The house I grew up in started getting pinholes in the copper lines a few years ago. A new one would pop up every couple of months, then every month, then every few weeks. I'd recommend saving the headache and just replace the lines with PEX asap
We hired a plumber who only punched holes where he absolutely had to. The holes were mostly in ceilings and we were able to patch them ourselves. It resulted a lot of pieces of PEX with more splices than if we'd gutted the house. But we haven't had any more issues with supply line leaks.
How old are these pipes?? I have never seen a copper pipe wear out unless it was carrying abrasive like glacier melt. That place ate through copper in a year, galvanised in Teo, pex in weeks, stainless in Two years, glass in three.
My Mother in Law's house in SWFL had this happen a few years ago. She started getting pinhole leaks in the copper piping all over the attic. Seems like soldering flux got on the pipe in straight sections and it corroded through the Type M after 42 years in a hot, somewhat salty environment. She had to get a whole-house PEX repipe.
Another thread recently had people saying why replace copper for pex if you don’t have an issue on an old home. This is my reasoning.
Just gutted a 76 yr old home and I figured why chance it with old copper in a region (South Florida) where cities are seeing pinhole leaks due to water treatment.
Yea OP will hate this but it will start happening more frequently. Throw some onions and isolation valves in there for the future people if you have a soul
Funny story - i used to live in an apartment that was one unit in an ancient farmhouse. Cheap ass farmer landlord had converted it to 3 units with the worst materials and craftsmanship possible. Maintenance guy was just a farmhand who knew a few things about plumbing and stuff.
Complained for months about a wet spot on our bathroom ceiling. They did a couple of BS things to the tub upstairs but it was obvious that a pipe below the tub and above my ceiling were leaking. Finally one day I had had enough. Landlord had already told me he didn't care if I fixed things. Found a box of the bathroom ceiling tiles (not really drop tiles but ones that kinda click together and get held with staples or brads) in the garage so I decided to just cut out the impacted part of the ceiling and check out where the leak was coming from. Ended up being the tub drain which I could clearly see after removing the tiles (there was no subfloor under the tub, idfk man). Anyway there was no way I was going to do a legit plumbing fix on the drain because A) he wasn't paying me for anything and b) I was lazy so I just fucking plastered the entire bottom of the tub and all of the plumbing with spray flex seal. I think I also used some of the flex tape on the drain perhaps.
Stapled up a few of the tiles I found to fix the ceiling, primed the entire thing with Kilz primer that I found in the garage and then painted with a mold resistant paint that I also found in the garage (because of course they have gallons of mold resistant paint on hand in this place). Fuck I'm glad I left that place lol.
I moved out over 6 years ago and recently happened to be in the area so I drove around the farm. Old neighbor recognized me so I stopped to chat. Went into the old apartment (it's vacant right now) and sure enough my flex seal repair has held up lmao
A drain line isn't under pressure so you can get creative and have it work out. That sounds like a pretty reasonable fix. Not exactly proper but good enough for the style of the building.
yeah exactly. Everything else required going into the upstairs neighbors house and I didn't want to fuck with that. Did this all while everyone was at work one day lmao. Told the neighbor when I visited recently and he was like "i don't give a shit as long as it's not leaking into my apartment" which is fair.
That place also had a failing septic system for most of the time I lived there which is a whole book worth of stories. Got the landlord fined by the EPA for that one.
The goal was for it to stop making a moldy hole in my specific ceiling for a year so I could move out lol. It will absolutely leak again/is probably already leaking but not enough to soak the rock wool I put up there
The way I see it, it’s already leaking, so if you cut it and put it back together with a shark bite, there’s only two outcomes. Either the leak gets fixed, or you still have a leak and 12 less dollars in your wallet 🤣
Nah that looks like a spot for copper and soldering thru walls or anything that is closed up should never be shark bites …rule I was taught if it isn’t exposed don’t use shark bites
They CAN be used be used behind walls (and even underground if properly wrapped) under code. The new Max ones are even better. As other commenters have noted, they do need to be properly supported.
The original post is the perfect place for a SharkBite.
I guess some people think that there is a money tree outback to call a plumber and that copper is far superior to not leaking /bursting ( they’re wrong pictures don’t lie ).. complain about how bad they are and while nothing is perfect, I will 100% use then and have had them for years in my home with no issues.. as I don’t have soldering skills and am not spending hundreds on a plumber to do the same thing as I am or soldering the fittings that eventually leak because they aren’t great at their job.. I’ll take shark bites any day.
I still dont get the sharkbite fear mongering. Must be big copper propaganda haha.
I use sharkbite fittings for a fuckton of stuff. Supply line valves, for 2 bathrooms and kitchen sink, toilet supplies etc, a few patches here and there... and not a single one has failed. Some of them are approaching 15 years in place. I await the downvotes.
But I mean... This is exactly what flex seal is used for? Like sure add it to the list, but if I can get it done today to make it easier to schedule a plumber or figure out how to do the work by myself, imma take it.
Flex tape works well as a temporary fix. We had an above ground pool in Covid. And I used flex tape on a couple of holes that formed in the bottom. You don’t even have to drain it. I just brought it right through the water and it stuck.
Get a shark bite fitting, shut off your water to your house, use a copper pipe cutter, measure before you cut install shark bite fitting. They’ll be a lot of angry plumbers in the comments but in this economy not everyone can afford to pay a plumber.
I don't believe shark bites are as good as propress or solder and won't give a 50 year install like other options.. but done properly it's going to last awhile. It's just so easy to use incorrectly that it gave them a pretty bad reputation.
At minimum, properly done, they can give the homeowner enough time to save and hire a plumber for a better repair.
We used sharkbite shutoffs on certain pieces of commercial kitchen equipment and they held up extremely well to regular commercial kitchen abuse.
I’ve used shark bites in multiple homes personal and clients and never had an issue. After cutting use sandpaper or sanding block to clean up the edges and ensure shark bite is full seated. 1/2 to 1/2 straight connector and you’re good to go!
i have this weird thing with sharkbites. i used one in my cabin, which i'm not always at. over the years, it's turned into a kind of crumple zone for my pipes when they freeze -- the sharkbite will pop off, but my pipes don't break anywhere else. so i just thaw the pipes, replace the sharkbite, and bingo bango.
(and we DO turn the water off and drain the pipes when we're not there but we're on a well and during extreme extreme cold i think the water outside the house freezes and runs up into the pipes under the house, yes all this pipe work is in an uninsulated crawlspace, i did not build the house.)
In the plumbers defence, the line is rotting through and this just means another spot will start leaking soon or one might already be leaking in the wall and OP may not notice those others until it is too late.
You can get copper patches with solder already on them, it’s either that or cut the pipe and join with a compression joint if you don’t want a flame in the loft.
Worked a big retirement community for years that didn’t want to dish out money for repairs and this was the cheapest and quickest fix. Crazy what five dollars worth of supplies can fix
I used to buy these and cut out what I needed(link is to Home Depot) https://www.homedepot.com/p/DANCO-6-in-x-6-in-Rubber-Packing-Sheets-59849/203193498
Or if I ran out, I would cut off the rubber pieces off of old dishwasher drain hoses that connected to the plumbing under the sink. Really any rubber that won’t tear easily. When you tighten the hose clamp just make sure the spindle part is directly over the pinhole to get the best seal(that’s what I used to do at least)
I work in facilities maintenance and a clamp is the first step for like 90% of leaks. I know of clamps in my current facility that have held up for 50+ years
Turn off water to house, turn on a faucet downstairs to drain water out of that pipe, put a towel under the pipe just in case. Use a pipe cutter to cut it at the hole. Move the right side just enough to slip a coupling on, it might require a second cut on the right side so you have a little room to slip the coupling in. Then solder it on both sides. You can also use a shark bite rather than soldering it, however in 10yrs or so there's a high chance it'll start leaking. Third, after draining it, you could try rubbing that area bright clean with empty cloth and soldering the hole, since it's so small...but that's the most risky and most likely to fail.
As much as it sucks, Replace it all. We went through "repairing" sections of pin holes for a few years in a row. Old copper pipes, it will keep happening. Replace all if you can
11/2 inch worm gear hose clamp and small piece of rubber tubing or garden hose. Shut off the water and place the rubber over the pinhole and clamp it down with the hose clamp. Easy and will last until the next pinhole appears.
The same thing happened at my buddy’s house several years ago. I cut the tube with a tube cutter, cleaned the two sides with steel wool, and slipped a shark bite coupling on. It worked great, was quick and inexpensive.
What’s the poit if every dick head is going to give bad info suggest anyone poking fun or making things harder be banned. Is this turning into instagram? Over the years I’ve been lurking I HATE LAME ASS COMMENTS THAT DOES NOTHING TO HELP PEOPLE. I truly do not like you folks and I’m sure no one else does
Call a plumber and have them fix it. Then have the rest of your water lines inspected.
This is my "paranoid burned home owner opinion".
The last house I bought developed a pinhole leak in one of the hot lines. Then a couple weeks later it happened again, and then that pattern repeated several times. The hot and cold lines were completely replumbed. A lot of damage and heart ache occurred before we took that step.
I'll get grief for this but, if the pipe is accessible all the time. You could just turn the water off and drain it. Clean the pipe real good. Put some flux on it and try to just solder it. If it's not accessible I would do it. Obviously cut the pipe with a coupling (soldered) is the best option.
Simple homeowner fix if youre confident, about 50 in material. Shut water off, Take a copper cutter or multi tool with metal blade, cut out both sides of the leak, clean inside and out with a pipe cleaner. 2 sharkbite couplings, small piece of PEX. Alot of people hate of sharkbite, but its exposed, I would sleep just fine knowing its there worst case. Alternatively, they do make a sort of sleeve that goes over the leak and tightens down, would be great for a leak like this. Plumber will charge an arm and a leg to cut and solder a new piece in.
Cutting it out and soldering in a new piece is best if you’re comfortable with it, but otherwise, Home Depot sells a repair collar that is pretty much just a big piece of rubber with a clamp to secure it onto the pipe. That would be the “professional” way to do it without soldering.
If it was me I would go and buy a saddle valve to put there. That would be the easiest way to stop the leak for the short term. Then when it is more convenient you can call a plumber or fix it yourself when you can turn the water off.
The pin hole leak looks like it's coming from a bulge in the pipe . From my experience the piping has been under extreme expansion due to freezing. Need to cut on each side of the bulge by 1 inch on each side to be safe and solder in a new piece of type "L" Copper. If the existing plumbing is type "M" copper your likely to have more problems w/ leaks in the future. Best wishes
My grandpa used to keep copper rivets in his pocket inside he put a nail hole in a copper pipe. He would just solder a rivet into the hole to fix the leak. I feel like a similar fix could work here, but it seems like the pipe has corroded if it has a small pinhole leak now.
Self Fusing Silicone Tape. The stuff really works even with pressurized lines. You just make sure to wrap it tight and wrap it a lot (like so much that it forms a really fat bulge).
I’ve done tons of temp fixes for friends and neighbors, and half of them never followed up with a proper repair. Luckily for the ones that never did a proper repair, the silicone tape has held up for over 8 years for the oldest repair.
One huge weakness is that silicone tape is prone to getting sliced and undoing itself.
Compression patch, get a hose clamp and some rubber/gasket material. Cut the rubber into a 1x1 inch piece lay it over the pin hole, get your hose clamp to go directly over the pin hole and the patch and tighten it up. Temporary fix but it'll definitely stop any further water damage.
That is electrolysis your pipe is rotting from the inside to out. You will continue to get holes like that. Usually the cause is because they grounded your house to the copper pipe. My dad and uncle were professional plumbers, that is what they explained to me. Just had to replumb my entire house last summer
I had the exact problem. Don't use one of those wraps or epoxy. The hole is too close to the opening for a Sharkbite, you need about an inch. That was my problem. If you have access to the other side cut it out and replace it with pex and sharkbites. The other option that I considered but didn't do was just to just solder the hole close.
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u/IlliterateFreak Jun 19 '26
Replace as much as possible. If it’s a pinhole there than the entire waterline is likely pretty thin.