Water pipe puncture

[PeterH]

A screw that had been accidentally drilled into a hot water pipe 2 years ago when the store was built rusted and gave way Sunday during the day. I spent all day yesterday playing junior plumber to no avail. Several plumbing places recommended using a "saddle" to seal the hole, but that didn't work. I got a professional coming today to replace the pipe.

How have you handled mid-line plumbing problems? Is pipe replacement the only way to go?

[Jim]

Pete...

It is definetly the smartest way to go....I had a rubber patch on my pipe because of rust and it was really old...

I started to see tear drops the very next day.

One day later I called the plumber and had them replace the pipe....

Better safe than sorry.

[Westlake]

Some of my rubber clamps are 8 months old and still holding.

[Anonymous]

I just get out the propane torch and sweat in a new section of pipe - copper piping is child's play.

[kmdigital]

It's even easier than replacing the pipe. If it is copper, just grab a torch, make sure the water is drained, clean the area around the hole and solder it shut. As a licensed plumber and a former service technician, I have repaired many, many pipes this way. As long as it is properly done it will outlast the pipe, as you just sealed the hole with the same material that seals the fittings and other joints.

[Gary C]

Or next size up screw and a rubber washer till mid week.

Gary

[laundryboy]

I had an eighteen year old repair fail on the main hot water feed. See the mechanical repair. The concrete was the most dificult thing about this project.

[laundryboy]

Close-up

[mike]

Yikes !

The thing that scares me about an underground pipe like that is..

how do you know it is leaking, until it is too late ?

[pete f]

That picture is a repair from 18 yrs ago? Still looks good.

This is what I do not like about water pipes burried under concrete. I have a phobia about that. Even when I added a bedroom on my house I would not let the plumber run the pipes thru the slab, I made him go around the outside underground. I have 2 pipes in cement go from the hot water heater to the bathroom, just a few feet, and I can re-do them to outside pipe easy when they fail in 20-30 years :)
A buddy of mine had to dig under his house once, another time rent a concreate breaking tool to fix another leak. His house was about 30 yrs old. All the pipes at my last mat I did are above ground, expect the one from the meter on the street, and all pipe is CPVC. My current project will be designed the same way.

Any bad stories about CPVC yet??
copper rots, we know that.

[laundryboy]

Sorry, that is the NEW repair.