Two more pin holes in my copper pipes

[davesz518]

High fluoride concentrations in the water are known to cause pin holes in copper pipes.

[breeves2245]

I have a rental since 1997. I have had several pin hole leaks over the years. $350 for leak detection to find it, then I get the joy of renting a jackhammer and drill through the foundation to expose the pipe. Next comes the plumber to patch it. Then cement back and re-tile. Real pain in the backside.

Planning to sell the rental this time next year. Keeping my fingers crossed I have no more leaks. Last one was three years ago.

I assume you have a crawl space for the re-plumbing? How does this get resolved if I'm on foundation? Run Pex through the attic and build a insulated channel?

Don't want to hijack the thread, but curious if you are on foundation or have a crawl space with that bid amount.

[n2ratfishin]

Breeves Pipes are ran through a crawl space that’s about 4’ on the high side and 2’ on the low. All three leaks have been within 4’ of each other. My wife says they have shown her each section cut out and they were all a blue color inside and had a lot of junk in the pipe where the leak was.

Thanks for the heads up on Alford Plumbing. I may need to use them depending on how close the three bids are. It’s been my experience there is t more than a 200-300 spread on home repairs around here.

[bassboat1]

I grew up in a house with acidic well water - pinholes all the time. My mom (86) is still in it, and had a neutralizer installed that took the copper flavor right out of it.

[n2ratfishin]

All lines, including running it through the floor with new stops, except the lines in the showers (behind sheetrock) are now replaced with PEX. We ended up getting three bids and the total job cost 2350. Hopefully that's the end of our leaks! When I looked at the pipe insides after it was cut out they didn't look as bad as I expected being 29 years old. It appeared the flux and solder areas around the fittings were the culprit of the leaks. Those areas were corroded. Three guys tore out all the old stuff and replaced it in a day.

[getfished]

Sounds like a reasonable solution. The problem is probably permanently solved. Good news. Now you can sleep at night.

[Bassalive]

Copper....I just went through that grief when the cottage was open in the Spring....Pex is the goods.

[OkAce]

One of my customers had a squirrel/mouse or rat chew through it on their pier & beam house, so seems you are correct.

Any plumbers know why viega pex, the stuff with the aluminum core isn’t used exclusively? Cost maybe?

The only time we ever used it was in the slab to keep from having to use sleeve.

[5-20]

Nobody’s worried about the possible health risks of drinking water that’s been sitting in or goes through plastic? That’s always been in the back of my head. I thought I had a possible slab leak a few years ago and got a recommendation to close that line off and go PEX through the attic.

Thankfully it wasn’t a slab leak after all and it was just a simple repair that the first plumber totally missed to the kitchen sink pipe fixtures.

[518RangerJeff]

My home is plumbed with cpvc. I have had 2 leaks on the hot water side. Mostly at the a tee. Not where the length connects to it but the actual tee fitting. I turned down my hot water temp. Hopefully that helps. Q

[DaveBrabec]

The only time we ever used it was in the slab to keep from having to use sleeve.

I worked for a builder doing re routing of water lines.All the soft copper they put in slabs stated leaking in the slab from electrolysis in the 10 year warranty from builder. We would go in and abandon all under slab lines and run above.Patch the sheetrock and paint . Typically a 3 day job.

[olfisher]

Built my house in 77 all hard piped copper early 90s started having those dreaded pin holes fought it for 6 months . The house had crawl space got under there and tore out all the copper then used pvc on cold and cpvc on hot . took 3 days and since then no more pin holes . The copper had leached away most of it was thin enough you could crush it flat in with your hand .

[billnorman1]

Wow who would have thought, when you put good stuff, copper in, that it would fall apart some day?