pinhole leaks in copper pipe, this common

I live in central florida and the main pipe coming off the street and into my house is copper. The pipe comes out of the ground about 16" and then there is a right angle elbow. The inside corner of the elbow hits right against the stucko of my house (wood construction). Today I noticed 1 sprouting pinhole leak and 1 drilling pinhole leak on the outter side of the elbow (so it's exterior of the house).

The pipes are 23-24 years old (assuming original pipe). The pipe has always been painted.

How common is something like this? And more importantly, am I too expect future leaks to happen to other pipes that are inside the slab or inside my walls? The plumber I spoke with said it may happen, and it can be common. I really hope this is just a freak thing because it's an exterior pipe.

Reply to
Evan Mann
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My experience is that copper does exactly that after about 30 years. I have seen it many times and each job was originally done in the early to mid 70's. I helped my brother-in-law completely repipe my mother's house a few years back and it was built in 1964.

Bobby

Reply to
BGBevill

Hi, It all depends on local soil condition. Acidity of soil. Tony

Reply to
Tony Hwang

I wonder if it was just bad copper (probably iron inclusions) in the 70's. My house was plumbed with copper a little over 50 years ago and has no problems.

Best regards, Bob

Reply to
zxcvbob

If leak was "an inside corner of an elbow", it may have also been some kind of stress failure. A corner of anything can always be a potential stress point, even if the stress or movement is not obvious. M.B.

Reply to
M.Burns

This is why I brought up the remote but perhaps entirely real possibility of someone not using a dilectric union of some sort, and if you're intent on digging up your lawn as it is, you'd probably be well-served to see if one was used, or checking into a good reason why one wasn't if one wasn't. Munipalities don't make a habit of using copper pipe between the town water tower and what's going thru the hole in the wall poked into everyone's house when it was built, so if you're going to be digging up anyway, it'd be worth a look to see what someone stuck you with when the original connection was replaced. We homeowners live in a sea of hacks and un-permitted pre-owner renovations and repairs, so forearmed is always forewarned.

AJS

Reply to
AJScott

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