Furnace, Ventilation & Air Quality
Poly-B Plumbing Replacement in Calgary
Poly-B doesn't warn you. It holds up for thirty years and then fails, usually at a fitting, usually above a finished ceiling, usually at two in the morning.
We visit your home, then you get a written price and a start date.
McAra Design + Build gives you a fixed price in writing before any work begins. What moves the price of a Poly-B replacement up or down is the number of storeys, how much of the ceiling is already finished, and how many bathrooms the pipes feed. A bungalow with an open basement ceiling is the simplest case; two finished storeys and several bathrooms take longer and cost more.
Done during a renovation, while walls or ceilings are already opened up, the same work costs a fraction of that, because most of the cost is accessing the pipes and repairing walls, not the pipe itself. Done as an emergency after a pipe fails, you're paying for the repipe plus the water damage, and your insurer may be making some of those decisions for you.
What's involved
Out with the grey pipe, in with PEX, then put the house back together.
- 01Checking the whole house to confirm what pipe you have
- 02Planning routes through existing walls and floors
- 03Cutting access openings
- 04PEX (a flexible plastic water pipe) supply lines and manifold
- 05Replacing fittings and valves
- 06Reconnecting fixtures
- 07Pressure testing
- 08Insulating pipes that run through outside walls
- 09Drywall repair, texture matching and paint
- 10Permit and inspection
What we check that others don't
What we check that others don't.
- §1
Whether you actually have Poly-B. Poly-B is grey — sometimes black or blue — flexible plastic pipe, usually stamped PB2110, common in Alberta homes built roughly 1985 to 1997. Look at the pipes at the water heater and under a sink. We check the whole house, because it's common for a past owner to have replaced only part of it, and the remaining sections are the ones that fail.
- §2
The fittings, which are usually where it fails. The pipe itself often outlasts its connections. The plastic fittings and crimp rings that join sections wear out over time, and most of the failures we see happen at joints, behind walls and above ceilings. Looking at a straight run of visible pipe tells you very little about the parts you can't see.
- §3
Why insurers care, and what to ask yours. Some Canadian insurers won't issue new policies on houses with Poly-B, some charge more for it, and some limit water-damage coverage. It's worth a phone call before deciding the work can wait — it often changes the math on its own.
- §4
The route, so the drywall repair stays small. Most of this job is accessing the pipe and repairing the wall afterward. We plan the routes through existing closets, the basement ceiling and wall cavities, opening in the fewest and easiest-to-patch places. What the repair will look like is agreed on before we start, not shown to you at the end.
- §5
What else is already open at the same time. If a bathroom is being renovated, the ceiling is already down, or the basement is being finished, that's the cheapest chance this house will ever have for a repipe. We tell you when a planned project puts that within reach.
How long it takes
Three days to two weeks.
The plumbing work itself takes two to four days for most houses. The water is shut off for parts of it, and we tell you which parts before we start.
Drywall repair, texture matching and paint make up the rest, and that's what stretches a whole-house repipe toward two weeks. Alongside an existing renovation, most of that time overlaps with work already scheduled.
We put it in writing.
- A fixed price
- agreed before we start, and it doesn't move unless you change the scope.
- A completion date
- in the contract, not a range, not a best guess.
- A workmanship warranty
- if it fails because of how we installed it, we fix it. No argument, no invoice.
Most renovation guarantees are a paragraph of conditions. Ours is three commitments you can hold us to.
Questions people ask before they book.
- Check the supply pipes at the water heater and under a sink for grey flexible plastic pipe, often stamped PB2110, in a house built roughly 1985 to 1997. McAra Design + Build checks the whole system rather than just one visible pipe, because partial replacements are common in Calgary and the leftover original sections are usually the ones that fail first.
- It can. Some insurers decline new policies on houses that still have it, some charge more for the risk, and some limit water-damage coverage specifically. McAra Design + Build recommends calling your own insurer before deciding the replacement can wait, since the answer often changes the cost math on its own.
- That's the cheapest way to do it. Most of the cost of replacing Poly-B is accessing the pipes and repairing drywall, so McAra Design + Build does the work while a bathroom, ceiling or basement is already opened up for other reasons, which removes most of that access cost. We flag it whenever a planned project puts your pipes within reach.
Where this sits
This work is part of Furnace, Ventilation & Air Quality.
People looking at this page usually look at Bathroom Renovations and Whole-Home Renovations in the same conversation.
Get a free in-home quote.
We visit your home, then you get a written price and a start date.
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Or call Chris directly: +1 (587) 837-3113