My house was built in the 70's and I think this line has been leaking from the beginning.
We had to have all the 70's insulation removed from between the floor joists (they don't do that anymore) and ductwork as part of mold remediation and our heating bill went through the ceiling! Had several people look into it and they had recommendations, all good advice but none would account for the severity of the heating bill change or the coincidental timing right after the work was done.
Well, I found the leak and associated rusted out areas on the duct work. 2 larger than basketball sized holes! We were basically heating the crawlspace.
The leak:
-Copper lines,
-Soldered or sweated in-line joint
-Positioned above the main rectangular duct (3' wide) in the floor joists in the crawlspace, and was hidden by the duct insulation.
-There was a 3" stalactite hanging from the pipe and a huge stalagmite on the duct work.
-Water droplet falls every several minutes, very slow.
Cooincidental timing: Removing the insulation was the straw that broke the camel's back and the rusted metal caved in.
Sooo: diagnosis solved. Onto the treatment plan.
I have a plan for everything but fixing the leak. I'm Really not wanting to try and re-sweat a bead on the joint in the position it is in, especially since I would have to figure out how to do that first:-) . After all it took 40yrs for it cause a problem the first time, lol.
How acceptable would it be to use some of the pipe repair wraps I see advertised and at Lowe's? Compression fittings type repair kits I've seen work?
Professionals may not want to read this next idea. I'm also considering creating a way to direct the leak away from the ductwork into a bucket. I could monitor the flow rate and see if it is an actual problem.
We had to have all the 70's insulation removed from between the floor joists (they don't do that anymore) and ductwork as part of mold remediation and our heating bill went through the ceiling! Had several people look into it and they had recommendations, all good advice but none would account for the severity of the heating bill change or the coincidental timing right after the work was done.
Well, I found the leak and associated rusted out areas on the duct work. 2 larger than basketball sized holes! We were basically heating the crawlspace.
The leak:
-Copper lines,
-Soldered or sweated in-line joint
-Positioned above the main rectangular duct (3' wide) in the floor joists in the crawlspace, and was hidden by the duct insulation.
-There was a 3" stalactite hanging from the pipe and a huge stalagmite on the duct work.
-Water droplet falls every several minutes, very slow.
Cooincidental timing: Removing the insulation was the straw that broke the camel's back and the rusted metal caved in.
Sooo: diagnosis solved. Onto the treatment plan.
I have a plan for everything but fixing the leak. I'm Really not wanting to try and re-sweat a bead on the joint in the position it is in, especially since I would have to figure out how to do that first:-) . After all it took 40yrs for it cause a problem the first time, lol.
How acceptable would it be to use some of the pipe repair wraps I see advertised and at Lowe's? Compression fittings type repair kits I've seen work?
Professionals may not want to read this next idea. I'm also considering creating a way to direct the leak away from the ductwork into a bucket. I could monitor the flow rate and see if it is an actual problem.