Recently had my plumber round to connect up the overflow pipe for the boiler he installed last year (the pipe needed to go through the kitchen, and I was planning on installing a new one, which I now am), so in the meantime he left it running through the bathroom overflow.
He's drilled a hole in the outside wall, and the overflow terminates in a bit of 15mm copper sticking out of that. It seems to me that I ought to seal the hole with something
- but what?
Ben
How big is the hole? It's generally reckoned not to be a good idea to have copper pipe directly in contact with masonry. Can you sleeve it with a short length of plastic pipe, and then use mortar between the plastic and the brickwork?
Nope, not big enough for that. I think it's an 18mm hole. Most of the pipes in my flat seem to go through the walls with no sleeving or any sign of having been painted... The gas pipe for my boiler runs through the loft, fortunately, so no mortar in contact with it!
More concerned preventing damp penetrating inside the brickwork (if this is a problem). I'm guessing if I stick some paint over the bit of pipe I can get too, followed by some mortar to plug the hole and smoothed out to prevent frost getting in and cracking the mortar, I ought to be okay?
Ben
Mortar's not a good idea. Anyway, with a 15mm pipe in an 18mm hole, there ain't a lot of room for mortar! Why not just put some silicone sealant round the pipe, and bond it to the brickwork?
Isn't the mortar okay if it's only in contact with painted pipe? The
15mm/18mm is a fair point, though looking from the balcony it looks like the exit hole is bigger, as some old mortar has been pushed out.
How are you going to paint the pipe which is *inside* the brickwork? If you use mortar, you'll certainly have to ram that up the gap twixt pipe and brick - where it will come into contact with unpainted pipe!
No, your 'plumber' ought to seal the hole. :-)
Frame sealant (as used for sealing window frames to masonry) or even gripfill/nonails/etc (if you've got some on the go) should be OK.
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