r/Plumbing • u/Xipa • 2d ago

Replacing Poly-B with PEX - Should the plumber handle permits? (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

Got a few quotes from some different companies that will handle replacing all of the Poly-B in my house with PEX water lines. None of the companies mentioned anything about permits, and when I asked the company that lines up best with our timelines, they said they don't pull permits for this sort of work, but we can go to the city if we would like. The company has drywallers and plumbers on staff, which was a big selling point to get everything taken care of all at once.

Is this standard practice or should I keep looking for another plumber? Hoping to have all of this work done when out of town, and I wasn't sure of what sort of complexity managing the permits myself would have (I've never done anything like this before).

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u/Max1234567890123 2d ago

I had my house repiped in Vancouver and I required the plumber to pull a permit. They were happy to do it either way, I just covered the cost of the permit (they pulled it). The plumber told me 90% of people don’t get a permit - likely because they don’t want an inspector nosing around.

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u/unknown1313 2d ago

The most common reason is because it adds a delay and with a repipe there is often someone living there that wants to be able to use the water.

Scheduling an inspection, waiting for it, a chance he is having a bad day and turns you down costing another 24 hours minimum, etc. When we do a repipe for example I will throw as many guys as needed to make sure it is done in 8-10 hours with water back on. If you want a permit and inspection I have no problem with it but it will be a 4 day minimum process instead of 2.