Two more pin holes in my copper pipes

[n2ratfishin]

When it rains it puts. Looks like I'll be chasing pin holes or getting new plumbing under the house. Three pin hole leaks in a month doesn't fare well for yea old wallet LOL.


First bid on replacing all the copper with PEX to the bathrooms and kitchen in the house was 3200 for a 1800 square foot ranch. Two more bids coming this week. My wife called 6 local plumbers today. One guy was at least honest on his machine with a message he was so booked he wasn't taking more biz right now. Two plumbers either answered or called back. The rest have been crickets. Classic supply and demand.

[AirForceAngler]

What's eatin' your copper?

[n2ratfishin]

What's eatin' your copper?

It's 29 years old. Appears to be age and electrolysis.

[bucky]

Had the same issue some years ago. After about 5 pin hole repairs I had all the copper removed and plastic pipes installed. No leaks in years.

[191 champ]

Out of curiosity, did you look at any of the sections that were replaced? The reason I ask is that I was renting last fall and we had a pin hole leak. I refused to fix it myself fearing that the whole line had thinned out and, being a rental, I had planned to only replace a 1' section using shark bites. I was afraid that the shark bites would just collapse the pipe and leak causing a domino effect that led to a whole house replacement. I wasn't up for that. I examined the section that the plumber replaced and there was in fact just a tiny pin hole in an otherwise intact pipe.

What do your pin holes look like? Is the whole pipe thinned out?

About 5 months later we didn't have any more leaks. I'm curious to understand the failure mode for copper pipes in this situation.

[Ship]

Went pex about 13 years ago. No problems since. It wasn't cheap though.

[grout-scout]

Plumbers here can make their entire careers just from re-plumbs. Certain areas around here, the well water just eats the copper up and the new copper is even weaker than the old stuff.

[high 2]

We had copper pipe in a new house that we built. Didn’t have pin holes, but several feet of pipe was eaten smooth up. This was a 2 story house and was going to cost damn near as much as the house. Had a plumber and his daughter come look at it. He was able to pull Pex through a 3/4” copper. They were in and out in a day. Cost around $400. Just a thought. PM for details.

[alli ss]

Scrap the copper and pay for the pex

[pa.X19]

My friend who lives about a mile away from me as a crow flies is on well water as we are. He was having pin holes popping up all of the time I wasn't. He installed a water softener and problem solved.

[Bob]

There was a time in the eighties where M type copper was approved for domestic plumbing. It was thin wall and it was embossed with the M designation during manufacturing. Typically it has developed pinholes at the embossing.

[bshort]

Don't mice love the flavor of pex?

[n2ratfishin]

Out of curiosity, did you look at any of the sections that were replaced? The reason I ask is that I was renting last fall and we had a pin hole leak. I refused to fix it myself fearing that the whole line had thinned out and, being a rental, I had planned to only replace a 1' section using shark bites. I was afraid that the shark bites would just collapse the pipe and leak causing a domino effect that led to a whole house replacement. I wasn't up for that. I examined the section that the plumber replaced and there was in fact just a tiny pin hole in an otherwise intact pipe.

What do your pin holes look like? Is the whole pipe thinned out?

About 5 months later we didn't have any more leaks. I'm curious to understand the failure mode for copper pipes in this situation.

I’ve been working every time the plumber shows up.

I’ve read mice do love to eat the PEX. We’ve had PEX at our last two houses and never had that issue. Then again this is the first time I’ve ever had a problem with copper other than freezing.

[Rip Bass]

I have replaced miles of old copper with PEX. The only time I’ve seen mice chew on PEX is where it goes through a top,or bottom wall plate. I think they were trying to get in the house more so than eat the plastic. When you all re-pipe,do not use today’s copper. Use PEX with plastic fittings and I don’t see any effective difference in the type of crimp rings used.

[grout-scout]

Don't mice love the flavor of pex?

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?

[triton]

Common problem here in northern NY state, hard water eats the copper up.....I have been replacing with PEX
little by little so the wallet doesn't take such a beating ... almost finished was easy to get to all the pipes ....

[getfished]

John do you have a decent crawlspace ? You could get down there with a pen and paper and make your inventory and then go make the purchase and probably redo the whole shebang in one day. I could help ya if ya need it. I'm not a plumber by any means but this working condition is usually worse than the actual job itself. Pex is great to work with. Might save ya some coin to do it yourself with a little help if you can handle the crawlspace.

[n2ratfishin]

Thanks for the offer Steve. Two more bids coming this week. I’ll see how crazy it looks. My crawl space is 2-4 feet.

[ford4wd08]

When it rains it puts. Looks like I'll be chasing pin holes or getting new plumbing under the house. Three pin hole leaks in a month doesn't fare well for yea old wallet LOL.


First bid on replacing all the copper with PEX to the bathrooms and kitchen in the house was 3200 for a 1800 square foot ranch. Two more bids coming this week. My wife called 6 local plumbers today. One guy was at least honest on his machine with a message he was so booked he wasn't taking more biz right now. Two plumbers either answered or called back. The rest have been crickets. Classic supply and demand.

Do you have a call into Alford Plumbing? I went to high school with one of the master plumbers there. He is a good guy.

[g352nv]

Had this happen in my last home. Flooded the kitchen and living room.