More home ownership joys.

[Basil]

Woke up this morning and heard a hissing from behind the wall. Went to the garage and saw a puddle in the garage. Determined I have a pin hole leak behind the wall just to the right of the water heater. Thank goodness I know how to sweat copper. Fingers crossed.

 

[NutmegCT]

Check your spelling. It's:

Home-Moanership

 

[JHaydon]

Good thing your hearing is in better shape than your pipes!

Reminds me of the time at my parents' house when a hot water pipe started leaking behind the fridge. Time-Life Home Repair & Improvement Series books (remember them?) showed how to patch a pinhole leak by sticking a sharpened pencil in the hole and snapping off the tip, then wrapping with tape... I think that was just supposed to hold until the plumber arrived.

 

[Gliderman8]

Woke up this morning and heard a hissing from behind the wall. Went to the garage and saw a puddle in the garage. Determined I have a pin hole leak behind the wall just to the right of the water heater. Thank goodness I know how to sweat copper. Fingers crossed.

I have water detectors in all the wet areas of my house. A couple of years ago we also had a pin-hole leak coming from line feeding the cold the water to the water heater. The only problem was that we were in Boston visiting our son. The leak detector shut off the main water supply and notified me of the event. I don't want to think about the possible damage if the leak wasn't discovered until we returned home.

 

[mikephillips]

Back before the pandemic I had the full bath in the house gutted and replaced, the house is a ranch style. Since all the lines for water ran through the wall at the back, laundry room and kitchen and half bath all on the other side, decided to have all that redone at the same time since I had started to have some dampness issues. Figured why not since it was all open then anyway. Glad I mad that choice is the house is mid 60s build.

 

[Jerry]

My last leak was a drywall screw that finally rusted enough after 12 years to let the pipe leak. I don't know why they pulled the pipe close to the drywall, that was a 6 inch wide wall.

 

[Basil]

My last leak was a drywall screw that finally rusted enough after 12 years to let the pipe leak. I don't know why they pulled the pipe close to the drywall, that was a 6 inch wide wall.

That was one of my frustrations with this leak. I determined that I needed to cut out a section of pipe that included 45deg and 90deb elbows and re-doo that whole section, then use a coupler to reconnect the the new pipes (which included the cold water intake to the hot water tank). The problem was, the pipe I needed to cut was in between two studs (that were closer than the usual 16") and the pipe ran right up against the dry wall that was the living room wall. Thus, I had to cut out a section of the living room wall in order to get even a mini pipe cutter around the pipe to cut the pipe in half. What a pain!

 

[Gliderman8]

That was one of my frustrations with this leak. I determined that I needed to cut out a section of pipe that included 45deg and 90deb elbows and re-doo that whole section, then use a coupler to reconnect the the new pipes (which included the cold water intake to the hot water tank). The problem was, the pipe I needed to cut was in between two studs (that were closer than the usual 16") and the pipe ran right up against the dry wall that was the living room wall. Thus, I had to cut out a section of the living room wall in order to get even a mini pipe cutter around the pipe to cut the pipe in half. What a pain!

Ouch! A "small fix" always grows into a larger/more costly repair. I feel your pain.

 

[John Turney]

I recently installed a point-of-use hot water heater for our remote bathroom. I found Sharkbite fittings worked great in the small, cramped space. Soldering would have probably set the wall on fire. I actually did get a heat shield, but the fittings worked so much easier.

Yes, it is a "hot water heater;" it was installed in the hot water line from the water heater because it takes too long for hot water to get from the heater to the remote bathroom.

 

[NutmegCT]

John - I did the same under the kitchen sink. Now there's hot water w/i 30 seconds of turning the faucet.

 

[70herald]

Thus, I had to cut out a section of the living room wall in order to get even a mini pipe cutter around the pipe to cut the pipe in half. What a pain!

An oscillating saw might just be perfect for a job like this... you can plunge straight into the pipe with almost no clearance on the sides or back of the pipe. Not the most frequently used tool I own but there are some jobs where it really is a time saver.

 

[Basil]

An oscillating saw might just be perfect for a job like this... you can plunge straight into the pipe with almost no clearance on the sides or back of the pipe. Not the most frequently used tool I own but there are some jobs where it really is a time saver.

It needs to be a very clean cut into to allow the coupling joint to fit and to get a good soldering joint. A saw would not give a clean enough cut.

 

[PAUL161]

When we had our present house built, I had the whole house done in Pex pipe and fittings. I've added a couple of fixtures over the years and using the Pex fittings is a no-brainer! No heat or soldering. The Pex tool isn't cheap, but it's a one-time buy, the tool lasts forever, just saying. PJ

 

[Basil]

When we had our present house built, I had the whole house done in Pex pipe and fittings. I've added a couple of fixtures over the years and using the Pex fittings is a no-brainer! No heat or soldering. The Pex tool isn't cheap, but it's a one-time buy, the tool lasts forever, just saying. PJ

If I was having a house built these days, that's what I'd do too.

 

[Gliderman8]

When we had our present house built, I had the whole house done in Pex pipe and fittings. I've added a couple of fixtures over the years and using the Pex fittings is a no-brainer! No heat or soldering. The Pex tool isn't cheap, but it's a one-time buy, the tool lasts forever, just saying. PJ

I have PVC in my house. Like yours, making repairs or adding piping is a breeze.

 

[YakkoWarner]

When we had our present house built, I had the whole house done in Pex pipe and fittings. I've added a couple of fixtures over the years and using the Pex fittings is a no-brainer! No heat or soldering. The Pex tool isn't cheap, but it's a one-time buy, the tool lasts forever, just saying. PJ

My house was completely piped with PEX's predecessor, the grey polybutelyne tubing that turned out to be a disaster waiting to happen (over decades it chemically reacts and turns brittle in the presense of chlorine, and then will just randomly develop leaks mid-pipe with no external cause). Had to bypass every inch of the stuff and run PEX to every fixture last year....I like the PEX system, even an idiot like me can do it.

 

[John Turney]

 

[JPSmit]

My house was completely piped with PEX's predecessor, the grey polybutelyne tubing that turned out to be a disaster waiting to happen (over decades it chemically reacts and turns brittle in the presense of chlorine, and then will just randomly develop leaks mid-pipe with no external cause). Had to bypass every inch of the stuff and run PEX to every fixture last year....I like the PEX system, even an idiot like me can do it.

I think <think> that is what we had in our Florida house. Had a small leak in the bathroom and as I was moaning about it someone said, "I think there is a class action lawsuit about that." Sure enough, we got the house replumbed. The crew (in 2004 or so) was from Alabama and had been at it for 8 years - and figured they had at least 12 to go.

 

[JPSmit]

In other news - and in the joys of home ownership, had the septic tank pumped today for (my) very first time. The previous owners told me it hadn't been pumped in all the time they lived here (8 years), so assuming the previous previous owners didn't bother in their last years of ownership - I figure at least a decade. The fellow who came to do the work really wanted me to climb down in the tank to check his work, but, I took his word for it. Everything went smoothly and one more thing to cross off the list.

 

[Gliderman8]

In other news - and in the joys of home ownership, had the septic tank pumped today for (my) very first time. The previous owners told me it hadn't been pumped in all the time they lived here (8 years), so assuming the previous previous owners didn't bother in their last years of ownership - I figure at least a decade. The fellow who came to do the work really wanted me to climb down in the tank to check his work, but, I took his word for it. Everything went smoothly and one more thing to cross off the list.

The driver wanted you to inspect his work because he was down in the dumps.