patch plumbing vent with foil?

[Frank Foder]

OK, so some rodent nibbled the lead flashing around the top of one of my my PVC plumbing vent pipes. I now have a small gap between the lead flashing and the PVC, allowing a bit of rain to get in. I could tear up roof tiles and replace the whole lead sleeve, or I could just wrap aluminum foil to seal the edge, between PVC and lead flashing, and pop a large hole in the top to allow the venting. Maybe with some epoxy slathered around the foil collar to hold it in place. Gee, I could even use "heavy duty" aluminum foil. So, what's wrong with that idea?

[hrhofmann]

Lots of heavy applications of roofing cement with foil imbedded in it to maybe discourage the rodents that are trying to get into your attic. Maybe opposums?

[Evan]

A picture of the damage is worth 1,000 words...

This sounds like an old fashioned manner of weatherproofing a vent stack...

Let us see the damage and the condition of the rest of the lead flashing before we all offer you a final solution...

~~ Evan

[RicodJour]

Other than the fact that Rube Goldberg is dead...nothing. But instead of slathering and kludging, why not buy a....wait for it...roof vent cap. Google it - you'll find a number of different types. The basic galvanized with a little funky roof on it would work fine. You might have to tweak the cap to fit over the lead, or tweak the lead.

R

[Frank Foder]

This isn't a matter of rodents trying to get into my roof (though we've had that!) This is the well known fact that at least squirrels like to chew on lead.

Roof vent is a good idea, though I looked for them at Lowes and HD, and didn't find one that sits on top of a 2" PVC tube.

[Frank Foder]

Yes, the foam would work like the RTV. Now, you still need a hefty flashing seal of some sort there, because the idea is to keep water from just sliding down the outside of the PVC tube into the attic. Just a cap on an otherwise bare PVC tube won't suffice.

Interestingly, roofers say that squirrels like lead. Just google "squirrels chew lead". I've got plenty of aluminum on my roof, and they don't gnaw on that. Maybe because lead, unlike aluminum or copper sheet, is somewhat chewable? Of course aluminum *foil* (unlike thicker aluminum sheet) is probably somewhat chewable as well. I think they do it to hone down their teeth, not that lead would seem to be a particularly good material to help do that. You'd also think that chewing lead would eventually kill them, but the idea is that the large chunks that come off just pass through their systems without being absorbed.

Anyone used those cheap rubber seals plumbing vent seals? About a quarter the price of lead ones. Do they not last well? That might be one reason why you see both sold.

[Joe]

Lead corrosion products have a sweet taste. Google 'sugar of lead' for more info.

Many building codes specify larger sizes for plumbing vents. Ours is

3" ID. You could increase the size easily to fit an available standard size flashing.

Joe

[Evan]

ROFL...

OR, you could have a plumber come out, repair the actual problem which is whatever the f*ck happened to that ancient stack vent pipe by cutting it in the house, making a transition to a new piece of modern pipe to penetrate the roof using a modern flashing designed exactly for that purpose...

Anything you try to do to that old thing will likely not last very long...

~~ Evan

[Frank Foder]

OR, I could just do it myself. The question was what the smartest approach was, not who should do it. Installing a new lead sleeve is NOT the smartest approach, as the squirrels have convinced me. I had a plumber offer to do exactly that less-than-smartest ancient-technology approach. So much for plumbers. Lowes sells those ancient lead sleeves, so tell them that it isn't "modern" enough and designed exactly for that purpose. The rubber sleeves they also sell are not obviously highly weather resistant. Certainly not as weather resistant as lead, though perhaps more squirrel resistant..

It's a 40 year-old house, and the PVC pipe itself is in fine shape and code-compliant, so your "transition" suggestion makes no sense.

I put some heavy aluminum foil over it, and will check on that periodically. I suspect it will last pretty long. If not, maybe I'll just get some sheet lead and an air rifle, which was a good answer I got in another forum.