Before it decides your sale for you, we tell you what that flag actually means - and whether you need to repipe now, or at all. Straight answer, from the fittings.
Orange and blue flexible pipe, brass fittings, run through tens of thousands of Vegas master-planned homes. The pipe is rarely the problem. The brass is.
Flexible pipe with an aluminum core. Fine on its own. It's the fittings that connect the runs that fail.
Vegas hard water leaches zinc from the brass. The fitting weakens, cracks, and leaks - often with no warning.
By the time it shows, it's behind drywall. Insurers know this - which is why a Kitec flag follows the house.
The zinc in the fitting leaches out and leaves a brittle, porous copper skeleton behind. Hard water and heat accelerate it - exactly what a Vegas hot-water line delivers, every day, for twenty years.
That's why a fitting can look fine and fail the same week. You don't patch it. You replace the system.
How dezincification worksKitec's payout window closed years ago. Today a flagged home is repiped out of pocket, and carriers increasingly won't write or renew it. Waiting only shortens your options.
Not always. The pipe itself rarely fails. The brass fittings fail through dezincification, and how far along yours are depends on your water pressure, the age of the home, and how the system was installed. Some homes need to move now, others have runway. Send us the report and we’ll tell you which one you’re looking at.
Look under a sink or at the water heater for flexible orange (hot) and blue (cold) pipe with brass crimp fittings. Most Las Vegas homes built between 1995 and 2007 are candidates. If you’re not sure, send us a few photos of the fittings and we’ll confirm it before anyone talks about a repipe.
It’s how the brass fittings fail. Zinc leaches out of the brass over time, and Vegas hard water and heat speed it up. The fitting gets brittle, cracks, and leaks, often inside a wall with no warning. The pipe can look fine while the fittings are the real problem.
It happens more and more. Some insurers won’t write a new policy on a Kitec home and some won’t renew an existing one. That alone pushes a lot of owners to repipe even when the fittings could technically wait a while longer.
In the Las Vegas Valley most jobs land between $7,500 and $14,000 once you include restoration, with custom homes running higher. Copper and PEX-A price differently and home size, bath count, and access all move the number. Our cost guide breaks down the full ranges.
Both are good. Copper costs more in material and labor. PEX-A (Uponor) installs faster with fewer connections and usually costs less. We quote both on your specific home so you can see the real spread instead of guessing.
A single-story home is usually a one to two day job, permit included. Two-story homes take longer because lines have to run between floors and there are more spots to patch and finish. We give you a realistic timeline with the quote.
Yes, and in Las Vegas it was large, around $90 million across roughly 32,000 homes. The hard part is that the claims deadlines have passed. If you’re dealing with Kitec now, that fund does not pay for your repipe. You pay out of pocket, and we’d rather tell you that straight than have you find out after filing a claim that closed years ago.
Upload the report or a photo of the fittings. We confirm it is Kitec, tell you if that flag is urgent - and quote copper or PEX-A straight.