Service
Copper Pipe Repair
Repairing copper supply pipework, including pinhole leaks, failed joints and the corrosion that happens where copper meets another metal.
- Licensed and insured
- Price agreed before work
- A plumber who works your area
A pinhole is a symptom, not an event
Copper does not develop holes from outside. It is eaten through from within, and the pattern tells you which cause you have.
Water chemistry. pH, chlorine levels or dissolved minerals attacking the pipe wall. The failures appear scattered across the system with no obvious logic, because the whole system is exposed to the same water.
Flow velocity. Water moving too fast through pipe that is undersized or sharply routed, eroding the inside of bends and fittings. These failures cluster at predictable points: the inside of elbows, just downstream of fittings, on the hot run before the cold.
Either way, the run has a condition rather than a hole. Fixing the hole is correct and it is not the end of the conversation.
Dry pipe or the joint fails
The most common cause of a copper repair leaking again is water in the pipe when the joint was made.
Solder will not flow properly onto wet copper. Steam forms in the joint as it heats, the solder does not draw fully into the fitting, and the result looks finished but has a path through it.
Draining properly means more than closing a valve. It means opening a low point, opening a tap above to break the vacuum, and often putting bread or a purpose-made plug in the line to hold back the last of the water while the joint is made.
It is the unglamorous part of the job and it is the part that decides whether the repair holds.
Does this sound familiar?
Problems this service solves
- A pinhole leak in a copper supply line
- Green corrosion around a fitting or joint
- A soldered joint that has begun to weep
- Repeated pinholes in the same run
- Corrosion where copper joins galvanised pipe
Signs you need copper pipe repair
If more than one of these is true, the problem is usually past the point a plunger or a store-bought cleaner will fix.
- A fine spray or persistent drip from a pipe
- Green or blue-green staining on copper
- White crust at a joint
- More than one pinhole in the same area
What to expect
How the visit works
Isolate, drain and dry
Copper cannot be soldered with water in it. The section is properly drained, because a joint made on wet pipe is a joint that fails.
Cut back past the thinning
The pipe is cut back beyond the visible failure to metal that is genuinely sound, since corrosion extends further than the hole.
Join correctly
Soldered, pressed or compression as the situation requires, and a dielectric fitting wherever copper meets a different metal.
Look at the wider run
Repeated pinholes mean the cause is the water or the flow, not the spot. That gets said honestly rather than fixed one hole at a time.
What's included
What you get on every job, whoever we send.
- Joints made on properly drained, dry pipe
- Cut back past the corrosion, not to the hole
- Dielectric fittings where metals change
- An honest read on whether the run is failing generally
Questions
Copper Pipe Repair questions
What causes pinhole leaks in copper?
The pipe being eaten through from the inside, and there are two usual culprits. Water chemistry, where pH, chlorine or dissolved minerals attack the pipe wall, which tends to produce pinholes scattered across the system. Or flow velocity, where water moving too fast through undersized or sharply routed pipe erodes the inside of bends and fittings, which produces failures at predictable places. Which pattern you have changes what the repair should be.
Why is there green corrosion at my fitting?
Green or blue-green staining on copper is copper carbonate, and it forms where water has been present on the outside of the pipe. So it is usually a sign rather than a cause: a joint that has been weeping slowly, condensation sitting on the pipe, or a leak above running down. Worth investigating rather than cleaning off, because the staining is marking the spot where water has been sitting for some time.
Can copper be joined to galvanised pipe?
Only with a dielectric fitting between them. Connected directly, the two metals form an electrochemical cell with the water as the electrolyte, and the galvanised side corrodes rapidly from the inside. This is one of the most common causes of failure in houses where a copper repair was made onto an original galvanised system. A dielectric union separates them electrically and turns a joint with a few years in it into a permanent one.
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Get it fixed
Copper Pipe Repair, handled locally
Call with your ZIP code and what you are seeing. We route you to a licensed plumber in your area who does copper pipe repair every week.
- Licensed and insured
- Answered 24/7
- Price before work