Leaking Hot Water pipe under bath. Any advice please?

Following some very wet bathroom carpet, we found that there is a small leak (1 drip every 2 or 3 seconds) coming from the hot water pipe underneath the bath (ie actually visible once the side panel of bath has been removed). Although small leak, it has neverthless lead to soaking wood underneath the bath that is now causing damp patches on the floor / ceiling below. Is it possible that this will be able to be sorted with some special sort of tape , or that part of the pipe needs to be replaced? Looked in a few places for advise , including Readers Digest manual etc, but nothing seems to deal with this clearly enough for my very untechnical mind.

Would of course be grateful for any advise that means I dont have to call a plumber....as simply no money these days.

Thanks very much

Reply to
Bunster
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Would it be possible to take and post a photo of the offending area? Is it coming from a soldered joint? Or a compression joint (big nut). Is it at the entry to the tap?

Depending on what type of joint has failed may involve just a tighted of a nut or replacing a soldered fitting. The latter requires draining the pipe and it sounds like from your technophobia, a plumber.

-- Mike W

Reply to
VisionSet

"Bunster" wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@m73g2000cwd.googlegroups.com:

Have you got enough room to get a dish of some sort under it?

If you can, then do so and empty it as required; I know it sounds stupid and it's not a fix, but it will stop the damp damage constantly being renewed while the experts have a think.

Is the leak from the end of a fitting, connector, or coupler?

Is it soldered, or does it have a bosy with nuts, or has it somehow appeared in a length of virgin pipe.

Is the pipe 15mm, about 1/2" across, or 22mm (3/4") across?

Answers in your next post, please ;-)

mike

Reply to
mike

You really do need to find the source of the leak. Sometimes it can be misleading as water can and will run down pipework before dripping off somewhere other than than the fault-point. I have before replaced perfectly sound fittings due to this... ahem... annoying oversight.

Get a dishcloth and dry around each suspect fitting in turn, then use your forefinger to wipe around the "collars" of each fitting (where fitting meets pipe) and you'll soon find the source when your finger comes away wet. TIP: start at the top and work down.

When identified, consider replacing the fitting yourself... just use pushfit fittings to replace the dodgy valve or get a new tap (or washers). Try turning off all stopcocks you can find until the water stops flowing and make a note to turn em all back on again.

Visit your local plumber's merchants and don't be afraid to ask for their advice/help. I've alsways found them to be pretty helpful whatever town I'm in, and most of the knowledge I now have has been gleaned from such places.

You might need to borrow some tools from a friend as these are usually the most expensive part of the job, if you don't have any... again, ask the guys at the plumber's, I have before and they've lent me stuff I didn't have.

Typically, if you have a leaky joint, you can either try tightening it by a 1/4 turn (if compression) or cut out a 6" length (including the fitting) and replacing with one new 5" length of copper (plastic) pipe and 2 new pushfit fittings.

Good luck. deano.

Reply to
deano

get a friend who is able to fix cars to give it a quarter turn only and then see if that stops it . He will have to hold the fitting with a vice grips when tightening the nut. If that doesnt work try it one more little squeeze and thats all. Dont keep going or you may make it worse. If that doesnt stop it then get a plumber to fix it. no more than an hours work but a day for a dosser. Before you start identify the valve to shut off the hot water just in case you need to close it urgently.

you are lucky you dont have a tiled bathroom floor or you would need a new one by now.

Reply to
noelogara

Better still, use toilet paper, as it is very obviously from inspection if a single drip was present.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

I am a loss as to understand how inspection can cause a single drip?

Bionic eyeballs maybe?

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

Better still, use toilet paper, as it is very obvious from inspection if a single drip was present.

Christian.

Reply to
Christian McArdle

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