Need help fixing water leak at my house

[Hale on wheels]

Hey guys,



When the last freeze cam through, it busted one of my outside water pipes behind the brick. It only leaks when I turn on the faucet though, which has me perplexed. Anyway, I need to bust out the brick and fix the pipe. Fixing the leak is easy, getting to it is the problem. Have any of you cut through mortar to do something like this? Should I hammer it out with a chisel or saw it somehow to get a couple of bricks out of the way, or what?

 

[Shovelhead]

Could the faucet have ruptured on the back (wall) side?



Hammer and chisel will probably be the easiest way to get a couple of bricks out to survey leak with minimal damage.



Good Luck.

 

[Hale on wheels]

Wow, thanks. That was fast. I figured I would use a chisel, but I was scared it would crack the mortar over a larger area than what I wanted to take out. If it does, I suppose I could just use filler to seal the cracks.

 

[Briar Hopper]

No need to break the bricks just yet, try using a pipe wrench on the pipe behind the faucet, if there's enough of it showing. Such pipes are usually the "freeze cap" type, and leak where the end of it screws into the plumbing inside the wall. A new pipe the same length will do the trick, and use plumber's pipe dope compound, the white paste kind, on the threads. Where is the plumbing anyway? Coming out of a crawl space, or hidden behind drywall? I'd rather break the drywall than the bricks, drywall is a cheap and easy fix. I've been through this same situation on 3 different houses.

 

[Doc Tinker]

I think Tom is right. If it's only leaking when the faucet's on, it must be broken (probably cracked) between the seal and the spigot. You should be able to replace it without tearing up the walls.



Doc

 

[illflem]

Hard to say without looking at it but sounds like you have a freeze free facet that cracked due to a hose full of water on it or it wasn't installed at a downward grade so it could drain. To replace it easily have someone hold the pipe inside with a wrench while you unscrew the facet from outside. You probably won't have to bust any bricks out.

 

[Larry Willard]

Around here we solder the pipe to the hose bibb, the only way to fix it in that case is to cut the pipe and take it out. Try to get to the back side as the others said, if that is possible. Drywall is way easier to cut and repair as well.

Larry

 

[ToolManTimTaylor]

Hmmm Frost Frees in Texas?

 

[Hale on wheels]

Well, it is located close to a corner and the pipe is in between one of my extra bedroom closets and the outside wall. I never thought about tearing up the drywall instead of the brick, but that is a much better idea than what I had. Especially since it would be inside a closet. The faucet looks pretty level as much as I can see behind it, but seeing some of the other stupid things my house builder did I would not be surprised if it was installed on a slightly upward slope, and I always drain the pressure off my hoses when I am finished with them... my wife may be another story though. I will admit that I am not a connoisseur of fine water spigots so I don't know much about them I do know this one has goofy threads that I can't screw a standard hose to without two adapters. I tried to unscrew the spigot but it was twisting the whole pipe, so I quit before breaking it so it wouldn't leak all the time. I'll cut the drywall tonight and let you guys know how it goes, thanks everybody.

 

[paccool]

Sounds like you may have copper pipe if it twisted when you were trying to unscrew the valve.



The drywall appraoch sounds a whole lot easier than tearing out bricks.



Stan

 

[nascar]

My money is on the hose being left on a freeze proof spigot during the winter. This is common. I work in the water restoration business. We get a lot of these calls when the weather warms up and people use their outside water faucets for the first time since winter. Plumbers always cut out the drywall. Don't be afraid to hack into that wall. You have to check to see if any building material in there is wet. You MUST dry that out immediately. You can have mold growth after about 72 hours