Repair of plumbing: ways to eliminate accidents

Plumbing tends to break down frequently, especially in old houses with dilapidated communications. Timely repair of water pipes can reduce the damage from the consequences of the accident, so the owner of a house or apartment should be ready in case of a leak to quickly eliminate its cause.

We will talk about the most effective methods of repairing pipes.

Outdoor networks

In case of an accident, the centralized water supply lines are repaired by specialized state services or organizations that maintain the pipeline. However, if you have an autonomous water supply system installed at your dacha, you will have to repair it yourself.

To do this, you need to dig a trench and find a leak. Next, you need to stop the operation of the pump station or submersible unit and make repairs.

Most often, a HDPE polyethylene pipe is used to lay the line from the well to the house. In this case, you do not need a gas cutter and electric welding, which greatly simplifies and reduces the cost of repair.

The damaged section of the pipe must be carefully cut using a grinder or a hacksaw, while it is important to observe a cutting angle of 90 ?. Then cut the segment for replacement, which is mounted in an existing pipeline using electric welding or compression couplings.

For the repair of steel lines use patches of steel sheet, which is welded to a leaky place. Also used repair clamps, replacement of the pipe section and trenchless repair by putting a thinner pipe inside the damaged one. However, such methods are very time consuming and require the participation of specialists and technology.

Internal piping

Steel tubes

Most of the internal wiring is made of steel pipes. In a private house, the situation is about the same. Therefore, first of all we will tell about the repair of metal networks.

And here it is necessary to distinguish between emergency and major repairs:

• in the first case, urgent and temporary measures are applied;
• in the second, the entire system or its part is most often replaced.

The following measures and methods are used for emergency repairs (of course, before repairing the water supply pipe, the water should be turned off):

• Gluing the epoxy resin. This is one of the most reliable ways. The pipe is cleaned to the metal, then in place of the leakage, the glass fabric is wound abundantly soaked in resin with a hardener in three to four turns, providing a stretch for tighter contact;
• Applying “iron putty”. A mixture of 250 g of fine iron filings, 6 g of powdered ammonia and 3 g of crystalline powdered sulfur are brought to the consistency of clay (water can be bought) by adding water and put on the fistula with a spatula;
• Bandage application. At the scene of the accident reel rubber gasket from the car chamber and tighten it with metal clamps or wire. This is a temporary measure, but often it saves from the flood and allows you to use the water before the arrival of plumbing;
• The use of "cement boxes" and cement fabric tires. A wooden formwork is made around the damaged area, into which cement-sand mortar 1: 2 is poured with the addition of liquid glass. A tire is made by analogy with epoxy and cloth;
• Finally, a wooden, lead or rubber stopper can be driven into the leak.

If a threaded connection is leaking, it is spun and compacted with sanitary flax, FUM tape or oil paint tow.

Note! If an epoxy tire is used, the instruction requires pressing the fabric with clamps or wire winding. Air bubbles should be avoided when winding.

Plastic pipes

Many modern apartments are equipped with plastic piping. It is also subject to accidents, although to a lesser extent than steel.

Repair of plastic pipes is made easier and faster due to the fact that such a pipe is easy to replace. It does not require the use of gas and electric arc welding, and the work is done on its own.

The damaged area is simply cut out, then a segment of a similar pipe of the same diameter and coupling for the connection is purchased. Next is the standard soldering plastic pipe.

In some cases, use compression or collet connections, but they are less reliable. As a temporary measure useful bandage with a rubber gasket, it can be purchased at the plumbing store - the price is quite affordable.

Not less often ask how to repair a water tap. Everything is simple here: most often the repair comes down to replacing the faucet or cartridge in the mixer. Sometimes it is necessary to replace the gaskets between the sink and the tap or inside the worm cock-axle box.

Note! When replacing plastic pipes, the new section should consist of the same material as the old one.

Conclusion

Repairing damaged plumbing is an important and very useful skill that is sure to come in handy and repeatedly in life. Most of the work can be done independently, and the video in this article will convince you of this completely.