by
- Supply run in an exterior wall, garage, crawlspace or attic
- Hose left connected to a non-frost-proof sillcock
- Unheated space that dropped below freezing in a hard snap
- Insufficient or missing insulation on an exposed run
We isolate the section, replace the split run, pressure-test, and then deal with the reason. Sometimes that is insulation and an air-seal; often the honest fix is rerouting that line out of the exterior wall entirely. A repair that leaves the pipe where it was is a repair with an expiry date.
Grey plastic pipe with crimped metal fittings
Usually caused by
- Polybutylene supply, commonly installed 1978-1995
- Fitting and crimp-ring failure rather than pipe failure
- Chlorine in municipal water degrading the material over time
- Insurance carriers reluctant to renew on houses that still have it
If you have polybutylene, the question is when rather than whether. It typically fails at the fittings, without warning, and often behind finished walls. We identify it definitively, show you what you have, and price both a staged branch-by-branch replacement and a whole-house repipe so you can plan it instead of reacting to it.
How it works
What happens after you call
Four steps, no surprises. The price is agreed before anything is opened.
Locate and identify
We find the failure and identify the material and the age of the run, because a pinhole in thirty-year-old copper and a split at a PEX fitting are the same symptom with two completely different conclusions.
Isolate and price
Water off to the smallest section we can manage, so the rest of the house keeps working, and a price in your hand before anything is cut. Where a repair and a replacement are both defensible, you get both numbers.
Repair, then pressure-test
Matched materials, proper transitions between dissimilar metals, supports where they belong, and a pressure test before anything is closed up. A repair that has not been tested is a repair nobody should trust.
Restore and clean up
Openings cut square and kept as small as the job allows, so a drywall patch is straightforward. We tidy the work area, take the old pipe with us, and tell you what we would keep an eye on next.
Reviews
What neighbors say
Five-star reviews from Powell and the surrounding suburbs, unedited.
“Keith has done several jobs for us on multiple occasions. He has been available in the evenings as well as on Saturday mornings when it was an emergency. On one occasion, after finishing the job at our house, he willingly walked over to my neighbor's house to help her with her toilet that had broken and was able to fix it right on the spot. He is beyond generous and always informative about the problem at hand. He will tell you what you SHOULD spend our money on and what isn't necessary. I love this about him! I continue to recommend him to everyone I know.”
“I highly recommend Koehler Plumbing, Keith is amazing and more importantly honest and ethical. Had a garbage disposal that went out. I just knew I'd have to replace it, Keith fi...”
“Highly recommend Koehler Plumbing for any plumbing work! I have used them to replace a hot water heater, sink faucet, sump pump with back up and replaced a hot water shut off va...”
“Koehler Plumbing is the best service around. When you call they are very responsive and will set a date for repair asap. And will also have the best price. Call now for all your...”
Questions
Pipe Repair questions we get asked
Still stuck? Call us at (614) 204-5532, or send us the details.
Related work
Other things we handle
Leak Detection & Repair
Finding the leak behind the drywall before it finds the ceiling below - slab leaks, supply pinholes, underground service lines and hidden drain seepage.
Learn moreabout Leak Detection & Repair
Water Pressure Solutions
Weak showers, banging pipes and pressure that is quietly too high - regulators, scaled lines, corroded galvanized and expansion tanks.
Learn moreabout Water Pressure SolutionsService area
Where we work
Powell is home base. These are the communities we cover day to day, in rough order of how often we are there.
Powell, OH 43065
(614) 204-5532
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- Upfront pricing before anything is opened or ordered
- Licensed OH #23683, insured, and veteran-owned since 1996
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