How To Fix A Hole In Copper Pipe | Emergency Plumbing Repair

hi guys welcome back to the channel and today we're going over something that some people find a little bit scary when they go putting a screw into a wall and they hit a pipe what are you going to do next well i'm going to show you because it's not quite as scary as you might think so stick with me and i'll show you some easy little tips and tricks on how you can fix a hole in a copper pipe [Music] so before we get started make sure you're subscribed because i've got lots of other plumbing guides electrical guides and all kinds of other stuff on the channel and there's plenty more to come throughout 2022 so if you're not subscribed you're going to miss out so make sure you subscribe and if the video helps you out give it a like for me because that really helps more people on youtube to see the video and it can help more and more people so if it helps you today give us a like right so what are we going to do about this leak that we've created now i say created sometimes you do get a pinhole appear in a copper pipe over time but it's normally accompanied by one or two others but i'll show you just how we're going to fix this hole with a few simple plumbing techniques so once we found our leak and it's probably going to be quite obvious the very first thing you need to do is turn off the water because we can't work on the pipe if it's still leaking so we go ahead and turn off the water in our case it's very easy because this is a rig i've made purposely to show you this video but that is the first thing you need to do turn off the water and drain the pipe now depending on what pipe has the hole in it you may need to drain some taps to drain the water out or you may need to drain down the heating system if that's the case there are guides online how you can drain your heating system so now we've got the water off and we've got the pipe drained down we can move on to repairing the pipe now if you haven't done so already remove the screw or whatever's gone through the pipe take that out or if you've got a pin hole in the pipe that you didn't create then you can skip this step so what we need to do now is clean up any burrs that are on the outside of this pipe if there's a screw or drill bit gone through here it will be rough and we need to smooth that off and to do that we'll gently run over the pipe with a file and you can see the surface is now nice and smooth and you can't feel any raised burrs on that pipe now again if you drilled through the pipe check that you didn't go through the back as well if you did you'll need to get access to the back of the pipe and do the same thing typically when you're doing this job you'll find that access will be your biggest restriction you're not going to be lucky like me in doing this on a rig and you're probably going to have to take floorboards up or make a hole in a wall to gain access to this you never seem to get lucky with a hole in a pipe they're always in an awkward place for you guys that are waiting for me to reveal the winner of one of these tracer pencils from the last video stick around and i'll reveal the winner at the end of this video so the first method for fixing a pinhole in a copper pipe is going to be one of these click fix patches now they're pretty good little bits of kit they actually form a patch over the copper pipe and they have solder already in them so all we need to do is put that on the pipe and heat it up now there are a few techniques to getting this right first time now i'll put a link in the description where you can get one of these the first thing we're going to do now is we're going to clean up this pipe for soldering now our patch is going to go over the hole and it's going to solder to the pipe so we need to clean up this area of the pipe best way to do this support the pipe grab some wire wool and you can see that we can just clean that pipe up [Music] and you can see that that shiny area is now where the pipe is clean and now you're going to want some soldering flux put some flux on the pipe and the flux will make sure that the solder gets good contact with the copper pipe put a little bit of flux not a lot on the inside of the patch as well and that will help to clean off any residue inside that patch what we're going to do now is we're going to click the patch over the hole just give it a push make sure that that patch is covered to holding the pipe completely now we're going to heat that patch up with a torch to solder it to the pipe but before we do that we want to make sure we protect whatever's around the pipe because like i say this is normally going to be a concealed area and we don't want to risk damaging anything else or causing fires so make sure you use one of these heat mats again i'll stick a link in the description to one and now we're going to use our torch to gradually heat up that copper patch in the same way as we would when we're doing any soldering now if you want to learn a bit more about soldering i do have a couple of videos on the channel and i'll stick a link in the top of the screen so you can go check them out now the key to doing this is to heat the patch evenly and gradually until you see the solder around the edge of the patch once you see that solder starting to seep you'll know that it's made good contact with the copper pipe as you saw the solder seeped out of the side of that patch all the way around all four edges once you've got that result leave the pipe to cool fully before you go on to the next step and do not aid that coolant process in any way if you do try and aid that cooling process with water or anything like that you'll risk fracturing the soldered joint so now the pipe's cooled down grab your piece of wire wool and we'll clean this up just make sure you've got any excess flux off the copper pipe that's our patch fitted before i show you another more traditional method what we'll do is give this a test to make sure there's no leaks and if you're new to doing this i'd advise you phone a friend and get someone to turn the water on so that you can keep an eye on your handiwork and remember there's likely to be air in the pipe so give it a little while don't think oh it's okay straight away and walk off because once that air comes out you might see a leak develop and as expected that sealed the hole perfectly hopefully it has for you as well but i'll show you one more more traditional method in case you haven't got one of these little patches handy so let's drill another hole in the pipe wear that time this method's a little bit more conventional we're going to cut the pipe and join it with a fitting it's a really easy method but it does require more access to the pipe depending on the location of the pipe sometimes it will be harder to separate that pipe to get a fitting in like we did before we'll just file down that hole make sure there's no raised areas now next up we'll grab a pipe cutter and now the way to do this is to line the cutting wheel of the pipe cutter up with the center of the hole in the pipe you can see that the wheels lined up with the hole and go ahead and cut on the hole now to join our pipe together what we're going to do is use one of these speed fit connectors now you could solder this or you could use a compression fitting but if you're a beginner it might be easier to use one of these because it's going to save you work trying to gain access to this pipe in tight spaces where soldering and compression fittings are probably going to be more difficult for you now if you do want to go down the route of a push fit connector i'll drop a link in the description where you can buy one but before we put this on it's important that we use a deburring tool to deeper the ends of the pipe if you look inside these push fit connectors they have a little o-ring and if we have any sharp edges on here we could end up damaging that o-ring and causing a leak and debur the end of that pipe and slip your push fit connector on and do up the locking ring do the same with the other side and that is our second method of fixing a hole in a copper pipe now like we did before turn the water back on and give it a test now i'm going to announce who's won this handy tracer pencil from the competition in my last video so put all your names in a hat let's pick a winner it's actually more of a paint tray than a hat but you get the point who's it gonna be and the winner of the tracer pencil is neil atkinson well done and thank you all for entering the competition i hope you enjoy the pencil nail i wish i could give you all one so nail head over to my instagram page it's the diy guy youtube and send me a message on there with your details and i'll send this across to you if you do want to grab yourself a tracer pencil there's a link in the description they're not that expensive go and grab yourself one because they really are useful and hopefully we can do some more of these competitions in the future right hopefully you've now fixed the hole in your copper pipe this video has helped you out if it has helped you make sure you give me a like because that way more people will see the video and you'll help me to help more people and make sure if you're not subscribed already you hit the subscribe button that's gonna pop up anywhere on the screen right about now and i'll see you guys in the next one

Channel: The DIY Guy

Views: 363,028

Keywords: plumbing, plumbing repair, copper pipe repair, leak repair, copper pipe leak repair, copper pipe leaking, hole in copper pipe repair, hole in copper pipe fix, hole in copper pipe, diy plumbing, repair hole in pipe, repair copper pipe, fix a hole in a water pipe, fix copper pipe leak, fixing a copper pipe leak, fix a hole in a copper pipe, clickfix copper pipe repair, clickfix, click fix pipe repair, patch copper pipe leak, patch copper pipe, pinhole in copper pipe, soldering

Id: R3or9wx4ufs

Length: 9min 56sec (596 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 22 2022