Repairing pin hole leak in copper pipe

[Pat]

Yesterday while in the basement drilling holes in the floor joists to run some Cat5e computer cable, I miscalculated and nicked the bottom of a piece of 5/8" O.D. Type L water pipe. The result is a pin hole leak that sprays a very fine mist of water from the hot water pipe. As luck would have it, this particular area has some soldered elbows and Tee's in the same area with the closest one being a tee that is approx 4 1/2" from the leak. I just plumbed this area in May when installing a new hot water heater, and if at all possible would like to avoid having to deal with soldering these joints again because of the area that they are located in.

I was thinking of just cutting the pipe at the leak and soldering a sleeve over it, but like I mentioned above there is a tee soldered about 4 1/2" away and I am pretty sure the heat from installing the sleeve would melt the nearby joints which would require re-soldering all the joints in this area. Any ideas on how to repair this leak without doing a major overhaul..........Thanks

[Wood-N Steel]

oops

Cut it out and install a coupling or union wrap near by joints with a wet rag to stop the heat

Or fix pin hole with hi-temp silver solder

[bjdenommee]

Pat get a 1/2 compression couple, no solder needed.

Bernie

[Thomas Harris]

cut it right where the hole is if you can fit a slip coupling over it do it, but make sure you either empty the pipe completely or dam the area above and below with bread or a water soluble plug. I don't quite understand what you mean when you say difficult to get at. Any type of patch is going to require some kind of access. If fire is an issue due to the surrounding area, either use some mechanical connector or figure out some way to shield the area befor applying the torch. Good luck.

[Sberry]

Or press a little dimple in it and solder it.

[Thomas Harris]

he ain't gonna solder nuttin' till he gets all the water out. so he might as well put a code approved fittin' on the dang thing. Slip coupling wil have no stops in it and sometimes helps if the pipe cannot be move much.

[boilerman]

dimple it and sweat a plug over it or cut it and put a slip couple on it ...wrap the other joint with a wet cloth and heat will not be a problem

[Roger]

I would solder it as stated in prior posts.

Plumbing supply stores have clamp on patches that are great temporary fix. I installed one in middle of rainy night then quickly replaced 5 years later with soldered coupling on dry summer day.

Hardware stores have epoxy putty sticks that will fix your pin hole leak until you get around to solder repair.

[Pat]

Thanks guys,

I used the dimple / solder method. It worked great after I got all the water out of the line...........thanks again.

[firzlaff1]

Hello, do you think this hole can be welded closed without damaging the other joints? also, having a hard time getting all the water out of the pipe. water if off and i have opened the sink and other sources to let any pressure off.

[Dale M.]

The problem with any sort of weld is going to be not melting plastic fitting just below pin hole.......

Dale

[MAC702]

Epoxy leak repair isn't being lazy these days. It's actually more expensive. Only the professional plumber who's really good at soldering, and has a myriad fittings and parts on his truck will tell you it's being lazy.