Heinl, a second-generation plumber who got his license in 1981, said about 90 percent of his company''''s repipe business comes via referrals. Doing the job right the first time not only generates referrals, but keeps profitability at reasonable levels, he said: "The profitability is there if you can do it in one day. If it stretches out then the profit goes down."

The neighborhood for today''''s job was constructed in the 1970s. Fortunately the whole tract features raised foundations, meaning the homes have crawlspaces underneath. Heinl said the crawlspaces can mean fewer pipes will be used for a repiping job, and that''''s a good thing since copper prices have skyrocketed over the past couple of years.

The project house has two and a half baths, a kitchen, laundry area, hose bibs outside and a water heater in a utility closet. The water heater will be replaced during this job as well. And we have a little bit of a head start because two of the lavs and a shower in the master bath are already dropped down into the crawlspace.

 "They''''ve done some remodeling there," Heinl said. "This will be about the same as a two bathroom house, but we''''ll still have to connect the stuff that''''s been dropped already-they tied it into the galvanized with dielectric unions and we''''re going to cut that out."

In this house the plan is to access the plumbing inside the walls at every fixture, remove the galvanized and then reconstruct the system in place using copper. Once that''''s done, workers will move under the house to tie everything together to make the system operable. Heinl said slab-on-grade structures have to have the new copper system tied together in the attic.

"We''''ll probably have to make 15 or 20 wall penetrations in this house," Heinl said. "We''''ll have a guy at every spot. They''''ll cut into the drywall and then cut out any old pipe they need to get out of there. There will be a hole at every fixture. We strap the pipes securely in the wall. We just cut a hole, cut out the old and plumb in the new. We get everything upstairs dropped. Then we go underneath and plumb it together."

The crew arrived-this job would require about six guys, Heinl said-and the first step was to do a walk-through to give everyone the lay of the land. Then, before turning off the water to the house to get started, the crew filled several large buckets with water: "That''''s just in case you have to flush a toilet or get a small fire," Heinl said. "We also have these squirt bottles we use to cool the pipe. And you have to wipe off the excess flux."

 The first interesting aspect of this job came into view once all of the stuff was cleared out from under the kitchen sink. The handles for the water supplies were installed in a very "custom" way so they won''''t interfere with the bottom of the cabinets. "See? You can''''t even turn the handles. That''''s what you call a bad job," Heinl said, adding that it will be put right as part of the repiping job.

"This is the kind of thing that makes homeowners happy in the end when we point out stuff like this," Heinl said. "See how the angle stops are all the way down to the bottom of the cupboard? We''''re going to redo the kitchen-we''''re going to move the valves up. We can''''t leave them like that."

Getting the old galvanized out went quickly-it wasn''''t even lunch time before the copper started going in: just put it in place and sweat it there, taking great care to ream the pipe and cool the sweated joints and wipe away excess flux. It''''s also handy to have water around because sweating pipes inside walls can pose a risk of fire.

So what about repiping with different materials? Heinl Plumbing co-owner Kathy Heinl said that using flexible plastic tubing, for example, can lead to logistical problems down the road.

"Not everybody has the proper tools or the fittings on the truck to do it right," she said. "The other thing is, if you get a rat in the attic or something, they''''ll chew through that stuff. I''''ve never seen them chew through copper, but I''''ve seen them go through ABS pipe. It was a kitchen sink line and there was a little leak somewhere. The rats could smell grease in the lines so they started chewing through it. There were little teeth marks in the ABS."

With all of the activity going on in the house it''''s kind of surprising that the whole process isn''''t as disruptive as one might think. Sure, the water''''s off and there are fresh new holes in the drywall in a few spots, but it''''s nothing anyone would really consider "major." A little sweeping and vacuuming, some drywall patching and texturing and some fresh paint and it will be like nothing happened.

 Once the job is finished, the City of La Habra requires an inspection before the job can be signed off. Both Heinls said, while different cities have different requirements-some pretty stringent-the most important thing to a successfully completed job is craftsmanship

"See what he''''s doing right there? Reaming the pipe," John said. "That''''s very important. Inside there''''s a ridge when you cut the pipe that causes turbulence as the water moves through. That turbulence can lead to pinhole leaks."

What would the inspector be looking for on this job? "Water heater strapping, that kind of thing," John said. "What I would do is take a hose bib off and have him look in there to see it''''s clean and reamed. That would satisfy him."

"Every city has its own little thing," Kathy agreed. "For instance, the City of Whittier won''''t let people relocate their water heater to the outside of the house unless they build a shed that matches the structure of the house including the roof. We just did one in Garden Grove where the electrical ground was up in the attic. The inspector didn''''t know where it was but he wanted to see it."