Punctured Pipe
You are working on a concrete floor, hammering a nail or perhaps hammering in the point of a chisel, and have hit a pipe. The stopcocks are so old they cannot be completely turned off and there is a continual slight dribble of water running through the pipe. Earls Court Plumbers can deal with an emergency.1). Drop a towel over the leak so that the water doesn’t spurt up and damage the walls.2). Go around the house flushing the toilet’s and turning on all the taps. While the cold taps are running, fill up as many containers as possible so that you have enough water for washing cooking and drinking.3). Go to the stop cock under the sink and turn it off.4). Use a hammer and cold chisel to excavate the concrete from in and around the hole, so that there is enough room to use a small hacksaw or better still, a pipe cutter. An Earls Court Plumber carries the correct tools.5). Having first been sure that you have two compression joints and replacement part of the right size, cut a 200 mm section out of the pipe, centred on the damaged piece. Use fine wire wool to clean up the damaged ends.6). By trial and error, cut and fit the two compression joints and a length of new pipe to bridge the gap. Use a fine rod file to remove the thin stop ring at the centre of the joint so that you can slide the body of the joint along the new and old pipes.7). One end at a time, slide a cap nut onto the end of the new piece of pipe, followed by an olive and then the body of the joint. Tighten up with a pair of spanners so that the olive grips the pipe, and then undo the joint and remove the body.8). Slide all the component parts into place (cap nuts, olives, the body of the joints on the old pipe and the piece of new pipe complete with its cap nuts and olives). Wrap a few turns of PTFE tape over each of the olives, and then re-assemble the whole thing and tighten up.9). Finally, clean up the mess, turn on in the main stop cock, wait until water runs out of the various taps, and then turn the tap off.