Strictly re-piping houses. Economically viable business?

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Mike Garrod

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i worked in re-pipe for years in Vancouver BC recouping big and small apartment buildings. It is a profitable market in that sense. I have a friend who wants to do "residential re-pipes" and something tells me it's just not worth it. Seems to me that most plumbing companies already offer re pipe as a service. I wouldn't think that re piping an average house would take all that long, thus you would need a lot of houses to repipe to keep busy, and I just don't think the work is there consistently. Any feedback from plumbers with their own company, particularly in the northwest?
 

Dj2

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Whether you are inquiring for a "friend" or somebody else (like yourself), you need to do a "market research" before launching a business.
1. There is a world of difference between being a plumber in a company and becoming an independent plumber. As an employee, you have a safety net under you, but as a contractor there is none.
2. Look up at local plumbing services advertisers - yellow book, paper ads, on line, leaflets and all other sources - and you tell me: how's the competition? Plumbing is probably the one trade with the most competition.
3. If you want to do re-pipes and re-pipes only, and you manage to get one job a month, you won't make money.
4. If you want to establish yourself based on "quality work at affordable prices", you'll have to do many jobs with a very small profits - it might take longer than you think to have the phone ringing based on words of mouth.
5. A much better field in plumbing is converting oil furnaces to gas furnaces, IMHO.
So you see, you don't need to go to Wharton School of Business to know the risks of becoming an independent contractor. Good luck to you.
A friendly advice: don't mock other trade contractors' quality of work , if you don't other contractors mocking yours (contractors like drywallers for example).
 

Terry

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There are outfits that only do re-pipes. It's just a matter of getting the information out. The jobs take more time than service, and as you know you need to camp on it. Most of the time those repipes are with people living in the homes, needing water at the end of the day.
I used to do more of those years back. It's nice to see the surprise on the homeowners's faces when the job is done, and there is good pressure coming from all the faucets. Most of the time you are only fixing a problem. With a repipe, you are bringing them into the current state of afairs with pressure balanced faucets, proper sizing, and new clean water lines.
 
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