water line/plumbing help

[fastfredracing]

For an auto mechanic, I am getting pretty darn good at plumbing up old houses. Every rental house we have purchased thus far has had a visit from the midnight plumbers before we bought them.
We start on our next one in two weeks, and this one is going to be a little harder than the rest I have done. It seems as if the midnight plumbers removed the water meter by rocking it back and forth until the copper pipe snapped off. It looks as if the pipe ( soft copper )is pretty twisted maybe 1-2" back into the block wall. I obviously have to break out some of the block wall no matter what, but would it be alright to reshape the diameter of the pipe a little and make my solder joint at the first place possible?? . Will this signifigantly weaken the pipe to make problems down the road?, or should I just smash out a nice hole in the wall , and splice where the pipe has not been deformed.
If It is o.k to reshape the pipe a little, It will probably make a 2 day job more like a 2 hour job.

[Zeke]

A good solder joint depends entirely on a good fit up. As a mechanic, anything is possible. But that OD better be spot on. BTW, I think there are some very good press on fittings which will make having to get the torch inside the wall a moot point. Heat and concrete blocks can make for fireworks.

[javadog]

If it was me, I'd take out the block where the pipe passes through, or at least remove the portion of the pipe passing through the block, and replace it. You need to attach the new water line to a sound place in the old one. Dealing with a concrete block is not a big deal.

JR

[dad911]

Not usually difficult to break out block. Be glad it isn't poured concrete wall.

[john70t]

Is the water main from the street shut off?
How is it possible to do work upstream of the meter?

This is dwelving into dangerous "city-utilities" territory. Better call the professionals.

[911Rob]

If you can access the pipe where it's misconfigured with a drill; take a drill with one of those cone shaped dremil attachments and hone out the end of the pipe slowly with even pressure; attempting to reconfigure the round shape of the pipe. This should work out ok for you.

I'd try it first, but then again I'm stubborn.
You know about the bread trick, right?

[trekkor]

Replace the pipe that passes through the block.

If you were local, I'd do it!


KT

[TerryH]

Plumbing shortcuts can haunt you later. Do it right and rest easy. Do it wrong and do it over at much greater expense with perhaps flood damage.