Hello,

A relative has an outdoor tap. The walls and floors are concrete so
difficult to drill (non-sds), so whoever fitted the tap took the easy
option of drilling through the upstairs wall (there are no pipes
downstairs on that side of the house) and dropping a 15mm copper pipe
down the outside of the house. It was lagged but obviously not enough.
There is a "tear" in the pipe where presumably the water froze in the
winter. The repair has been one of those things no-one has got round
to for several months!

I was hoping to help by using one of those repair compression fittings
only I found I could not slide the nuts on. Do you think that the ice
stretched the pipe and made it fractionally wider? If so, what use are
these repair fittings?

The tap had a built in non return valve. I wondered whether these are
perhaps a bad thing? I realise there should be a valve but would it be
better fitted inside the house? If a tap was fitted without a valve
and the pipe was isolated and the tap opened, wouldn't the pipe drain
completely?

Now if a tap with built in valve was used, would the pipe drain under
the same circumstances or does the non return valve require some
pressure to open it? Would water remain in the pipe that could freeze
and cause the damage that occurred?

I am thinking of taking my sds drill and see if it will drill through
the concrete floor so that the pipe drop can be run inside the house
and go outdoors at the last minute.

Thanks,
Stephen.