Plumbing Newbie - Replacing Copper Pipes

[iainjo]

We've not yet ruled out getting a plumber in but this seems a small job, suitable for diy'er?

We have 1930's house and quite old plumbing, hopefully not that old. The pics should help show the task in hand. It's pipework under the sink, hot and cold feeding up to the basin with spurs off for the washer. It's cramped with the pipes very close to each other. The taps/shutoff levers have broken on the cold feed and on the hot it now won't shut off completely, so drips. Hence a very quick and horrible fix with some putty - it still drips. The washing cable is still in place and plugged. This all happened when I pligged in a new washer which only has a cold feed.



What I'd like to do is remove the spur for the hot washer feed, replace with a new bit of pipe and some couplings. I would like to tidy up the cold feed but that isn't essential - put a new spur in. There isn't much pipe to play with given the shutoff for the taps and that also restricts the room for a pipe cutter.

Add to that I've never tackled anything like this although have a fair range of tools for mechanical and electrical work. So interested to hear what those more knowledgeable suggest as an approach and what tools I'll need. Thanks.

 

[Ben-gee]

Isolate the hot water as a whole.

Cut the hot below the tee, undo the nut above the tee (lower nut on isolator to tap) and remove that section which fed the washing machine hot.
Fit a new straight pipe up to the tap isolator, I would solder this but if you don’t have the tools - use a straight compression fitting, as you have spanners and the fitting is cheap.

 

[iainjo]

Thanks Ben-gee. much appreciated. A few more questions if you don't mind.

It's electrical/electronic soldering that I do most of. I have a small 135W butane iron, would that be up to heating the pipe/melting the solder around a copper pipe?

How can I isolate the hot water? We have no stopcock, we shut the water off outside at the meter and there's no access to that pipework in order to trace it back for an isolator.

What's the best way to cut a pipe when there's not space for a pipe cutter? A small hacksaw?
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I may have found the answers. We have a combi boiler so shutting off the mains water supply will isolate the hot water supply?

As suggested I'm going to use some straight compression fittings to save soldering.

I have a Dremel so will try using some cutting discs first. If not I have a small coping saw with blades for metal although getting any purchase might be a problem.

 

[Ben-gee]

Yes you’re correct about the Combi - just turn mains off to isolate all your water.
I think you can get a pipe slice in there, if not a hacksaw is ok. If tight use just the blade not in a frame and wrap a bit of cloth around to hold - you’ll need to deburr it , which can be done with a Stanley blade if necessary.

 

[iainjo]

I have a pipe cutter which does seem to fit in there. I have all the bits I need, all good to go.
Thanks again!

 

[gpbeck]

Remove broken blue handle and replace with the red one. Turn off hot supply. It would take 5 minutes to unscrew the red isolator valve and replace with this:

 

[iainjo]

All done, pipe cutter fitted ok, couldn't budge the nut on the tap isolator and didn't want to force it so just put in an extra compression fitting. All in place, was careful not over-tighten and no leaks.
Thanks for the advice, much easier than I envisaged.

 

[Ben-gee]

Shhhh, don’t tell anyone- we’ll have to lower our prices.