How Much Does Plumbing Cost for a New House?

Building a new home can be an exciting phase of your life. But, it can also be a time fraught with anxiety and complications if you do not plan your new construction project well. An indispensable part of your new home is its plumbing. After all, you will need functional toilets, sinks, tubs, water heaters, and sewer lines. So, how much does plumbing cost for a new house?

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Cost to plumb a new house 

The cost of a new water pipe installation project depends on various factors, including the labor costs, your home’s layout, how far apart the bathrooms are, your choice of plumbing material (PEX pipes, copper pipes, or galvanized steel pipes) and the number of fixtures such as toilets, bathroom or kitchen sink, shower or bathtub, and how many stories your house has. 

The plumbing cost per fixture can range from $600 to $1,600 depending on whether it’s a rough-in plumbing work or your plumber has supplied the fixtures. 

By the way, the term rough-in plumbing indicates just the pipe installation and connection — to each other as well as to the water main. This type of work doesn’t include the cost of the sinks, faucets, or toilets. Once you’ve chosen the plumbing fixtures, their cost adds to your remodeling estimate.

Do you want to get an accurate cost estimate for your new plumbing installation? Try our free remodel cost estimator for instant results!

Let’s take some examples of cost estimates. The average rough-in plumbing cost for a new 2,000 square foot home with 2 or 3 baths will run approximately $8,000 to $12,000. A 2,300 square foot home with 2.5 baths will have an average cost of $11,500. 

Read more: To-do list to combat jitters for new homeowners

How much does plumbing cost for a new house per square foot? 

The national average plumbing installation cost for a new house or large plumbing projects is around $4.50 per square foot.

Although the cost estimate is not determined too much by the square footage of your home, this figure should give you a rough idea of the total costs of your plumbing project. The higher the square footage, the more the chances that your bathrooms will be further apart from each other. This will definitely affect the total piping cost. 

Cost of plumbing for a mobile home

Plumbing a mobile home costs anything between $2,000 and $4,000. Of course, the pricing will depend on the size and model of the mobile home. Since such a home is quite different from a stick-built home, the plumbing setup too is different. In a mobile home, all the plumbing is on the floor, and not behind the walls. Therefore, your plumbing work will be much less complicated, and less expensive.

Plumbing cost factors

As mentioned before, plumbing costs for a new home vary depending on the layout of your home, the materials you choose, the number of stories, the location of the bathrooms, among other factors. Let’s explore some of these in detail.

• Home size and number of stories

The size of your home affects the pricing as they dictate how far apart your bathrooms are from each other. Quite obviously, installing plumbing for back-to-back bathrooms will be a lot cheaper. The farther the water lines run, the higher will be the cost of pipes, and their installation.

Also, the prices increase with stories. For example, a two-story home will require a more elaborate plumbing setup, with vertical water pipes.

• DIY vs professional work

Although your plumbing cost will increase significantly if you hire a professional to do your home plumbing job, it’s a wise investment.

Complicated work such as plumbing is better left to the pros. Moreover, licensed plumbers carry liability insurance. And, your homeowners insurance will cover only a professionally installed work, not a DIY project. There’s no way you should risk thousands of dollars in water damage.

If you have had a DIY plumbing installation and are unsure how well it will hold up, call plumbing experts to help correct your mistakes and avoid potential losses.

• Amount of excavation needed

Most new constructions will require excavation to run the drain pipes out of the home. And, also run the water lines from the city main into your home. The process is not a simple shovel-and-dig kind of work. The excavation requires the use of heavy equipment and the skills to use such equipment.

You will have to hire a special excavation crew — costing you between $80 and $125 per hour. Or, sometimes, $80 and $200 per yard. The total labor cost will depend on the size of your project and the layout of your new home.

• Number of plumbing fixtures

It goes without saying that the higher the number of plumbing fixtures, the more expensive will be your plumbing project. Let’s look at some of the appliances and fixtures that require rough-in plumbing:

• Number of bathrooms 

The following costs do not include kitchen or mainline hookup, just the bathroom plumbing. Keep in mind that half bathrooms cost 60% of a full bath price since there are less number of bathroom fixtures. 

• Piping material prices

There are some common types of materials for water piping. The most popular ones are copper pipes and plastic pipes such as PEX and CPVC (chlorinated polyvinyl chloride). 

Keep in mind that if you’ve just bought an older home, you may need to install new plumbing, especially if the old piping material is a hazardous one. For example, lead pipes are highly toxic while galvanized steel pipes fill with rust and mineral deposits. The sediment taints your water over time. It’s also best to replace the extremely fragile polybutylene pipes as they break easily. In such cases, you need to replace pipes at the earliest. 

Read more: How to estimate a remodeling job

Last words

If you’re in the process of building a new home, you should have a good idea about the cost to plumb a house besides your general construction costs.

We hope this guide helps you budget your home improvement better. It covers the most common cost factors that affect your total plumbing cost for new construction. Just make sure that you find yourself reputable plumbing services to complete your project. 

Apart from helping you with the plumbing material for your home, they’ll tackle the installation (as well as any complexities along the way) in the best possible way — saving you a lot of hassles.

Read more: Cost to Replace Plumbing in an Old House

Written by Ramona Sinha. October 19, 2020

Ramona is a content writer for Kukun. This experienced blogger uses simple and succinct words to decipher the complex phenomenon called life. An avid traveler, she’s a digital nomad at heart and an animal lover from the depths of her soul.