Emergency Pipe Repairs
A leaking pipe is no joke. First you have to stop the water — so you need to know where to turn if off — and then to make some kind of emergency repair, even if it’s just a holding operation.
Leaks in domestic plumbing systems have a nasty habit of happening at the most inconvenient of times, often when it isn’t possible to carry out a proper permanent repair. What you need is a plumbing emergency first aid kit, and there are now several proprietary products available that will at least enable you to make a temporary repair and get the water flowing again.
With any leak, the vital first step is to stop the flow of water. Even a small leak can create a surprisingly large pool of water in no time. Stopping the flow in any pipe is relatively easy provided that you know the locations of the various stop-taps or valves that isolate parts of your water system, or cut it off completely from the mains supply.
Water comes into the house through a pipe known as the rising main, and because water in this pipe(and others leading from it) is under mains pressure, leaks from it will be particularly serious. It enters the house underground, and from there leads either to all the cold taps and a water heating system, or to just the cold tap in the kitchen and to a cold water storage tank.
Leaks can result from a number of causes. Pipework may have been forced or strained at some point, resulting in a leak atone of the fittings connecting the lengths of pipe together, or in a fracture at a bend.
Corrosion within pipes may lead to pinholes in pipe lengths, while frost damage can lead to bursts and splits in pipes and to leaks at fittings caused by ice forcing the fitting open. Whatever the cause, cutting off the water supply to the affected pipe is the first vital step.
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