life of PVC (water pipe) glue?

[Orson Cart]

I have a house built about 1990. I noticed some water damage under the kitchen sink. There seemed to be damp streaks down the p-trap, so I thought it was the rubber seals. I got a set of o-rings from hardware store and replaced them. The old rings were hard and leaking, but later found there was another leak: where the elbow was glued. So I would like to know - do these glued joints fail after a few decades? I also have them in the bathroom and laundry.

[Chewbacca]

Not meaning to be a smart arse - but in your case yes. I also find that emptying boiling water into the sink drain tens to stress the joints and the rubber compression joints can 'walk apart'.

[Heliotrope Smith]

"Orson Cart" wrote in news:4d1e95df$ [e-mail]:

PVC waste does not use glue to hold the joints together but uses a solvent.

The solvent disolves the PVC pipe and joint socket and welds the two together.

A well made joint cannot pull apart or leak.

It is easy to make a poor solvent weld joint though!

Cut the pipe bace to where you can put in a socket (coupler) and renew back from there.

Make sure all pipe ends and joint sockets are clean before applying the solvent and give a twist or two to disribute the solvent evenly.

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