Plumber in Summerlin, NV

Summerlin covers a lot of ground and a lot of years. The first families moved into The Hills village in March 1991, and Howard Hughes is still opening new villages on the western edge of the valley today. That means a Summerlin plumbing call can be anything from a 30-plus-year-old water heater closet in an early village to a nearly new home with a tankless unit that’s already showing scale.

Las Vegas Water Experts is a family owned and operated plumbing company. Our small family team handles the work ourselves, led by owner Jason Miller. Jason brings more than 24 years of plumbing experience, and we’re licensed (NV LIC# 0095727), bonded, insured and answering the phone 24/7. Here’s what we see in Summerlin homes and how we handle it.

Know Your Summerlin Address: City or County

Summerlin sits in two jurisdictions. Much of it is inside the City of Las Vegas, and the Summerlin South area is an unincorporated town run by Clark County. That matters for plumbing because permits come from different offices. Work like replacing a water heater or water softener, or repairing concealed piping, needs a permit from the City of Las Vegas Building & Safety Department or the Clark County Building Department, depending on your address. We confirm which one applies before we schedule work that needs a permit.

Most Summerlin homes get their water from the Las Vegas Valley Water District, which draws mostly from Lake Mead and the Colorado River. Like the rest of the valley, it’s hard water, typically 17 to 25 grains per gallon, with about 22 being a common reading in the homes we service.

Emergency Plumbing in Summerlin

A burst supply line, a water heater dumping water into the garage or a sewer backup doesn’t wait for business hours. We answer 24/7. If water is actively leaking, shut off the main valve first. It’s usually where the water line enters the house, often in the garage or along the front wall. Then call us at 702-577-5505. See our 24/7 emergency service page for what to do while you wait.

Slab Leaks, Leak Detection and Repipes

Nearly every Summerlin home is built on a concrete slab, with water lines running beneath it. Sun City Summerlin, the Del Webb age-55+ community built from about 1989 to 1999, has a documented history here. In 2001 residents filed a class action over corroding under-slab copper hot water lines, and the recommended repair was to abandon the under-slab hot line and reroute it overhead with PEX. Some homes were rerouted and some weren’t. If you own a home there, a look in the attic for PEX tells you a lot.

Warning signs anywhere in Summerlin include a warm spot on a tile floor, the sound of running water when everything is off, or a water meter that keeps moving. We locate the leak first, then talk through the options: a spot repair through the slab, a reroute of the affected line, or a whole-house repipe in PEX when the old lines have had multiple failures. Read more in our guide to slab leak signs in Las Vegas.

Kitec Plumbing

Kitec is a brand of flexible plastic-and-aluminum water pipe (PEX-AL-PEX) with brass fittings, made by IPEX and sold from about 1995 to 2007. In the Las Vegas Valley’s mineral-heavy water, those brass fittings could lose zinc, a corrosion process called dezincification. That restricted flow and caused some leaks. It led to a class action in Clark County District Court, In re Kitec Fitting Litigation, and settlements approved in 2009 to replumb tens of thousands of valley homes.

Sun City Summerlin was part of that case. The court’s 2009 notice for the Del Webb and Coventry homes listed about 640 Sun City Summerlin homes where hot-water Kitec lines had been installed as the fix for the earlier copper corrosion problem. So if you find orange tubing in your attic, find out whether it’s Kitec and whether it has already been replaced. Many affected homes were replumbed years ago, and some weren’t.

Kitec is easy to spot where the pipe is exposed. Look at the water heater, under the kitchen and bathroom sinks, and anywhere pipe comes out of a wall. Kitec pipe is usually orange for hot water and blue for cold, and it’s printed with a name like Kitec, PlumbBetter, IPEX AQUA or XPA. The brass fittings may be stamped “Kitec” or “KTC.” Some homes also have a yellow sticker in the electrical panel noting non-metallic water pipe, but that sticker isn’t proof either way. Signs of trouble include white, crusty buildup on a fitting, hot water flow that slowly drops off, or pipe that looks dark or bulged.

If you’re not sure what you have, we can inspect the visible pipe and fittings and tell you. If it is Kitec, we’ll walk you through the options. When we repipe a Kitec home, we replace the fittings and all of the pipe at once, using PEX. Call 702-577-5505. The national IPEX settlement leaves out Clark County homes, and its claim deadline passed on January 9, 2020. The local settlements date from 2009. We’re plumbers, not lawyers, so we can’t say whether any settlement claim is still open for your home. What we can tell you is what’s actually in your walls.

Water Heaters: Tank and Tankless

Summerlin water heaters live in garages that bake in the summer, and they heat water that’s loaded with minerals. Both shorten their life. In the early villages, many homes are on their second or third heater. Rumbling or popping from a tank usually means sediment has built up on the bottom. Tankless units get scale inside the heat exchanger, which leads to error codes and lukewarm water.

We repair and replace tank and tankless water heaters, and we handle flushing and descaling. Replacements include the code items, such as seismic straps, the relief valve drain and a sediment trap on gas units. Our article on water heater flushing in Las Vegas explains how often to flush and what to watch for.

Water Softeners and Filtration

With water this hard, a softener protects everything downstream: the water heater, faucet cartridges, shower valves and appliances. If your garage already has a softener loop (plumbed connections for a softener), installation is simpler. We install and service softeners, and we can help you decide whether a reverse osmosis system for drinking water makes sense too. A permit is required for softener installation in the City of Las Vegas. Our Las Vegas hard water guide covers what the minerals do and how to choose a system.

Faucets, Fixtures and Angle Stops

Scale wears out faucet cartridges and O-rings faster here than in most of the country, so drips and stiff handles show up sooner than you’d expect. The small shut-off valves under sinks and toilets, called angle stops, have the same problem. They sit untouched for years, minerals lock them up, and when you finally need one it won’t turn or it snaps. In older Summerlin homes, replacing the original angle stops before they fail is one of the most useful small jobs we do. See our article on angle stop replacement in Las Vegas.

Drain Cleaning and Hydro Jetting

Kitchen lines in 25- to 35-year-old homes carry decades of grease and hard-water soap scum. A snake punches a hole through a clog. Hydro jetting scours the pipe wall clean, which is often the better fix for a line that keeps backing up. We start by finding out what’s actually in the line, and we use a camera when it helps. Our comparison of hydro jetting vs. snaking explains the difference.

Gas Lines

We install and repair gas lines for water heaters, ranges, dryers, fireplaces, outdoor kitchens and fire pits. Gas work requires a permit and inspection, and we pressure-test the line before it goes back in service. Southwest Gas supplies natural gas in the valley. If you smell gas, leave the house and call Southwest Gas or 911 from outside before you call a plumber.

We work on existing homes. We don’t do new construction plumbing.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a permit to replace my water heater in Summerlin?
Yes. The City of Las Vegas requires a permit and final inspection for any water heater replacement, including a like-for-like swap. Summerlin South addresses go through Clark County. We’ll confirm which office applies to your address.

How do I know if my Sun City Summerlin home had its hot water line rerouted?
Look in the attic for PEX tubing running to the fixtures. If you can’t tell, we can check the hot water routing during a visit.

Does my Summerlin home have Kitec plumbing?
Homes built or replumbed from about 1995 to 2007 can have it, including some Sun City Summerlin homes whose hot water lines were rerouted. Look for orange and blue pipe marked Kitec or PlumbBetter, or fittings stamped “KTC,” at the water heater and under the sinks. If you can’t tell, we can check during a visit.

Is my Summerlin home old enough to have polybutylene pipe?
Polybutylene was used in the valley into the mid-1990s, and most Summerlin homes were built after it fell out of use. The earliest homes, from the early 1990s, are worth a quick look at the water heater and under the sinks. Gray plastic pipe stamped “PB2110” is the giveaway.

Do you serve all of Summerlin?
Yes, from the older villages like The Hills and The Trails to the newer western villages. We also serve the rest of the Las Vegas Valley.

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Need a plumber in Summerlin? Las Vegas Water Experts is family owned, licensed, bonded and insured, and we answer 24/7. Call 702-577-5505. NV LIC# 0095727. Prefer to write? Use our contact page.