The repair of a leaking plastic PVC pipe

Knowing how to repair a plastic PVC pipe is a skill that can help salvage homeowners a lot of money. Plastic pipes are everywhere and the natural reaction when they start leaking is frequently to reach straight for the phonebook to call a plumber.

The bulk of plastic pipes can be repaired by members of the full general public apace, hands and without the demand for any formal preparation. You lot merely need to know which PVC plastic pipe repair product is the best tool for the job facing you lot.

Which is where we come in. Here are four methods for fixing PVC pipes.

Pipe Repair Tape

Pipe repair record is one of the most effective products for fixing a leaking piping with awarding every bit simple as wrapping the tape effectually the hole until no more water comes out.

When purchasing pipe repair record, you should e'er exist careful not to confuse it with plumber's record or Teflon tape, which is used for thread sealing rather than pipage repair. Those products might fix a leak initially, but they practice not provide a long-term solution.

Pipe repair record is so effective at sealing leaks because information technology is made of cocky-fusing silicone. It stretches past up to 300% its length and every bit you wrap information technology, which fuses to form a solid safety band over the hole in the pipe.

The silicone band is able to withstand pressure up to 30bar, which is more than enough for the repair of domestic PVC plastic pipe.

This loftier level of resistance too allows pipage repair tape to seal live leaks where pressure cannot be turned off, a particularly useful attribute should y'all be unable to turn off the h2o at the stopcock to undertake the repair.

Epoxy Putty

Epoxy putty is a repair material made upwards of two components, resin and hardener. When these two components are mixed together, they form a cloth that can be used to plug holes and cracks before hardening to provide a watertight seal.

Putties come in different formats with the easiest to use being the epoxy putty stick. The stick provides the resin and hardener in one preformatted stick, pregnant that the user simply cuts off the amount of putty required and kneads it together past hand until it turns to a compatible colour.

Once mixed, the epoxy putty becomes gluey and can be pushed into the hole or crack. It will fix difficult in ten minutes and the pipe can be turned dorsum on within an hour.

The major reward that epoxy putty has over other plastic PVC piping repair methods is that it can be used even in the tightest of situations.

If you accept a leaking piping that is in a cupboard, against a wall or in another location where pipe repair record cannot exist effectively wrapped, then epoxy putty can instead be used to plug the hole.

Rubber pipe repair clamp

Both pipe repair tape and epoxy putty offer longer-lasting repairs. If your intention is to replace the damaged department of pipework at a later date, then you lot might adopt to utilise a safety pipage repair clamp for a temporary solution.

A pipe repair clamp consists of a sleeve, made of either plastic or metal, and a rubber plaster on the inside. To use the clench, you place the sleeve over the leak area with the rubber covering the hole and so tighten the screws to class a seal.

When using a clamp, you must exist conscientious not to tighten it too much. Should you lot go too carried away, you may terminate up bending the plastic PVC pipe which you lot are trying to repair out of shape or causing boosted cracks.

Pipe repair clamps are a pop solution because they are like shooting fish in a barrel to employ and reusable. Once y'all take institute a more than permanent solution and no longer crave the clamp to seal the plastic piping, y'all can store it for use should another pipe crave repairing at a after date.

Supervene upon the department of leaking PVC plastic pipe

If yous decide that replacing the section of cracked pipe is a job worth undertaking, then you will need to get hold of sealant, a new section of pipework and some coupling joints to consummate tle chore.

To start, cut away the damaged section before placing the replacement department of PVC piping flush against the existing length. Utilize a plastic sealant around the connecting edges of the new pipework and the old to bond the parts together, before placing coupling joints over the top of the sections where the pipes encounter.

The sealant can take several hours to bail, then you will need to place pipe repair clamps over the coupling joints to maintain pressure while it sets. Subsequently three to four hours, you can remove the clamps and your newly installed section of pipe should be good to go.

As you can probably tell, replacing a section of plastic piping can be a time consuming and tricky do. It does offer the peace of listen nevertheless that the croaky area of pipework is out of your organisation for good and unlikely to suddenly bound a leak again.

WRAS approval

No matter which repair method you chose to fix your leaking PVC pipe, you should always call back to check that the production being used is WRAS approved.

Whatsoever product which has WRAS approval has been independently tested and certified as being rubber for apply with drinking water. This is an of import factor with PVC plastic pipes in particular, given that the water than runs through them may become onto be consumed.

If the product y'all use is not WRAS approved, there is no guarantee that it volition not contaminate water it comes into contact with, potentially leading to health complications.