Home plumbing installation

Cast iron is prone to breakage. Polybutylene pipes turned out to be very prone to leaking. Return to Top Whole-House Plumbing Cost Factors The cost of new plumbing or replumbing a house is affected by many different factors simply because every home is different in size, layout, and water features within the house. Home Size — The bigger the house, the more the plumbing or replumbing will cost. For example, a two-story home will cost more to pipe than a one-story home that's the same size.

It will probably have more bathrooms than a smaller house, and one or more of those bathrooms could have more than one sink. A master suite might have a toilet and a bidet, or a shower with multiple showerheads, as opposed to a smaller bathroom with one showerhead. Each fixture something that is hooked to a water line adds to the cost of the plumbing. Number of Appliances — Water-using appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, and water heaters will add to the cost. Some homes have two kitchens, which means two dishwashers and two or more sinks.

Layout — Once you add a second floor and even third floor, pipes need to be run up to it. This is more complex than plumbing the ground floor and is more labor intensive. Plumbing services will use more materials which adds to your labor costs. Location — The amount of excavation that needs to be done to connect to city water and sewer lines will affect the cost. If the house is in a developed area, such as within city limits, this will be reasonably easy to accomplish.

But if the house is in the country, that connection might be longer and harder to find. Materials Cost — The piping material used will lower or add to your cost. Return to Top Hire a Licensed Professional Plumber Always hire a licensed, professional plumber to make your piping installation a breeze. Make sure: They are licensed, bonded, and insured.

They offer a warranty on their work. Their experience will make the work quick and hopefully faultless. They have the education and will be up to date in their knowledge and application of local building codes.

They have the right tools for the job. Get free home improvement estimates from trusted plumbing companies on HomeGuide. Get free estimates References. Millions of people ask HomeGuide for cost estimates every year.

We track the estimates they get from local companies, then we share those prices with you. Related Articles. Pipe Installation. Get Started. Plumbing Pipe Installation Locations. Looking for Plumbing Companies near you? How it Works. The link above provides versions of each chapter as a web page, as an ePub, and in the original form as a PDF file.

Once you have the rough shell of the house completed, the job of roughing in the plumbing system should be done. This will consist of installing all the pipes through the walls and ceiling for the fresh-water supply and the drainage system as well as installing the various outlets for the plumbing fixtures.

The fixtures themselves will be installed after the interior walls have been finished. A drilled well showing the casing, concrete seal, and water bearing stratum. This well is using a submersible pump and a single water line extending from the pump up to the top of the well casing.

In freezing climates the water line will exit the well casing side below the frost line using a pitless adapter fitting. As is the case with electrical wiring, plumbing for residential work is often regulated by local building codes, which vary greatly.

In well settled localities, the plumbing codes may possibly insist that the entire plumbing system be installed by a master plumber. This is done to insure the health of the entire community. A faulty plumbing system in a built-up community can be a definite hazard to health. Other codes, not quite as strict, may demand only that the installation of the system be done in such a fashion that it will meet with the approval of local health and building inspectors. In rural areas there may not be any code whatsoever and any sort of plumbing system can be installed by anyone who cares to do the job.

Because the comfort and, in most cases, the health of the various members of the household will depend on an adequate plumbing system, it is foolish to install any system that is not perfectly safe from the standpoint of health or will not insure the household an adequate supply of hot and cold water.

Not so very many years ago, installing a plumbing system was an almost hopeless undertaking for anyone except those who had had years of actual experience. Pipe joints had to be made by hand with hot lead, traps had to be made on the job by the plumber, and there were only a few basic fittings manufactured.

Making up the various joints and fittings called for a type of skill that could only be acquired after long training. Today, thanks to the plumbing industry, there are fittings ready made to meet every requirement and the main trick involved in installing a system is to know which fitting to use and how to use it.

But even so, many persons may not feel that they possess the necessary skill to do the entire job of installing a house plumbing system by themselves. To these we suggest calling in a plumber and working along with him on the job. There is a good deal of rough unskilled work to he done on a plumbing job and if you do this work while the plumber devotes his energies to the more involved problems, you will be pleasantly surprised to find how fast the work will go and how much can be saved.

And helping to install the plumbing system is the best way to gain an understanding of how it works so that in the future, if something should go wrong, you will be in a good position to know where the trouble might lie and how it should be fixed. But regardless of who does the work, be sure that a first-class system is installed.

Do not take any short cuts or let anyone else take them on your house plumbing system. There is no point in a plumbing system unless there is an adequate supply of fresh water. Hence, perhaps the best place to start when you think of plumbing is right at this factor. If you are building where there is a convenient city water main, your water supply is no problem. After the system is installed in the house, it is connected to the water main. The job of connecting the house line to the main is usually done by the city or the water company and there is a slight fee charged.

If you do not live near city water, you have to think about some other source for the water supply—wells, rivers, lakes or springs. By far the most efficient private water supply in most cases is that obtained from a drilled or artesian well. A drain trap is a U-shaped pipe that connects to the bottom of a sink, shower or tub drain. A trap retains a small amount of water that prevents smelly sewer gasses from backing up into the house.

All plumbing fixtures require drain traps except the commode, which comes with an internal trap in its base. Glenda Taylor is a contractor and a full-time writer specializing in construction writing. She also enjoys writing business and finance, food and drink and pet-related articles. Her education includes marketing and a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Kansas.

By Glenda Taylor Updated December 19, Related Articles.