Originally Posted By: Pamela Perry
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I’ve just purchased a 70-year old home with original water (galvanized steel and cast iron) and waste (galvanized steel) pipes. My home inspector recommended replacing both the water and waste pipes. We plan to re-pipe the house as necessary prior to moving into it, since we’re also gut-renovating the 2 bathrooms. I had 2 reputable and recommended plumbers provide estimates to me of the cost of re-piping the house. Plumber A suggested that we replace water and waste pipes. Plumber B suggested we replace only water pipes and not waste pipes, on the basis that waste pipes don’t have standing water and therefore aren’t as prone to build-up and corrosion. Plumber A’s estimate is $10,000 higher than Plumber B’s. We’re feeling like “poor” new homeowners and want to save money, however, we’d like to do the right thing. Do you think that replacement of waste pipes in a 2000 square foot home accounts for the $10K difference between these bids? Do we need to replace all of the waste pipes? Can we replace waste pipes just from the new bathroom fixtures to the existing vertical stacks? What if we just replaced the horizontal waste pipe in the basement? I’d love some advice!!
