Plumbing advice
Plumbing is technology, right? Anyway, Home Base is.. well... crowded.
So my kitchen ceiling is leaking a bit. And it was happening whenever anybody took a shower. So after a bit of poking around I discovered that the source of the problem is the cold water faucet in the bathtub. The pipe connection between the water supply and the faucet assembly is letting out almost as much water as is going in the tub itself. (OK, that's an exaggeration or the whole kitchen would have been flooded....)
Now, given that this stuff shows all appearances of having been installed when the house was built (mid 1950s) the smart thing to do seems obvious... rip out the whole faucet and replace with a nice modern washerless one. And that's exactly what I'd do if I knew how, but I know I'd screw it up.
The thing is, I don't feel like calling a plumber for this. We were already planning to redo the whole bathroom in about a month or so. But we don't have our act together (in terms of organization or in terms of lining up the cash) to go ahead and start that right now. So my question is, is there any way (pipe dope? something else?) that I could just do a quick & dirty patch that I could expect to hold up for 4-5 weeks?
My advice is don't listen to me.
Our tub has a similar leak. We have acccess to the leak from the access panel on the other side of the wall. Glad we have that. Anyway, we have the washerless variety of faucet. It got clogged with a bunch of rust flakes/misc. grit on the supply side of the ceramic washerless valve. Had to remove the whole ceramic cartride to get that rust blockage out. Then reinstall teh cartridge. But then it leaked. The leak was like 1 drop every ten seconds, when the shower was running. Dripped into the wall cavity. Read somewhere you can disassemble it all and spray all around inside one of those things with silicone spray to stop leaks. Doesn't work. Need to replace the entire faucet now. But in the meantime, I taped a plastic bag under the pipe, and leading outside the access panel and onto a rag on the floor. The drips hit the bag and roll down onto the rag, which absorbs them. It's been that way for a year. My wife hated it at first, but I think she doesn't see it any more. Neither do I.
I wish I had an old fashioned faucet that uses washers. I'd much rather replace a ten cent washer every 2-3 years than replace an entire $200 faucet every ten years. Or hope that a new $20 cartridge will slide right in to the vacant faucet with all its mineral deposits with sharp edges and hope the o-rings on the outside of the cartridge don't get little nicks in them that cause drips.
To answer your question, I don't think there is anything that can patch a leak in a pressurized pipe at the joint. The epoxy putties out there just aren't strong enough. If the leak is in the middle of a straight section of pipe, there are those bolt-on patches you can use. But, basically, if the joint is leaking, you have to remove both parts on each side of the joint and replace them.
What kind of pipes do you have? If you do the remodel, you should consider PEX.
This may give you a temporary fix, assuming that your house pressure isn't really high.
Sometimes you just have to take a chance and tear things apart...
I used some marine epoxy putty to repair a crack on one of our hot tub's pipes. Talk about high pressure! It held up just fine until we could replace the pipe.
Going into the faucet;
Pipe or tubing?
Iron, brass, copper?
threaded or soldered joint?
The rubber tape Griff linked will work if the size of the two pieces are similar. If the faucet is much larger so that the effect is the same as a pipe going into a wall and the tape can't get a purchase on both sides of the leak, it won't.
If you can get it clean and dry, marine-tex or some other marine epoxy, like seakdivers suggested, will work.
Hey, wait a minute....
And it was happening whenever anybody took a shower.
The pipe connection between the water supply and the faucet assembly is letting out almost as much water as is going in the tub itself.
It only leaks when the shower is on? If it was leaking between the water supply and the faucet assembly, it would be leaking all the time. It has to be after the valve if it's only when you shower.
Look again. :eyebrow:
But in the meantime, I taped a plastic bag under the pipe, and leading outside the access panel and onto a rag on the floor. The drips hit the bag and roll down onto the rag, which absorbs them.
DAMN! A man after my own heart! Ours is dripping a bit faster than that.
What kind of pipe? It's METAL. It doesn't look like copper. That's all I know.
It only leaks when the shower is on? If it was leaking between the water supply and the faucet assembly, it would be leaking all the time. It has to be after the valve if it's only when you shower.
Look again.
You're right, of course. It's on the other side of the valve that's attached to the pipe that feeds up to the shower head & out the faucet into the tub. (I'm sure I'm not using the correct terminology for all this.)
Thanks for all the comments. It looks like we're going to get the plumber who lives down the street to take a look at it. (Or so Mrs. Dallas tells me.)
Is the rust green, brown, or gray?
Green.
I'm home now. Why don't I post a picture for the record?
Ugh Steve I could be wrong but that don't look like your ONLY leak ,
My advice ,
1) bite the bullet and call a plumber and deal with this NOW ( a new celing cost WAY more !!!!!)
2) go on down to home depot and get your self a cheap replacement ( or go ahead and get the good one )
Oh I got a cheap one I'm just afraid to cause more trouble by installing it myself! (It's been sitting around in a closet for about 8 months... I was going to do it instead of replacing the other parts--it's almost impossible to find the stems for this ancient thing--but I never got a round tuit. Just shows you shouldn't procrastinate this stuff.)
Then call the plumber , tell him you have the parts and just need his services , explain thats its just a quick fix and that you are basicaly interviewing for plumbers for the future renovation .
I can't see where you can get a kit from Home Depot to link up with these copper pipes without knowing how to sweat the pipes with a torch.
That's exactly what I discovered......
He could cut the copper supply lines back a couple inches and use compression unions to join them to the new stuff. :neutral:
Yeah but then what do I do to reattach my fingers after I slice them off during the cutting? How long will it take to rebuild the top floor of my house after I accidentally ignite the butane torch that I bought and then decided I didn't need?
You obviously have never done a "home improvement" project with me.
You've got a torch? Well hells bells, man......let the insurance company remodel the bath. ;)
Mind F**k The plumber I tell you !!!
The plumber (a neighbor whom I'm not super-close friends with, but whose sons play with my kids a lot, so we know each other) quoted me $100 to do the job using the parts I already bought.
The bad news: He can't fit us in till Thursday. It's inconvenient but I'm not complaining.
That's a bargain. :thumb:
I'm getting a major Three Stooges vibe off this attempt at plumbing by the clarinet player ... Hey, can't you just jam a 1-1/2 reed in the leaky joint as a kind of a shim?
There are resin impregnated fiberglass products sold as "pipe bandage" or "Rapp-It" for emergency repairs of leaks. My boss's little girl broke her arm falling off a horse over the weekend...apparently they're using a similar material to make casts these days.
Lacking that I'd be tempted to wrap the thing with duct tape to see if it helped.
I would be tempted to wrap it over and over and over with duct tape, over and over and over; and then I'd take one of those metal hose clamps, and wrap it around the duct tape, and tighten it down until the tape was squeezing out around the metal clamp.
Then, when the plumber got there, I would give him an extra $20 not to laugh.
Yeah but then what do I do to reattach my fingers after I slice them off during the cutting? How long will it take to rebuild the top floor of my house after I accidentally ignite the butane torch that I bought and then decided I didn't need?
You obviously have never done a "home improvement" project with me.
I can't tell from that picture what is leaking. Is it the mechanical joint? Does valve body have a small crack? Is valve stem not fully seated (screwed into) valve body?
You can learn plumbing by making a temporary repair - as usual it will not save money but will attack that ability not to solve problems. Or get the plumber - a cheaper method and one that may (or may not) find a superior solver of future problems.
Duct taping, et al will not work there. Two may curves and angles combined with pressure. Duct tape, et al is an excellent solution to pipes not under pressure - ie sewer pipes. If failure has caused a leak, then the leak will only be getting worse quickly. How many thumbs does a Dutch Boy really have?
That's a bargain.
I agree with Bruce on this one .
Throw in lunch and a cold beer after , and you might have a new friend ( a Highly Usefull friend ) !!
Think about this , you are out of town for a few days , your wife calls and says " Steve !!!!! There's water every were !!!! I think the Hot water heater has died !!!"
Wouldn't it be nice to have a friend that you can call that you KNOW can handel the situation ??
Wouldn't it be nice to have a friend that you can call that you KNOW can handel the situation ??
Isn't that what a wife is for? Don't we work for them? Is it different elsewhere?
My boss's little girl broke her arm falling off a horse over the weekend...apparently they're using a similar material to make casts these days.
Maggie! You have a boss! That's wonderful news!
Now, back to the plumbing issue ... are plumbers like other tradesmen who charge extra if the customer tried to fuck with it first themselves? I've lived in apartments most of my life and you just call the maintenance guy who is already being paid by the complex when something screws up.
If the pumber will install the new faucet for $100, then you have to go with that option. You would be a fool not to.
No quick fix is going to work in this situation. For putty or tape or anything else like that to work, you have to prep the surface. Clean the pipe. But it's so close to the wall that there isn't enough clearance to do a decent job. Too many angles for any clamp or tape to stick. Epoxy might work, but you need to get down to the bright metal surface all around the joint. Even then, there are no guarantees.
Let the plumber friend do it. How fast is the leak? Can you put a bucket or bread pan or something under it until Thursday?
We decided we could do without showers Tuesday night. Wednesday we will either prevail on some friends or take advantage of our YMA mebership. Thursday it'll be fixed.
I think you've arrived at the proper conclusion: you need a plumber for 1950s era plumbing. I fit were me, I would have turned off the water, blown out the line, and sweated up a huge glob of solder on there. Of course, this probably wouldn't work very well and would leave a bigger mess for the plumber, which I would eventually need to replace the whole thing, if only becuase it is buried inside all that wall construction and I couldn't get it done properly without messing the wall up or something.
I just bought a house built in 1954 and the master bathroom shower and sink doesn't drain well, okay so I think I need to go get a snake (if I can buy one for the cost of several rentals - I know I'll need it again) - but the other thing is, when the master shower backs up, the other bathroom gets water in the floor - I'm thinking just because the main line needs to be cleared [COLOR="DimGray"]and[/COLOR] I need to replace the wax seal under that other toilet?
Flint, get the snake. It's worth it to have on hand on that holiday weekend when you have a bunch of relatives over for a visit, and the rental store is closed. That's when plumbing always seems to have problems. The manual (un-motorized) versions that are like 16 feet long are not too expensive, and work for most problems.
At first I thought your symptoms pointed to a blocked vent pipe, but the puddle on the floor in the other room points to a blocked drain pipe. Can't hurt to replace the wax seal, but getting rid of the clog should be 9/10ths of the battle.
Right, well the drain line is the problem, but, the other toilet shouldn't let water come back up just because the whole system is backed up. ...but, if it comes back up far enough to go over the top then the wax seal could be just fine. I think I'm gonna buy a snake at Home Depot, as soon as I get off work. Problem solved (most likely).
If the other bathroom is on the same floor with the master bathroom shower, the water can't be coming over the top of the toilet because it would have to be two feet deep in the shower.
Odd that the drain from the shower would leak by the bowl seal but using the toilet does not.
Is the water on the floor visibly dirty? :confused:
The water isn't dirty, its' just water. Now you've got me thinking about how deep the shower is versus how low the toilet is. At any rate, I'm calling a plumber out beacuse the big snake was $500, and anyway I'd rather someone who specializes in this type of thing go ahead and do it. I've got money set aside for this type of thing, which I expected in a 1950s house. I did get a 1/4" X 25' snake that I can attach to my power drill, though, for smaller jobs.
Have you tried the smaller 25' snake yet on the clog? You might be surprised if you haven't already tried it. They are very effective.
Hmmmmmm...I guess I should at least try it first. Right. Thanks.
Are you mocking me?
Your first post made it sound like you went to the store to buy a snake to fix your problem, but you saw that the one you wanted was too expensive. So you bought a smaller one instead, even though you think it's too small for the big jobs like this. That's why you are going to hire the plumber.
Nowhere in your post do you say that you tried the smaller one.
I've used snakes like the one you are talking about, and they are pretty good. I'm trying to save you the money of hiring a plumber. 25 feet is very long. It should be able to reach the clog and break it up. You probably don't need a plumber.
Of course, if you have already tried it and failed, that's another story.
No, I'm not mocking you. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I was assuming that beacause the plumbing on the other side of the house was backing up, it was the main line, and I thought I needed a bigger auger for that. But, as I said, you're absolutely right, I should try the little auger first. Hopefully that will fix it, and my wife will think I'm a genius.
That looks nice! (really, I love clean work)
I would have burned the wall up sweating up those copper fittings.
Sweet !!!
Now ain't that a load off your mind !!
Save that picture and see how long before it looks like the first picture. Uh, minus the leaks of course. ;)
This is the normally closed solenoid valve, after the inlet filter, for my reverse osmosis, domestic water, treatment system.
You will undoubtedly notice the still reading, but blackened, gage. An effect caused by the violent self destruction of the solenoid on the right. So violent, in fact, that it blew open the coil case from points A to B.
I asked the vendor why this happened to which he replied with "I dunno".
When pressed for an explanation of the cause, the manufacturer replied, "we couldn't possibly tell because this has never happened before."
I never did get an explanation of whether, "it's never happened before", is in the history of the Universe, the World, the company, this style valve or just my valve.
They did assure me, though, they would sent me a replacement.....in a couple days......for only $150, plus tax, and shipping, and handling.
Now I only have to worry the replacement, plus the normally open twin on the backwash, don't
decide to become suicide bombers, and damage the rest of the $7k system.
:rolleyes:
the results...
That plumbing repair appears to be one of the cleanest and most professional jobs I have seen in a long time. Meanwhile, what was doing the leaking?