What a Whole-House Kitec Repipe Actually Involves

Every Kitec fitting comes out and copper or PEX-A goes in. Here is the real order of work, without treating any timeline as a guarantee.

Send us your report →

We confirm it's Kitec

Inspectors mis-flag it. We verify the pipe and fittings before a word about repiping.

Urgent, or can it wait

We read the fittings and your situation, then tell you straight. Sometimes the answer is wait.

Copper or PEX-A, both

Two real numbers on your home, quoted straight - not a single take-it-or-leave-it figure.

A whole-house Kitec repipe means every Kitec supply line and every brass fitting comes out. Copper or PEX-A goes in. That is the fix that ends the problem. Spot-replacing one wet fitting does not, because the rest of the fittings are the same age and have been sitting in the same Las Vegas water.

This post walks the usual order of work without treating any timeline as a promise. Layout, access, and material choice all change the calendar. For scope, see our whole-house repipe page. If you are still deciding whether to move now, living with Kitec until you repipe covers what watching looks like in the meantime.

Before any wall opens

Confirm the material first. Inspectors mislabel pipe often. Kitec is the orange (hot) and blue (cold) pipe with brass fittings, common in Valley homes from about 1995 to 2007. We verify the pipe and look at the fittings you can see before quoting a repipe.

Choose the replacement up front. Copper and PEX-A are both real options. They install differently and handle hard water differently. We cover the tradeoffs in PEX vs copper for a Vegas repipe. You get both paths quoted on your house.

A repipe is permitted work in Clark County. The permit gets pulled before walls open. That paperwork is what you hand a buyer or insurer later when someone asks whether the Kitec is gone.

Day-to-day: how the job usually unfolds

People picture the whole house torn open. The usual job is access work, not a gut remodel. Exact days depend on stories, bath count, and how the original lines were routed.

Protect and shut down

Floors get covered. Work areas get plastic. The main water is shut off while lines are swapped. You lose water for parts of the job, not necessarily every hour. Crews usually stage so a bathroom and the kitchen come back as those runs go live again.

Open access, not whole rooms

Small holes go in drywall where new lines need to route and where fittings land. Closets, garage walls, and cabinet voids often carry a lot of the routing with less mess than a living room. The point is a clean path for the new system, not empty stud bays everywhere.

Pull Kitec and run the new system

Old Kitec supply lines and brass fittings come out. New copper or PEX-A runs to every fixture the Kitec fed: sinks, toilets, showers, water heater connections, hose bibs, laundry, everything downstream of the meter that was Kitec. Leaving a hard-to-reach section leaves the failure risk in place.

Pressure test, then close

The new system gets pressure tested while access holes are still open. Leaks at a new joint are cheap to fix now. After the test holds, patches go in. You are left with spots to texture and paint. The municipal inspection closes the permit.

What living through it feels like

There will be crew in the house. There will be some dust even with plastic up. Water will go on and off. Nobody loves that part. It is finite. When it is over, you are not waiting for the next fitting to let go behind a ceiling.

Single-story Valley homes with simple layouts often wrap faster than two-story houses with tight chases. Treat any day count you hear as a planning range for your floor plan after a walkthrough, not a guarantee. The real variables are access, how many baths share walls, and whether you chose copper or PEX-A.

What you should have when the truck leaves

  • Every Kitec fitting and supply line removed.
  • A copper or PEX-A system in its place.
  • Permit and inspection paperwork for the house file.
  • A short list of drywall patches to finish, not open walls.

That packet matters at resale and with insurance. “We think it was fixed years ago” is a weak answer next to a closed permit.

What a whole-house job is not

It is not a spot repair on the one fitting that stained the garage ceiling. That repair gets the water back on. It does not change the clock on the fittings still in the walls. It is also not a drain or sewer project. This is the potable supply system only.

And it is not something you must rush into on a dry, stable system with no sale and no insurance pressure. Watching can be reasonable for a while. Watching without a plan is how a small leak becomes a scramble. Get the evaluation and the quote while the ceilings are still dry.

Frequently asked questions

Do you have to gut the walls?

No. A typical repipe uses small access openings where the new lines route. Expect patches to paint, not empty rooms.

Will I be without water the whole time?

You lose water while lines are swapped. Crews usually restore kitchen and bath service in stages. Ask for the staging plan before work starts.

Copper or PEX-A: which is required?

Neither is required by the Kitec problem itself. Both are accepted replacements. The better choice depends on your house, water heater setup, and budget. Get both quoted.

Is a partial repipe enough if only one bath leaked?

No. The fittings share the same age and the same water. Replacing one leaves the rest on the same failure clock.

The short version

  • Confirm it is Kitec, pick copper or PEX-A, and pull the permit before walls open.
  • The job is access holes, new supply lines, a pressure test, patches, and an inspection.
  • Disruption is real and temporary. Day counts vary by house.
  • Keep the paperwork. That proves the Kitec is gone.

Ready for a straight read on your house? Get a Kitec evaluation, or send the inspection report and photos of the fittings. We will confirm the material, say whether the flag is urgent, and quote the repipe both ways.

Not sure which you need?
Send the report. We confirm it and tell you straight.
Get an honest read →
No commitment

Send us your inspection report.

Upload the report or a photo of the fittings. We confirm it is Kitec, tell you if that flag is urgent - and quote copper or PEX-A straight.

✓ Licensed & insured NV plumbing
✓ We confirm it is Kitec before we quote
✓ Serving the Las Vegas Valley