A 1977 build is 49 years old. This sits in the polybutylene window, and poly B fails without warning rather than leaking slowly first. Here is what tends to be true at that age, what each one costs in 2026 Canadian dollars, and the sentence to say to the agent.
Ordered by what tends to matter most.
Homes built between the mid 1970s and the late 1990s sit in the polybutylene window. Poly B is grey, smooth and flexible, it reacts with chlorine over the years, and it fails without warning rather than by leaking slowly first. That failure mode is why it comes up when a policy is arranged.
A whole house repipe runs $6,000 to $18,000, and $10,000 to $20,000 in Metro Vancouver, where the labour rates are higher.
Look at the pipe where it comes out of the wall at the water heater and under the kitchen sink. Poly B is usually grey, sometimes white, silver, black or blue, and often has PB or the word Poly stamped on it. One photo of each answers it.
Say this to the agentWhat are the supply pipes made of, and is there any poly B or galvanized left anywhere in the house?
Two panel brands from this period have a specific problem. Federal Pacific, sometimes badged Federal Pioneer or Stab Lok, has breakers that can fail to trip on an overload. Zinsco, common in homes built 1963 to 1981, has breakers that can fuse to the bus bar and not trip at all. Both are a replace rather than a repair.
Replacing the panel is $1,500 to $4,000, plus the Hydro disconnect and the ESA permit on top.
The brand is on a sticker inside the panel door. Federal Pacific breakers carry a small red stripe. Zinsco toggles are red, green and blue. One photo of the label and one of the breakers is enough.
Say this to the agentWhat brand is the panel, and what is the main breaker amperage?
Houses of this age were often built with 60 to 100 amp service, and a fuse box rather than breakers is a common sign of it. A hundred amps is the modern minimum, so a smaller service is less a safety problem than a limit on what the house can run and a cost waiting on any renovation.
Upgrading the panel and service is $1,500 to $4,000, plus the Hydro disconnect and the ESA permit on top.
The main breaker at the top of the panel has the amperage printed on it. If there are fuses rather than breakers, that answers it a different way.
Say this to the agentWhat is the service amperage, and has the panel ever been upgraded?
This is what is typical for the year. It is not a finding about this house.
Photographs of the panel, the basement and the water heater would tell you whether any of it applies here.
Every dollar figure on this page comes from the Casaroo repair cost dataset, published openly with its methodology, version and licence. Each item links to the guide that lists its own sources. Figures are 2026 Canadian dollars and are ranges, not quotes.
That is what is typical for the year, and it is the part almost nobody walks in knowing. It is not yet what is true of the house in front of you. The next step is how you find that out.
The order to walk the rooms so you do not double back, what to photograph at each stop, what a bad answer sounds like, and the exact sentence to say out loud. Read it on your phone with one hand.
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Built from the Casaroo knowledge base in 2026. Ages on this page are counted to 2026.