Poly-B pipe replacement
Poly-B is the grey plastic water pipe installed in hundreds of thousands of BC homes between 1978 and 1997. It fails — usually at the fittings, usually without warning — and most insurers now treat it as a known risk rather than an ordinary pipe.
Replacing it in a detached Metro Vancouver home typically costs $8,000–$18,000. In a townhouse, $6,000–$14,000. Here's how to tell if you have it, why it matters more than it used to, and what replacing it actually involves.
Do you have Poly-B?
Look at the pipe where it comes out of your hot water tank, or under a bathroom sink.
You're looking for: grey plastic pipe, roughly the flexibility of a garden hose, usually ½" or ¾", often with grey plastic or copper crimp rings at the joints. It may be stamped PB2110. Sometimes it's blue or black, especially on the main service line into the house.
You've probably got it if: the home was built or replumbed between 1978 and 1997 · you're in a Metro Vancouver townhouse complex from the mid-80s or 90s · you're in Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam or a Burnaby subdivision from that era, where it was installed heavily.
It isn't Poly-B if: the pipe is copper, or it's white/red/blue modern PEX, or it's orange and blue with brass fittings — that's Kitec, a different material with a different problem.
Not sure? Send us a photo. Text or email a picture of the pipe at your hot water tank to 604-865-7979 or [email protected] and we'll identify it for free. No visit, no obligation, no follow-up sales call.
Why Poly-B fails
Two mechanisms, and they compound.
Chlorine degradation. Municipal water is chlorinated. Over decades, chlorine oxidises the inner wall of the pipe, making it progressively brittle. You can't see this from the outside — a pipe that looks fine can be at the end of its service life.
Fitting failure. The original acetal (plastic) fittings and crimp rings degrade and crack, which is where most failures actually occur. Later installations used copper fittings, which perform better but sit in a pipe that's still ageing.
The result is a system that gives no warning. Poly-B doesn't usually weep first — it splits, and it tends to do it behind drywall or under a floor.
The insurance problem
This is the part most homeowners find out about at the worst moment.
Many BC insurers now restrict coverage, increase premiums, or decline to write new policies on homes with Poly-B. Practices vary by insurer and change over time, so the only reliable answer is your own broker's — but the direction of travel across the industry has been consistent for years.
Where it bites:
Buying a home. Your insurance quote arrives conditional on replacement, sometimes within a set timeframe.
Renewing. A policy that was fine for years comes back with a water-damage exclusion or a much higher premium.
Claiming. A claim for damage from a known-defective material can be treated differently from a sudden accidental failure.
Selling. Buyers' inspectors flag it. It becomes a price negotiation whether or not it has ever leaked.
After replacement, owners frequently find coverage terms improve and premiums drop. Ask your broker with our written completion report and permit record in hand — that documentation is what they'll want, and it's what we produce as standard.
⚠️ We're plumbers, not insurance advisers. Nothing here is a statement about your specific policy.
Repair or replace?
An honest answer: an isolated failure in an otherwise young system can be repaired, and sometimes should be.
But Poly-B fails as a material, not as a location. If your home is at the older end of the range, or you've already had one failure, repairing the split section leaves you with the same pipe everywhere else and the same insurance position. Most people who repair a Poly-B leak call us again within a couple of years.
We'll tell you which situation you're in. If a repair genuinely makes sense for now, we'll do the repair.
What replacement involves
PEX is the standard replacement — flexible, freeze-tolerant, no corrosion, fewer joints. It routes through existing cavities more easily than copper, which means less wall opened and lower labour cost.
Typical duration: 3–5 days detached, 2–4 days townhouse, 1–3 days condo suite.
What it costs, and what moves the number
Moving the number: bathroom and fixture count · storeys and crawlspace vs slab · PEX or copper · access (finished basements and tiled walls cost more) · whether drywall repair is included · whether the main service line also needs doing.
⚠️ When comparing quotes, check four things: is the permit included, is drywall repair included, is disposal included, and is it PEX or copper. Those four omissions are how a cheap quote becomes an expensive job.
- Condo suite
- $5,000–$12,000
- Townhouse
- $6,000–$14,000
- Detached home
- $8,000–$18,000
Townhouses and strata
Poly-B is heavily represented in Metro Vancouver townhouse complexes from the 1980s and 90s — which means it's often a strata question, not just an owner's. Some complexes run coordinated replacement programs; some leave it to owners. We do both, we'll attend a council meeting, and we'll quote a whole complex.
Why us
Licensed and insured, permits pulled as standard, written price before we start, and a completion report your insurer will accept. We work across Vancouver, Burnaby, Richmond, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and New Westminster — including the townhouse belt where most of BC's Poly-B still is.
