Well, after 3 months in the new house all the decorating is done, so therefore the Lord of Sod has blessed us with a water leak in our dining room. Thanks for that.

Here’s a pic:

Is there anything a DIYer with no plumbling experience can do to sort this? How much is a plumber likely to charge for fixing it?

Ta.

You might be able to bodge a fix with some:

that’ll keep it sealed for a day or so. You probably don’t want a plumber coming out on a Sunday night. I don’t think a plumber will charge that much to fix it once you’ve identified where it is.

Although, hmmm…you’re going to struggle to get some of that on a Sunday night too. 😐

Jesus, what a dog’s dinner. That’s why plumbers are supposed to wipe the excess flux off joints after they’ve cooled down. Flux left on will collect moisture and slowly corrode the pipe… as you’ve found….

That’s going to be an absolute barsteward of a job, to be honest. If it was my house I would take the whole mess out and re-make every joint on the basis that if one has started leaking, the others won’t be far behind.

And as with what globalti has said, get him to remove the blanked off end and just do a tidy right angle (unless you think the blanked off bits are defo needed in the future).

That’s a proper mess 😯

You’ll struggle to DIY that if you’ve no experience, and Plumber’s Mait won’t do anything, it’s for sink wastes and cisterns etc. and doesn’t set, not for copper pipes.

That lot needs taking out and re doing in my opinion. No point bodging the leak as it will be leaking somewhere else pretty quickly by the look of it.

Jesus, what a dog’s dinner. That’s why plumbers are supposed to wipe the excess flux off joints after they’ve cooled down. Flux left on will collect moisture and slowly corrode the pipe… as you’ve found….

That’s going to be an absolute barsteward of a job, to be honest. If it was my house I would take the whole mess out and re-make every joint on the basis that if one has started leaking, the others won’t be far behind.

The previous owner had some right dodgy tradesman in, another example of where she went on price rather than quality.

And as with what globalti has said, get him to remove the blanked off end and just do a tidy right angle (unless you think the blanked off bits are defo needed in the future).

I’ve only just noticed that, what a poor effort to leave that whole section on. Like you say, easier to take it off and get right angled piece put in.

Thanks all, plumber it is then.

and Plumber’s Mait won’t do anything, it’s for sink wastes and cisterns etc. and doesn’t set, not for copper pipes.

Ah roight, fair enough. I was only thinking of something that might help till tomorrow, having used some before on a leaky rad joint till I got a plumber in daylight hours. But if it doesn’t work, I withdraw the suggestion.

I thought I’d seen some pretty special decisions in this house, but 2 right angles and a T piece?

At least there’s plenty of pipe so you’ll be able to cut directly on the other side of the T and fit a right angle.

It wouldn’t be too hard to do if you could get the pipes drained and properly dry; cutting out the old stuff will be the worst bit unless you can melt the joints. Then you’d be able to clean up and use Yokshire joints. If still wet you’ll need to make up some corners and use compression joints to fit them in. Also compression if there’s any danger of setting the house on fire.

God that’s a mess. I’m not a plumber but my plumbing is better than that!
You might get away with cutting the pipes off and replacing with some push fit plastic stuff.

Depends where it is, if it’s buried under floorboards (or in some other suitably hard to inspect place) then I’m not sure I’d trust anything other than soldering.

If not, then compression or copper push fit is the way forward.

lol @ those joints.

Technically speaking there is nothing wrong with the way the pipes are routed, personally I would have formed a bend from the T piece to get the pipe back the wall and parallel with the other, rather than using two elbows. But other than that, it’s fairly standard pipe work.

The issue, as mentioned above, is that the plumber hasn’t cleaned up the copper after soldering and the flux left on the copper has caused leaks.

Blind pew could have done better than that . Ive only done a few joins all be it under guidance from a plumber and mine look better than that !

Is it on the heating circuit then ?

as a pro i make a point of not critising oter peoples work it was done for a reason/s that you /I arent aware of.

the joint is leaking most likely as its ‘dry’ and the solder has failed. draing it off wont be an issue because of the cap end. soldering isnt straight forward though as space is restricted and the movement of the pipes is limited so cutting the pipes getting new bits in will be a real PITA.

i think i’d prefer to re solder the existing joints as the work above is proper fiddly.

Possible if he can get the pipes dry. Heat and dribble solder with flux around the leak.

totalshell – can you describe the technique youd use to get solder into a dry/old joint that you cant clean and re-flux first? Ive always found it impossible to stop the solder just leaping on to the floor.

Depends where it is, if it’s buried under floorboards (or in some other suitably hard to inspect place) then I’m not sure I’d trust anything other than soldering.
If not, then compression or copper push fit is the way forward.

Oh yeah. Indeed. I was just on about a temporary repair really. 🙂

you might not be able to stop the water to re-solder.

The plumbers nightmare – a slow tickle of water that prevents the pipe getting hot enough.

Blind pew could have done better than that . Ive only done a few joins all be it under guidance from a plumber and mine look better than that !

Is it on the heating circuit then ?

Pretty certain its the hot water pipe for the bath, I ran the water and the leaky pipe got hot as well so guessing that’s what it is.

Here’s a pic of where it is in the room, we literally finished decorating last weekend and one week later I’m cutting holes in the plasterboard to find a leak. Talk about bad luck.

Upside? At least it’ll be easy to match the paint when you make good. saves decorating the whole room. 🙂

I could be wrong but the pipes going upwards look like 3/4 imperial pipe? Is it an old property? Soldering a 22mm fitting onto 3/4 pipe never works properly and will always be a bodge.

I have seen lots of diy jobs like this, even pulled one soldered joint out by hand.

I could be wrong but the pipes going upwards look like 3/4 imperial pipe? Is it an old property? Soldering a 22mm fitting onto 3/4 pipe never works properly and will always be a bodge.

I have seen lots of diy jobs like this, even pulled one soldered joint out by hand.

Yes old, to the tune of around 140 years. Is it worth mentioning the size of the pipes to the plumber before he gets here?

Any ideas how much this is likely to cost me?