Repair of weeping galvanized water pipe
Weekend worrier here (though soon to be a full time worrier), with a water supply leakage problem. I go in for surgery in a month, so am looking for a solution that might bridge until next summer.
Our water supply runs slightly subsurface through the crawl space to the center of the house, where it pops up to connect to the house plumbing. I’ve got a section of pipe in the crawl space that’s weeping over about a 4″ section. I can dry it off and, one-two minutes later, it’s wet again; but it’s slow enough that I wasn’t seeing a drip in several minutes of staring*. Given its size (see below), I think it’s part of the supply from the street, not a lateral that I could cap off.
The pipe is ancient, and the rust is laminar flakes, so I know I’m going to need to replace much of it at some point in the not too distant future. In the meantime, is there something that will reduce the leak and, perhaps, discourage it from getting worse until I can organize repair? The pipe’s rusty enough that its diameter varies by 3/16″ measured at different points around its circumference, from 1-11/16″ to 1-7/8″, which I think means it’s either rust-swollen 1-1/4″ or rust-shrunk 1-1/2″ pipe. The weeping spot is at the small diameter.
Will a saddle clamp do me any good, for instance?
*Side comment: I have never been able to convince the love of my life that vacantly staring at something is a diagnostic process.
Replies
For a temp fix I would use one of these.
http://www.romac.com/repairclamps.html
They will outlast the pipe.
Plumbbill,Thanks for the suggestion. Why these over regular hardware store saddle clamps?Inperfectionist,Indeed, I am thinking of getting rid of the pipe, but, with surgery coming up, I'm not quite ready to tackle it - whether I do it myself or hire a plumber will be decided at a later date. We're on the California North Coast; we get temps down to the 20s and occasionally down into the teens, but the ground doesn't freeze. The pipe wasn't touching anything but dirt; it's just old, I think. A couple of years ago, we had to do an emergency repair where it pops up to supply the house - the pipe just rusted through at grade (thank goodness, our son was doing some work for us, and found it BEFORE it started spewing water all over the place; he and I spent the day repairing it and getting filthy muddy - ah, father and son bonding!).
The reason I said Romac is they are the industry leader in that field.
A knock-off brand will probably work too, but IME you get what you pay for.
I would be thinking about getting rid of all the old pipe.
I take it it doesn't freeze at your local??? Probably wouldn't cost that much to replace it all.
Was the pipe (where it is leaking) rubbing up against anything?? Like a piece of copper??
Harry
Plumbill's right (as usual) - that will get you through until you can fix it right.
(Not in the warranty, but those work on old low-pressure steam pipe, too, but you didn't hear it from me...)
I've seen 6-foot sections of galv pipe with five saddle clamps -- they'll work, but of course the pipe needs to be replaced, ASAP.