"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:
This is not so though Dave, the only plumbing failures I have had in my
current house are pin holes in the copper pipe. I think the influx of
cheap imported copper in the last few years is a bit of a time bomb, you
must have compared wall thicknesses? some of this imported pipe must be
difficult to bend without getting a kink, its so thin.

The only pin hole I ever had was in an end feed fitting bought as part of
a bulk pack from Wicks.


You are lucky Dave. - I spent several hours on a job last week cutting out
and renewing lengths of steadily perforating 28mm copper pipe under a
bedroom floor, which was said to have been installed during refurbishment
about fifteen years ago. Little green spots were developing about every
500mm along its length and a few were dribbling water. The householder
assured me it was a heating pipe so having tied up the ball valve and
drained the boiler the dribbling continued unabated. Ho ho we thought there
must be a trapped drop section so having arranged a collection bowl and
bucket I started to rotate a pipeslice. A jet of water appeared so I stopped
cutting and started collecting water. Having filled the bowl I emptied it
into the bucket and he took the bucket away to empty while I held the bowl
again. Several buckets later I asked him to go and tie up the other ball
valve and run the bath taps to drain the Cold water tank in case the
cylinder coil was holed. The taps ran dry while I continued to collect water
and the flow continued unabated. Another forty or so buckets after that with
the water coming out getting steadily hotter the water flow finally stopped.
After doing the job and untying the heating F&E ball valve the heating
system filled up but the offending pipe remained empty. Untying the other
ball valve resulted in the pipe cooling rapidly as it filled with cold water
and creeping about in voids and under cupboards to trace it I found it was a
long supply pipe from the loft tank to the cylinder but via a convoluted
route.
Oh how I do love old houses where standard methods are the exception rather
than the norm!