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If your home was built between 1995 and 2007 in Rancho Cordova, there’s a real chance you’ve got Kitec plumbing sitting behind your walls. The bright blue and orange pipes seemed fine when they went in. Now they’re a ticking clock.
Kitec systems don’t just wear out slowly. They fail suddenly—bursting without warning, flooding floors, ruining drywall, destroying belongings. The brass fittings corrode from the inside out. The aluminum layer breaks down. Water pressure drops until one day it doesn’t just drop—it explodes.
You’re not imagining the problem. Insurance companies in Sacramento County are starting to refuse coverage on homes with Kitec still installed. Some won’t renew your policy. Others will, but they won’t cover the damage when it happens. That’s not paranoia—that’s how serious this is.
Replacing your Kitec system now means you sleep better. No more wondering if tonight’s the night a pipe lets go. No more small leaks that turn into big repair bills. Just reliable plumbing that works the way it’s supposed to, with materials that won’t fail in ten years.
We’ve been handling residential and commercial Kitec repiping in Rancho Cordova, CA and throughout Sacramento County since before most people knew Kitec was a problem. We’re licensed, insured, and locally owned—not a franchise that rotates techs through your town.
When you call, you’re talking to people who live here. We know which neighborhoods got hit hardest with Kitec installations. We know what your home looks like inside the walls because we’ve repiped dozens just like it.
You’ll get a free estimate before we start. The price we quote is the price you pay—no padding, no “unforeseen circumstances” that magically show up halfway through. If the job comes in under estimate, you pay less. That’s happened more than once.
We also answer the phone at 2 a.m. if your pipe decides that’s when it wants to burst. Emergency service isn’t an upcharge we tack on to sound impressive—it’s just how we work.
First, we come out and actually look at your system. Not every home needs a full repipe—some only need partial replacement depending on where the Kitec was installed. We’ll tell you what you actually need, not what makes us the most money.
If you do need a full repipe, we map out the existing system using camera inspection so we know exactly what we’re dealing with. No guessing. Then we give you a written estimate that breaks down materials, labor, and timeline. Most homes take two to four days depending on size and how accessible your plumbing is.
During the work, we replace your old Kitec with either PEX or copper—your choice, and we’ll explain the pros and cons of each. We cut into walls where we need to, but we’re not tearing apart your house for no reason. Every access point is planned to minimize damage and make drywall repair straightforward.
Once the new pipes are in, we pressure test the entire system to make sure there are no weak points. Then we patch, texture, and paint the drywall so it matches the rest of your wall. You’re not left with a plumbing system that works great but looks like a construction zone.
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A complete Kitec repipe in Rancho Cordova means we’re replacing every inch of that defective piping—hot and cold water lines, supply lines to fixtures, everything. You’re not keeping any of the old system and hoping it holds.
You get new shut-off valves at every fixture so if something ever does need repair down the road, you’re not shutting off water to the whole house. You get modern materials that meet current California building codes and won’t corrode, crack, or fail the way Kitec does.
In Rancho Cordova, most homes we repipe are single-story ranch styles or two-story builds from the early 2000s. The average cost runs between $5,000 and $15,000 depending on square footage and how many bathrooms you have. That includes all materials, labor, drywall repair, texture, and paint. It’s not cheap, but it’s a fraction of what you’d spend fixing water damage after a catastrophic failure.
You also get documentation for your insurance company and future buyers. We provide a completion certificate and warranty information that proves your home no longer has Kitec plumbing. That matters when you go to sell or renew your homeowner’s policy.
Look for bright blue and orange pipes, usually visible in your water heater closet, under sinks, or in the attic. Kitec cold water lines are blue, hot water lines are orange. Some installations used red and gray pipes instead, but that’s less common in Rancho Cordova.
Check the fittings where pipes connect—if they’re brass and stamped with “Kitec” or “KTC,” that’s a positive ID. The pipes themselves might also have “Kitec” or “KTC” printed along the length.
If you’re not sure, call us for a free inspection. We can identify Kitec in about ten minutes and let you know how much of your system is affected. Some homes only have Kitec on certain lines—others have it throughout the entire house.
Kitec pipes fail because of a design flaw in the brass fittings. The fittings contain high levels of zinc—over 15%—which causes a process called dezincification. Essentially, the zinc leaches out when it contacts water, leaving the brass weak and porous.
At the same time, the thin aluminum layer inside the pipe reacts with water and starts to corrode. This creates buildup that restricts water flow and weakens the pipe walls. Eventually, the pressure becomes too much and the pipe bursts or the fitting cracks.
It’s urgent because Kitec failures are accelerating. Most systems were installed between 1995 and 2007, and they started failing in large numbers around 2005—about ten years after installation. If your system is 15 to 25 years old now, you’re in the highest risk window. The failure rate is expected to hit 100% eventually. It’s not if, it’s when.
Maybe, but don’t count on it. Insurance companies in California are increasingly reluctant to cover homes with known Kitec plumbing. Some insurers will drop you at renewal if they find out you have Kitec and haven’t replaced it.
Even if your policy technically covers water damage, they may deny your claim if they determine you knew about the Kitec problem and didn’t fix it. That’s considered negligence in some cases.
The smarter move is to replace the system now while you still have coverage, rather than gambling that your insurer will pay out after a failure. Once the damage happens, you’re looking at thousands in repairs even if insurance does cover part of it—and you’ll still need to repipe anyway.
Most single-story homes take two to three days. Two-story homes or homes with more than two bathrooms usually take three to four days. That’s from start to finish—old pipes out, new pipes in, drywall patched, painted, and cleaned up.
You’ll have water shut off during active work hours, but we restore service at the end of each day so you’re not going without water overnight. If you need us to work around your schedule—like avoiding certain days or working in sections—we can usually make that happen.
The timeline also depends on how accessible your plumbing is. Homes with crawl spaces or open attics go faster. Homes with slab foundations or finished ceilings take a bit longer because we have to work more carefully around the structure.
PEX is less expensive—usually 20% to 30% cheaper than copper for the same job. It’s also faster to install because it’s flexible and requires fewer fittings. PEX is durable, freeze-resistant, and has a long track record in California homes.
Copper costs more upfront but some homeowners prefer it because it’s been around longer and has a proven lifespan of 50+ years. It’s rigid, so it requires more fittings and takes longer to install, which adds to labor costs.
Both materials are solid choices and will outlast you in the home. If budget is tight, go with PEX. If you want the traditional option and don’t mind paying extra, copper works great. We install both regularly in Rancho Cordova and can walk you through the pros and cons based on your specific home.
No, and here’s why—the problem isn’t just the fittings. The pipes themselves are defective. The aluminum layer inside corrodes and weakens over time. Even if you replaced every brass fitting with a new one, the pipes would still fail.
There’s also no way to replace fittings without cutting into the pipes, and once you start doing that, you’re halfway to a full repipe anyway. You’d spend money on a partial fix that buys you maybe a year or two before the next failure.
The class action lawsuit against Kitec awarded $125 million because the entire system—pipes and fittings—was found to be defective. Replacing just part of it doesn’t solve the problem. You need a full repipe to actually protect your home.
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