The Process
How Poly B Replacement Works, Start to Finish
A whole-home repipe sounds bigger than it needs to be. Here's exactly what happens from your first call to the final walkthrough, so there are no surprises along the way.
Most plumbers leave you to find a separate drywaller. We don't — the same team that repipes your home also restores the walls.
Get your Poly B repair quote
Ready to see the process for your own home? A referral to a licensed contractor is step one.
We’ll email you to connect you with a licensed plumbing contractor, who confirms your Poly B on site and gives you a firm price — pipe and walls, one number.
Firm, written price before any work begins — no surprise billing, ever.
Step 1
on-site Assessment and Fixed Quote
It starts with a free, no-obligation visit. A licensed plumber inspects your plumbing, confirms the Poly B, and looks at your home's layout — number of bathrooms, storeys, foundation type and wall access — to understand the real scope of the job. From that visit, you get a single fixed quote covering the pipe and the drywall restoration together, not an estimate that grows once work starts.
Confirming the Poly B itself is usually straightforward — the plumber checks accessible pipe at the water heater, main shut-off, or any exposed runs for the grey flexible pipe and its PB2110 stamp, then extrapolates to the rest of the home based on its build era and what's visible. If there's genuine doubt, we'll say so rather than guess, and open a small access point to confirm before quoting the full job.
Step 2
Scheduling and Protecting Your Home
Once you approve the quote, we schedule the work and take steps to protect your home before anything is opened up — covering floors and furnishings and containing dust around the access points we'll be working through. You'll know the plan before the crew arrives, not on the day of.
That includes confirming permits where the work requires them and walking you through which rooms will be affected and roughly when, so you can plan around the crew instead of being surprised by them mid-week.
Step 3
Running New PEX Lines
We run new PEX lines through the attic, walls and other access points, cutting only what's needed to reach the existing Poly B runs — we don't open more of your home than the job requires. Pressure-testing and inspection follow to confirm every new line and fitting is sound before anything gets closed back up.
We also coordinate access points so we're opening the fewest walls and ceilings necessary to reach the runs that actually need replacing, rather than a blanket demo approach — it keeps the drywall-restoration step afterward smaller and faster too.
Most single-family homes are repiped in one to two days, with larger or harder-access homes running longer — it varies with size and how accessible the existing plumbing is. The contractor gives you a specific range for your home as part of the quote rather than a generic promise.
Step 4
Drywall Restored, Not Just Left Open
This is the step most Poly B replacements skip — and the one we build the whole process around.
Our own drywall team patches, finishes and paints every access point we opened.
Walls and ceilings come back looking finished, not just sealed shut.
The drywall restoration is part of the one fixed price — see our Poly B replacement cost breakdown.
Step 5
Walkthrough and Insurance Documentation
The job wraps with a walkthrough where we confirm everything is finished to your expectations, followed by an insurer-ready completion document confirming the replacement — the paperwork most insurers ask for when you're getting a policy renewed or reinstated after Poly B. See our home insurance and Poly B page for more on that side of it.
We'll also flag anything worth knowing for the long term — where the new shut-offs are, and what to expect as the drywall patches cure and take their final coat of paint over the following days.
If you're weighing whether to act now or wait, the honest answer is that the process itself doesn't get shorter by delaying — it just moves from a scheduled visit to an unplanned one if the existing Poly B fails first.
From first call to final walkthrough, it's one process with one crew — not a plumbing job followed by a separate scramble to find someone to fix the walls.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does Poly B replacement take?
Typically one to two days for most single-family homes — longer for larger homes, depending on size and how accessible the existing plumbing is. The contractor gives you a specific range as part of your quote.
Do I need to move out during the work?
Most homeowners stay in the home during the repipe. We'll walk you through what to expect for your specific layout during the assessment.
Will the walls actually get fixed, or just patched shut?
Fixed — our in-house drywall team patches, finishes and paints every opening as part of the same job, so it's paint-ready, not just sealed.
What happens if you find something unexpected once walls are open?
We'll tell you before continuing and confirm any change in scope or price with you directly — no surprise charges show up on the final invoice after the fact.
Do I get documentation for my insurer afterward?
Yes — every completed job includes a written, insurer-ready completion document confirming the replacement was finished, which you can forward directly to your broker or insurer.
How does Poly B replacement work, step by step?
A Poly B retrofit follows the same shape in most homes: the runs are mapped, small openings are made where pipe changes direction or meets a fixture, new PEX is pulled through, the system is pressure-tested and inspected, and the openings are then closed and finished. Poly B remediation is the same work described in insurance language.
How do plumbers replace Poly B without destroying walls?
By working with the building rather than through it. Existing cavities, closets, attic space and basement ceilings carry most of the new run, so openings go where pipe genuinely has to be reached instead of along its whole length. Repipe attic access is the cheapest route through a bungalow; a repipe crawlspace does the same job from underneath.
What about a repipe in a slab foundation home?
A repipe slab foundation home is routed overhead instead of underfoot - through the attic and down interior walls - rather than breaking concrete. It changes where the openings land, not whether the job can be done.
Manifold vs trunk and branch plumbing - which do you end up with?
Most repipes are rebuilt as a home run plumbing system: each fixture gets its own line back to a central manifold, so one fixture can be isolated without shutting the house down. The older trunk and branch layout tees off a shared main instead. Manifold vs trunk and branch plumbing is worth asking about, because it decides how the house behaves for the next thirty years.
Can I replace Poly B myself?
Can I replace Poly B myself is a fair question, and mostly the answer is no. Potable water work is permitted and inspected work in most Canadian jurisdictions, and an uninspected repipe is exactly what an insurer points at after a loss. A referral to a licensed contractor keeps the paperwork intact.
Do I need to replace the Poly B main line too?
Do I need to replace the Poly B main line too depends on what the main actually is - the buried service line into the house is often a different material from the grey supply lines running through it. It gets checked as part of the same assessment rather than assumed either way.
In Short
How Poly B Replacement Works — The Short Version
How poly b replacement works, in short: a referral to a licensed contractor and fixed quote, a scheduled whole-home PEX repipe — typically one to two days for most homes —, pressure-testing and inspection, in-house drywall restoration, and a final walkthrough with insurer-ready documentation. It's the same repiping process every time — one licensed crew, one price, pipe and walls both finished before we leave.
Get Started
See What the Process Looks Like for Your Home
request a referral and get a step-by-step quote for the whole job — pipe and walls.
Get My Poly B Repair Quote