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If your Newcastle home was built between 1995 and 2007, there’s a decent chance you have Kitec plumbing. The brass fittings corrode from the inside out. The pipes become brittle. And when they go, they don’t leak—they burst.
You’re looking at flooded rooms, ruined floors, mold remediation, and an insurance claim that might get denied because Kitec failures are considered a known defect. Many carriers in Placer County won’t even insure homes with Kitec anymore, or they’re charging premiums that make you wince.
Replacing Kitec plumbing in Newcastle isn’t about upgrading. It’s about removing a liability before it costs you tens of thousands in water damage. Once it’s out, you can actually sell your home without disclosures scaring off buyers. You can get normal insurance rates. And you can stop checking under sinks every time you hear a drip.
We’ve been serving Newcastle and Placer County for over 100 years. We’ve seen plumbing trends come and go, and we were here when Kitec was being installed in the late ’90s and early 2000s. Now we’re the ones ripping it out.
We’re not a franchise. We’re local, licensed, and we show up when we say we will. Our crews know Newcastle homes—the layouts, the access points, the quirks of properties built during that Kitec era. And we’re upfront about what it costs before we start cutting into walls.
You’ll find us at 4.7 stars on Google with 93 reviews, most of them mentioning that we came in under estimate or finished faster than expected. That’s not luck—it’s just how we run jobs.
First, we confirm you actually have Kitec. We check under sinks, behind toilets, near the water heater, and in your utility areas. If we see those orange hot water lines and blue cold water lines with brass fittings stamped “Kitec” or “KTC,” we know what we’re dealing with.
Next, we map out your plumbing system and plan the replacement. Most Newcastle homes let us access the majority of pipes from the crawl space or attic, which keeps wall cuts to a minimum. We’ll tell you exactly where we need to open drywall and what the access plan looks like before we touch anything.
Then we replace the entire system—usually with PEX or copper, depending on your preference and budget. The job typically takes two to three days for a full home repipe. We test everything, patch and paint the drywall, and clean up. When we leave, your plumbing is code-compliant, warrantied, and insurable.
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This isn’t a patch job. When we handle Kitec replacement in Newcastle, CA, we remove every inch of Kitec pipe and fitting from your home. That means hot and cold lines, supply lines to fixtures, and any brass fittings that could fail down the road.
You get new piping throughout—either PEX tubing or copper pipe, both of which are durable, code-compliant, and backed by manufacturer warranties. We handle all the drywall work too, so you’re not left with open walls and a list of contractors to call. Patch, tape, texture, paint—it’s all part of the service.
And because this is Newcastle, where many homes sit on larger lots with crawl space access, we’re often able to run new lines without tearing up your entire house. That keeps costs down and gets you back to normal faster. You’ll also get documentation for your insurance company showing the work was completed by a licensed contractor, which can help you secure better rates or coverage you couldn’t get before.
Look for orange and blue plastic pipes, usually near your water heater, under sinks, or behind toilets. The orange pipes carry hot water, and the blue ones carry cold water. The fittings connecting them are brass and often stamped with “Kitec,” “KTC,” “PlumbBetter,” or “IPEX AQUA.”
If your home was built or renovated between 1995 and 2007, the chances go up significantly. Kitec was popular during that window because it was cheaper and faster to install than copper. A lot of Newcastle developments from that era used it.
If you’re not sure, we can come out and identify it for you. It takes about 10 minutes to check the visible plumbing and confirm whether you’re dealing with Kitec or something else.
Most full-home Kitec replacements in Newcastle run between $8,000 and $15,000, depending on the size of your home, how accessible your plumbing is, and what material you choose for the replacement. Homes with easy crawl space or attic access tend to cost less because we don’t have to open as many walls.
That price includes removing all the old Kitec, installing new piping, pressure testing the system, repairing drywall, and painting the patches. If your home has limited access or requires more extensive wall work, costs can go higher, but we’ll walk the property and give you a firm estimate before any work starts.
One thing to keep in mind: the cost of replacing Kitec proactively is almost always less than dealing with a burst pipe, water damage, mold remediation, and an insurance deductible. We’ve seen homeowners spend $20,000+ recovering from a single Kitec failure.
Most Kitec replacements in Newcastle take two to three days for a complete home repipe. Day one is usually demo and rough-in, where we remove the old Kitec and run the new supply lines. Day two is connections, testing, and starting drywall repairs. Day three is finishing drywall, paint, and final cleanup.
Smaller homes or condos can sometimes be done faster. Larger homes with complex layouts or limited access might take an extra day. But you’ll have water service restored at the end of each day—we don’t leave you without running water overnight.
The timeline also depends on how much drywall work is needed. If we can route most of the new piping through your crawl space or attic, the job moves faster because we’re not waiting on drywall mud to dry in 10 different spots.
Probably not. Most homeowners insurance policies won’t cover Kitec replacement because it’s considered a maintenance issue or a pre-existing defect, not sudden damage. If your Kitec pipes burst and cause water damage, your insurance might cover the damage to your floors and walls—but even that’s not guaranteed, since many policies exclude damage from faulty materials or known defects.
What makes it worse is that some insurance companies in California are now refusing to insure homes with Kitec at all, or they’re charging higher premiums and deductibles if they do cover you. If you’re trying to sell your home, buyers will have a hard time getting insurance, which kills deals before they even start.
The good news is that once you replace the Kitec, you can usually get back to normal insurance rates and coverage. We provide documentation of the work for your insurer, which proves the system has been fully replaced with code-compliant materials.
You can, but it’s not a real solution. The brass fittings are the main failure point—they corrode from dezincification, which weakens them until they crack or burst. But the pipes themselves also become brittle over time, especially the hot water lines. Replacing just the fittings means you’re still sitting on old, degraded pipe that could fail next month or next year.
There was a class action settlement years ago that offered partial reimbursement for Kitec replacement, but that claim period ended in January 2020. At this point, you’re paying out of pocket either way, so it makes sense to do the job once and be done with it.
Most plumbers won’t even offer a warranty if they’re only swapping fittings, because they know the pipes are going to fail eventually. If you’re going to spend the money and deal with the disruption, you might as well replace the whole system and actually solve the problem.
You’re looking at water damage that can run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Kitec pipes don’t leak slowly—they burst open and flood rooms fast. If it happens while you’re home, you might catch it in time to shut off the main water line and limit the damage. If it happens while you’re at work or on vacation, you could come home to standing water, destroyed floors, soaked drywall, and mold starting to grow.
Your insurance might cover some of the damage, but don’t count on it. Many policies exclude damage caused by defective materials, and Kitec has been a known problem since 2005. Even if your claim gets approved, you’ll still be dealing with your deductible, displaced furniture, contractors in and out for weeks, and the hassle of fighting with adjusters.
If your Kitec does burst, call us immediately. We offer 24/7 emergency service in Newcastle and can get someone out fast to stop the water, assess the damage, and start the replacement. But honestly, the better move is to replace it before it fails.
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