Your copper pipe has burst or developed pinholes. Now what?
Finding the leak
Drips often show up a floor beneath their source, typically on the ceiling, says Jeremy Begin, the owner of Bracebridge, Ont.-based Cottage Country Plumbing. If you suspect a leak on your main floor, start searching your basement or crawlspace with a flashlight to find glistening wet spots or water stains. Listen for drips or flows too. On the high-tech side, an infrared thermal imaging camera shows surface temperatures and can outline leaks hidden within walls, ceilings, or floors. A remote inspection camera, with real-video imaging via its pen-like camera wand, can help identify leaks behind walls as well. (Depending on where the leak is, you can deploy the camera by removing the wall’s baseboard.) Slow-dripping leaks are harder to find and may only reveal themselves when a sink or tub is in use. Begin says toilet leaks, typically from a poor seal, are the most stealthy. To detect devious leaks like these, Celeste Carnevale, the owner of 2 Bro’s Plumbing in Whitby, Ont., suggests running your shower or faucet for a few minutes (or flushing your toilet a couple of times), waiting five to seven minutes, doing a leak check, and then repeating anywhere from three to five times. Test each fixture separately; one at a time.
Stopping the leak
Properly installed push-to-connect fittings—SharkBite is a popular manufacturer—provide fast and easy (and temporary) pipe-leak relief. But before you do anything, turn off your water, drain any existing water in your pipes, and place a bucket under the leaky pipe for emergency drip-catching. If you’re dealing with a burst pipe, Begin recommends using two fittings and a piece of cross-linked polyethylene (PEX) pipe in between. Cleanly cut the burst pipe on either side and attach one fitting
on each open end, connecting them via the PEX pipe. The process is less complex for a pinhole leak. “If it’s midnight, and I just want to get your water back on, I would cut directly on the pinhole and apply one SharkBite fitting,” says Begin. Remember to use a deburring tool and sandpaper to smooth out your cuts. This will ensure proper fitting.
Fixing the leak
For a burst pipe, remove the push-to-connect fittings and solder sweat adapters (permanent pipe connectors) onto the remaining copper ends, crimping a new piece of PEX in between. If you’re not handy with a torch, or don’t have one, call a plumber. For a pinhole, replace the push-to-connect fitting with a copper union fitting. Soldering is required here too, so again, call a plumber if you’re not experienced with this type of repair. “If your copper pipes are getting one pinhole after the other, I would switch to PEX at that point,” says Begin. “It’s about half the cost of copper, and takes about a third of the time to install.”
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