Copper pipe pinhole leak. Trouble ahead?

[wolf]

Based on these posts. Seems, the quality of copper, must have gotten worse.
MY 70+ year, house. No pin hole leaks, yet....
Or maybe, Builders are using the thinner gauge copper. I think, there is thin, medium, heavy. Thicker the gauge, the more it costs. Copper, expensive nowadays....

 

[JoeWras]

Based on these posts. Seems, the quality of copper, must have gotten worse.
MY 70+ year, house. No pin hole leaks, yet....
Or maybe, Builders are using the thinner gauge copper. I think, there is thin, medium, heavy. Thicker the gauge, the more it costs. Copper, expensive nowadays....

I did a little internet searching on copper pipes. The standards were reached somewhere around 1930. There's vague talk about the pipes being very thick before this, and the "new standards and manufacturing techniques allow them to be thinner." Blah, blah.

So, I could imagine your 70+ year house being piped by a plumber who was used to the old stuff and probably insisted you had type L (if that was even standard then) because it was what he was used to. There's more difference in price these days between K, L and M than the 50s and 60s when copper was pretty cheap. A good plumber would have defaulted to the thicker stuff with such a low price differential.

 

[Winemaker]

Based on these posts. Seems, the quality of copper, must have gotten worse.
MY 70+ year, house. No pin hole leaks, yet....
Or maybe, Builders are using the thinner gauge copper. I think, there is thin, medium, heavy. Thicker the gauge, the more it costs. Copper, expensive nowadays....

The other issue may be due to wiring differences, stray current, and grounding. My apartment building has 4 units; all built at he same time in a townhouse stlye. All 4 have electric radiant ceiling heat, however, Apartment #4 has a different Manufacturer of the circuit breaker box, and circuit breakers than the others. Federal Pacific. While I routinely check this box when I make a service call, FP has had a issues in the past.

 

[NXR7]

No leaks yet but this is one of the reasons why we shut the water off at the meter whenever we're gone overnight. Now I just have to hope that 3' piece of pipe coming up through the floor to the meter shut-off valve holds up.

Ray

 

[papaof2]

I'd say at least part of the problem is local water supply. Our house is 46 years old with copper supply and ABS drain. Other than some faucets being replaced during remodel, I've replaced two shutoffs because of age/wear (no longer sealing completely). As yet, no pipe problems.

 

[scottpush]

So yesterday I happen to look up at the garage ceiling and I see a water/mold spot. Uh oh.

It is under the dishwasher, figured that was it. Nope. D/W is dry.

Opened up the drywall, and I'm presented with a drip on the 1/2" copper pipe that runs horizontally to the wall feeding our very frequently used kitchen sink. It's right in the middle of a span, not a joint. I've got a pinhole leak.

I really didn't want to sweat a fix, so I did a fast repair with a sharkbite. It's fine, should hold.

But now I'm wondering if armageddon awaits? Will I start seeing numerous leaks in the next year? Or was I just unlucky this one time? A weak spot? Some debris causing turbulent scrubbing? The city has fixed the acid water problem decades ago. The pipe section I cut out looks generally good.

Question: anyone have a copper leak like this and NOT end up going down the path of full replacement a few years later? Did you just have one pinhole and nothing for years after?

House is 40 years old. Things seem to be going to hell on a monthly basis.

I had a rental unit that this happened to twice in about 4 years and did a lot of damage both times to the unit below my rental. I also saw evidence of green corrosion in other places along the pipe where pinholes may have developed and 'fixed themselves' sometime before. It was a 40 year old house anyhow and starting to give me difficulties. The plumber who fixed it said there were problems with pinhole leaks in the neighborhood. So, decided to sell it as I would think eventually all of the piping would need to be replaced. A lot more stressful in my situation because it effected my tenant and the neighbor below who wasn't happy at all about it. Even though I did nothing to cause it. Welcome to the landlord world.

 

[scottpush]

You must be cursed.
I have never hear/read of a 40-year-old house having problems.

My 40 year old rental house had 2 pinhole leaks Over 4 years.

 

[Ctarborist]

In our house we had to replace all lines when they were about 60 years old. Including the buried well line. Things wear out.

 

[mountainsoft]

We have acidic well water and I had read that it could cause pinhole leaks in copper piping. Unfortunately, PEX and the associated tools and fittings were hard to come by when we built our house in 2003, so I plumbed our house with CPVC. It was relatively inexpensive, easy to install, and it has performed well for 16 years now.

The only downside to CPVC so far is that it expands when hot water flows through it. We have a recirculating hot water loop on a timer. So when the warm water starts to flow, the pipes expand and we can hear them rubbing on the floor joists as they move. It's a very minor thing, but it's the only issue we've had.

If I were plumbing a house today, I would certainly choose PEX now that the pipe, fittings, and tools are widely available.

 

[Livefree]

I did have a pinhole leak a while back in a one foot section of pipe that went nowhere. It was just capped (previous owner) My theory was the water just stayed in that section and never moved along, causing the leak.



Plumber removed, and put in a coupling..problem solved.

 

[Sunset]

I had a rental unit that this happened to twice in about 4 years and did a lot of damage both times to the unit below my rental. I also saw evidence of green corrosion in other places along the pipe where pinholes may have developed and 'fixed themselves' sometime before. It was a 40 year old house anyhow and starting to give me difficulties....... So, decided to sell it as I would think eventually all of the piping would need to be replaced. A lot more stressful in my situation because it effected my tenant and the neighbor below who wasn't happy at all about it. Even though I did nothing to cause it. Welcome to the landlord world.

AAAwwwkkkk... You just expressed a new worry for me that I had only briefly thought about.

I have a 60 yr old rental, I can just imagine the pinhole spraying out inside some wall...

 

[Shardo]

Same thing happened to me years ago in a 60 yr old house. Overhead exposed pipe in the basement developed a pin hole leak which I fixed with a piece of rubber and a house clamp. Several more pin holes appeared shortly thereafter in the same pipe. I attributed it to many years of hard water.

 

[JoeWras]

AAAwwwkkkk... You just expressed a new worry for me that I had only briefly thought about.

I have a 60 yr old rental, I can just imagine the pinhole spraying out inside some wall...

Here's the thing, it isn't always a spray. It could be a very slow drip. Maybe unseen for months or years. You can get all kinds of rot and mold, and that's not good either.