Darn pinhole leaks

[Bugsinrugs]

Went downstairs today into a bedroom that’s mostly storage now. Looked up and saw a massive wet spot that was dripping water. Opened the ceiling to find a pin hole in the copper pipe. At the rate of the drip it’s only been a couple of days. Lucky me. Could have gone on for weeks I’ll fix it tomorrow. The price of having a well with acidic water. I put a piece of sheet metal in the ceiling to divert the drip into a garbage can.

[look 171]

Is there a joint near by? Sometimes, installers get sloppy and end up not de-burring the cut end of a pipe causing a turbulence in the water that will eventually wear away a certain area of the pipe faster causing pin holes. If there isn't a joint near by, then I suggest thinking about re-piping the house because if there's one pin hole, other are eventually come to haunt you. Don't let it go for too long, because it knows when you are on vacation and have forgotten about it, that's when it will let go. Its knows, just like the battery in smoke alarms. Its knows to go off at 4am. good luck.

[Bugsinrugs]

There is a 90 joint about three inches away. Yes, I knew this was coming. I had one maybe eight years ago near the shower valve on a horizontal pipe like this one. Re piping would be tough since most of the supply lines are between the first and second floor.

[look 171]

I really thingk someone got lazy and did not de-burr the pipe. I suggest you remove that section of pipe and see if it has been de-burr for a piece of mind. Problem is, if the pipe isn't de-burred, does that mean there are others?

[Bugsinrugs]

The 90 is downstream from the pinhole. Before I put in a water filter system and phosphate filter I had one other leak. They have both been on a horizontal pipe. However, you could be right. Im just a home fix it as it breaks guy.

[Skip Newsom]

Is your home and plumbing grounded properly?

The reason I ask is because I have had 3 leaks repaired so far in our home that was built in 1990 with copper plumbing throughout.

The house was only about 10 years old when we had the first leak develop and they were all within 10' of each other, thankfully pretty easy to get to.

The last time it happened I mentioned that this keeps happening to the plumber, he said he thought it was electrolysis due to poor grounding.

I had an electrician come out take a look, he agreed and drove 2 6' grounding bars into the soil near the electrical box and then replaced the original cable and connections to the copper pipe and run a ground cable to the new rods tying them all together.
That was a decade ago and no pin hole leaks since!

[Bugsinrugs]

Gosh.. never thought of that. My reasoning is the house is thirty years old and our well water is acidic. I did put in a filtration and phosphate system to help but I’m thinking I may be replacing copper with pecan in the future.

[id10t]

Lucky you caught it early.

We had a similar leak in the pipe between 'fridge and sink, which ran inside a wall. Didn't know for a Very Long Time - until one morning there was water on the dining room floor. Caused a massive "everything but the bedrooms" renovation to happen for me at the end of 2020...

[Bugsinrugs]

Where did pecan come from??? It was supposed to be pex. I decided to call a plumber since I found another spot that looks like it could go at anytime. The access is tight and my torch had a larger flame than I’m comfortable with. Don’t want to burn the house down.

[ramonesfreak]

I get about 1 pinhole per year. I have one about to start leaking and a shark bite ready to go when I’m not feeling lazy. A few months ago I sprung a leak on a pipe that had 3 shark bites. Ended up replace that length of pipe. House built in 52. Not on a well and best I can tell do no have acidic water. At some point I will need to replace all my copper pipes. Luckily all mine have been in the basement ceiling so I can see them starting. So far nothing inside a wall that I know of.

[Bugsinrugs]

So I pushed the insulation out of the way and found more leaks about to happen. Plumber fixed it all in two hours. $370. I’m glad I didn’t tackle this myself. I’m also going to get a estimate from them to repute with pex.

[Bugsinrugs]

[E Sully]

Common problem with acidic water. At my brothers house I replaced sections with new pipe where practical, and patched the pin holes in tough areas.
I get green stains in my toilet from it. I clean it with vinegar when needed. All of my piping has been replaced over the years since I bought it in the early 90's. I bought a fixer upper and over the years as I redid the kitchen, bathroom and heating I used the thicker walled copper pipe in the original house. I added an addition back in 2006. I never checked the rating on what the plumber that did the addition used, but probably whatever the code required. This was all before PEX was around. In the future as things arise I will probably start using PEX.
As far as electrical grounding, I updated mine to the current code with the addition. I have a ground rod at the pole, 2 at the house, 1 at the well, and another at the shed I ran power to. All grounds are properly connected to the water pipes. I still get the green stains from the acidic well water corroding the copper. I don't know if the municipal water is any better since most of the counties municipal water is also from wells.