A few of the contractors I was expecting this week didn’t come by so there was no progress with the burst pipes under the cottage. During the week I started reading up on fixing burst pipes in case the contractor wasn’t available and it seemed like that I could do the repairs myself if I used push fittings. The pipes under the cottage are copper pipes and copper requires soldering to fix them. I dabble with soldering electrical components to repair a detached wire or other small issue and it’s tricky to get a feel for. Soldering pipe connections seems even more high risk and I would imagine only gets good with lots of experience. I learned this lesson the hard way when I had an HVAC contractor install a low water cutoff on my system. They had to solder the cutoff to the water pipe and they couldn’t seem to get the connection tight. It was leaking for weeks and they had to come back 3 times to get it right.

So when I was looking for solutions to burst pipes, it seemed like push fittings were the solution for DIY repairs. These fittings just push onto a pipe and no soldering is required. I figured I could give this a shot and since the burst pipes seemed to be right before an outside faucet that was not needed, I planned to just cut the pipe and cap it off with a push fitting. Should be simple!

First we started with trying to measure the pipe. I wrapped a string around the pipe and got the circumference of 2.12 which I then divided by PI to get the diameter of the pipe (.675). Not quite 3/4” but I figured that was the next largest standard size, so I’d go with that. I buy some fittings for 3/4” and a pipe cutter.

Cutting the pipe was easy but then when I tried to put on the 3/4” fitting, nothing doing. I go back and do some more reading and it seems like I measured the outer diameter of the pipe and what really matters is the nominal pipe diameter. I find some chart that says if you have a .675 inch OD, then it’s 3/8th nominal. Great. I go back to Lowes and grab some 3/8” fittings. I also buy the push fitting’s depth gauge which has multiple sizes of pipe. You put the gauge around the pipe and then mark how far to push down the fitting.

When I get back, I try the gauge to mark the depth and of course turns out that the pipe is 1/2” not 3/8”. I don’t know how the hell the math works out that I have 1/2” pipes since all of the pipe charts seem to say it’s 3/8”. I realize that this is all stupid and don’t get why they can’t just have a standard way to measure pipes. It’s the same issue with 2x4s which don’t actually measure 2x4 inches. Another trip to the store to get 1/2” fittings.

I get the first cap on and then turn on the water to see where I’m at. Once the valve is on, I hear more water pouring out so I turn it off and start looking where it’s coming from. I have to struggle to get a crawlspace panel off the front of the cottage because a screw head snaps off when loosening them. I have to take a hacksaw blade and carefully saw through the metal screw. Once off, I see the issue with a huge split in 1 of the pipes and then looking back further, an entire section of pipe has come loose from its T joint. At this point I’m fed up with plumbing, close it back up and text the plumber to see if he’s going to come by.