The plumbers are coming out tomorrow to epoxy coat all the pipes in the house. I've fixed three leaks under the slab, I figure that's enough.
Anyone had it done? Anything to watch out for, tips, tricks, etc?
Tanks.

Sammy,
Epoxy is toxic,I would look into it before you get the job done,I it was my house i would replace the pipes,If your on slab they can be ran thru the attic,Good luck
914

That's a pretty broad statement; care to ellaborate? There are thousands of different epoxy formulations. Some food containers are epoxy coated. Some implantable medical devices have epoxies in contact with tissue.

Andys

The epoxy coating they put in pipes is ANSI standard 61 approved (drinking water), in a government test (military) the amount of toxicity actually dropped after epoxy coating the pipes as it reduced the amount of heavy metals and lead that were leaching out of the copper and soldered joints.
Naw, it's safe. i just want to make sure the technicians do it right.
Here's a link to the company that's doing the work:
http://www.atozleakdetection.com/technology.htm

sammy

what system is the leak on hot or cold?

have a recirculating system?

did you happen to see soil conditions ie rocky , sandy at leak locations?

how old is your house?

the amount of minerals being pulled from plain copper is or should not even be a consideration for epoxy lining

lead joints, again have you done a lead test on your water, my best guess would be there is none

i believe most of the epoxy lining is a waste of money

now if you live in a 100 year old Victorian with original hand made wall coverings and flooring i would say it is your best bet

91 and 57

anaheim or orange?

i move from riverdale/ tustin -lakeview 2 years ago, house made in 66

all copper it had no traces of lead coming from taps



side note i am a plumbing contractor, only commercial industrial, but a plumber none the less

I'm off riverdale and Glassell, right down the street from where you used to live. small world.
The soil is sandy because of the santa ana river bed.

Naw, no toxic problems at all. I'm doing it because I've already fixed three under-slab leaks over the past two years and now I have another. I'm tired of busting holes in the slab and then trying to match tiles.

All the leaks have been on the hot water lines, which I've been told is normal. The hot water is sposed to develop pin hole leaks 3 times as fast as the cold unless someone is BS'n me. The copper pipe is thin wall, they went cheap when they built the house.

No recirculation system, just a hot water heater in the garage.
I've ran new pipes up in the attic on 1/3 of the house already (built in 1969) but because I have a breeze way twixt the garage and the house it's a PITA to run all of them in the attic. The main line comes in from the front of the house, all the way to the garage which is in back around the corner, then back to the house again. Not easy access to get the pipes in the attic there.
The epoxy is sposed to seal all pin hole leaks and prevent future leaks without having to rip up all the walls and stuff.
I plan on living there for 10 more years, then I retire to Utah or Idaho or someplace cold.

Here'as a picture of the garage

This is the same military that said Agent Orange was safe.

the hot water line goes mainly because it expands and contracts everyday, usally

rubbing on rocks and such to cause pin holes

the pipe is not thin wall, i'm sure it is type m copper

have all the leaks been in the same area? if the pipe was installed without care

or stepped on during the slab pour ,oval or irregular shaped (kinked) will also

lend a hand in pin holes

in my experience most of the time once a bad section of pipe has been repaired

your system should be worry free

i usually cut out a foot or more on each side of the hole to hopefully remove

whatever was the cause in the first place

I had my lab metallurgist at work do the post mortum on the first 1/2" piece of pipe I cut out. Pin hole corrosion from the INSIDE of the pipe to the outside, caused by chlorides and galvanic corosion. Microscope and everything, cool stuff. you could see a little ball of green crust on the inside in several places. Once the green corrosion was removed you could see where the copper had been eaten away on the inside diameter. On the outside it looked normal, just a tiny little pin hole. Just enough to squirt about 3" (no, not you slits. go back to sleep).
the pipe I took out isn't the M classification, but it isn't L class either.

The first time I replaced about 3 feet of pipe. 6 months later i had another leak on the same line about 6 feet away. the pipe is riddled with thin spots from internal corrosion attack, making the pin hole leaks.

Iffn they would have made the copper pipe yellow it would have been faster and lasted longer too.

it sounds like flux that was not flush from the lines, the flux will slowly continue to "clean" the copper until there is nothing left to clean.

most pin holes start from the inside as the pressure finally is able to break through the weak spot in the line, i have repaired leaks that had been going for months before i got there. once cut out a section of a 2 inch line that had a 1/2" x 3/4" hole in the bottom of it


i hope all goes well for you tomorrow

Low PH will speed up the corrosion factor too.

We have well water with low PH, and for a while every piece of the hot water line (copper) within 5 ft of the water heater developed pin holes.