Plumbing Disassembly

In my last post I showed you the damaged area. The water entry point was fairly obvious, and the pipes were in a good position for easy disassembly.

First order of business was to equip myself for the task. I took a quick trip to Rona (the first of many!) and bought some things. Aside from bug spray, I grabbed a little hand-held pipe cutter to make quick work of the copper just inside the outer wall. I was puzzling over two cutters of the same brand, trying to decide what size to get, when I spotted another brand of cutter hidden behind a misc-parts bin. No prices posted, but the package looked simpler. Turns out it cost less than half as much (~$9 vs. $19+)!

Tip #2: Check off-brand tools! They may be cheaper.
From my reading I knew I would eventually need a propane torch, a sparker (to light it), lead-free solder, plumbing solder paste, and a brush to apply it. I bought those, though I knew I'd be back to purchase the appropriate pipes and fittings.

Back in the basement I decided to cut in two places. One directly on the pipe segment coming through the wall, and one just past the first elbow joint. In the end I didn't have to make this second cut, but I guess doing so allowed me to practice my soldering skills later! :) Before cutting, I shut off the valve to the hose bib. In my house it's located just inside the wall. The valve has a little drain to clear the line once the flow is shut off. I left the drain knob closed and headed outside to open the hose tap... er... bib. Doing this would ensure water could drain from that section. Back inside I opened the little drain cap and water poured out. Luckily I suspected this would happen and had a small bucket handy to catch the water. Now the pipe was ready for cutting.

Tip #3: Make sure to shut off the water supply to this segment of pipe first, and drain completely! You may have to vent the pipe while draining to allow the water to flow out. No, I didn't fall for this one, but it's still a good tip!

The cutter is operated by opening the device wider than the pipe (standard 1/2" in this case) and closing it on the pipe. I closed the cutter until I could feel some tension building, and then rotated it about the pipe once. This starts the cut. Then I alternately tightened and rotated until the pipe was completely cut. I figured this is probably the right way, as opposed to doing it all in one turn. Didn't want to risk compressing the pipe out-of-round, as this would make fittings unfit for fitting. Anyone know if I should/could have just tightened harder and turned once?

I now had a little elbow piece separated from the rest of the plumbing, and the hose bib was seemingly ready to be pulled from outside.

Now outside, I grabbed hold of the hose bib and pulled a little. Not much movement. I pulled harder and the tap came out along with the pipe. Outdoor caulking was restraining until I overpowered it with my superhuman strength.

What a surprise! I had expected to see a split caused by freezing, or something similar (though it hadn't been very cold yet this year). Nope. I had also expected to pull out a hose bib, 45 degree elbow, and a piece of straight pipe. Nope! Turns out there was no 45. Some asshat had decided that the best way to make a 45 degree angle was to reach down and haul back on the tap, bending it into place! What a genius! Anyone who's even thought about bending pipe by hand knows that the bend will buckle the pipe, leaving a nasty kink. Just like how you stop a hose from flowing by bending it.

The repeated plugging/unplugging of hoses had certainly strained and weakened the kink, and it finally gave way.

Having found the source of the leak (I checked it in my sink), I headed back to Rona to buy the parts I would need. I picked up a new Dahl globe valve tap, a 45deg elbow (!!), 3 feet of 1/2" pipe, and a 90deg elbow.

At the suggestion of the Rona guy in the plumbing section I also grabbed a female thread to 1/2" ID adapter. He suggested that the old tap was done incorrectly, with the 1/2" pipe inserted into the male thread on the tap, and that I should thread the adapter on, solder it, and solder the pipe into the 1/2" ID end. I tried this, but found I couldn't get the threads cleaned to help create a good solder joint. Also the slow contact area meant I had to heat the tap a lot more to flash the solder, to the point where I smelled the seal burning. Result of this misguided adventure was another trip, this time to HD, to buy another valve. Oh well. Live and learn.

The coming posts will detail the initial pipe soldering and installation. See you there soon!