I recently fired the contractor who was doing some patio construction for me. One of the things left was to finish the plumbing from a 1/2" copper tubing (.032" wall) water supply (which extends upward from the slab) to an outside sink and hose bib. I had never done copper soldering before, but the people at Home Depot people said it is simple. I soldered several connections using the combination flux/solder in paste form, that you apply with a brush. I applied the solder, assembled the connection, then heated. Every one of the connections leaked! I decided to go PVC, so I ripped it all out and used a comperssion fitting to go from copper to PVC. Well, the compression fitting leaked, too.
I could understand one or two of the solder joints leaking due to my inexperience, but all of them? Is copper soldering not as simple as I have been told? Could the solder have been bad? Am I incompetent?
Also, all the remaining copper supply line that sticks out of the slab has a slight curve to it. Is it impossible to get a good compression connection if there is any curve in the tubing? I really like to do this kind of small stuff myself, but maybe I should just give up and call a pro...