Cleanup after leak and pipe couplings

[Tim Streater]

We had a very slow leak in the Utility Room due to a poorly fitted isolator (one of the 1/4-turn jobs to cut the water flow). This has led to part of the chipboard floor being quite damp and black mould behind skirting boards; plasterboard wall there may be a bit damp too. Since the room in question is being redone, everything's been stripped out anyway, which exposed the cause of the leak (we suspected that there was one).

Plumber cut a tile's worth of floor away to get at this in the void below (suspended ground floor). Plan is to leave it open while the refurb goes on and close it up last thing. Should we be doing anything there like warm/hot air from hair-dryer to assist drying out?

Previous plumber ran the pipe going through the floor into a plastic push fitting. Pipe, however (now replaced by plain copper) was chrome plated, which my plumber says is a no-no, chrome being much harder than copper. Any comments on his observation?

[Nightjar]

Chromium is, indeed, much harder than copper, which is why chromium plating is used to resist wear inside gun barrels and moulding tools rather than copper.

So far as chromium plated copper pipe is concerned, you should always strip the plating off the copper (e.g. by heating the end and dipping it in hydrochloric acid) where you plan to make a joint.

Colin Bignell