Possibly the most awkward leak to get too ever.

[cr0ft]

Emergency callout this morning. Knew it was going to be a b**** when the customer said it was coming out of the boxing around an internal soil stack. Leak on the 15mm riser mains, behind and underneath the Tee fitting on the soil pipe going off to the loo. Between the ground floor and first floor. Hot water pipe on one side, soil stack on the other. No room to do anything. Most of the soil stack needs to come out.

Got me thinking, what's the most awkward place you have found a leak?

 

[IDCHAPPY]

Underfloor:


Lead riser on a tenement was a bit of a PITA, had to cut that section out and redo it with Philmac an copper... told the owner he rest of the riser needed replaced.

 

[Centralheatking]

Had to think about this one cause they are all a nuisance

1992 - Cellar full of junk piped out in the 60's (i think) with Rhodesian
copper pipe - thin wall delicate and rubbish - so every time you fix the
leak another one happens 1-2 m away -nightmare

I thought it was me until and old hand (my mentor) in a proper pub on way home
told me which way was up.............centralheatking - we exchanged wisdom for
Courage Best Bitter.

n

Emergency callout this morning. Knew it was going to be a b**** when the customer said it was coming out of the boxing around an internal soil stack. Leak on the 15mm riser mains, behind and underneath the Tee fitting on the soil pipe going off to the loo. Between the ground floor and first floor. Hot water pipe on one side, soil stack on the other. No room to do anything. Most of the soil stack needs to come out.

Got me thinking, what's the most awkward place you have found a leak?

 

[josh]

Emergency callout this morning. Knew it was going to be a b**** when the customer said it was coming out of the boxing around an internal soil stack. Leak on the 15mm riser mains, behind and underneath the Tee fitting on the soil pipe going off to the loo. Between the ground floor and first floor. Hot water pipe on one side, soil stack on the other. No room to do anything. Most of the soil stack needs to come out.

Got me thinking, what's the most awkward place you have found a leak?

Might be frowned upon but could save a lot of work and damage, can't thread some plastic down boxing to ground floor then another pipe from loft to toilet and tee the toilet of the new main in the loft?
save a lot of ball ache.

 

[Chris F]

Under a path 2 days before Xmas.

 

[kris]

Might be frowned upon but could save a lot of work and damage, can't thread some plastic down boxing to ground floor then another pipe from loft to toilet and tee the toilet of the new main in the loft?
save a lot of ball ache.

Good thinking josh i hope theres no Tee pieces in-between hehe

 

[kris]

Had some ball-breakers over the years only trouble is you try to forget them and when a thread like this is started you cant remember , i can just remember my arms stretched under floor boards and my chin restin on top of the floor board which had pipes clipped to it otherwise i wouldve lifted the boards , it was groundfloor with hardly any room underneath, there was a 4" drain in the way and i couldnt see what i was doing just my hands were my eyes ,,, i know by the time water went back on my arms drooped down past my knees,,,,,

 

[morganb]

I've had one under a suspended floor - leak was beneath a brand new kitchen, floor newly tiled. Opened a hole in adjacent room to find crawl space about 2 feet high, the only problem was the entire void had been filled with bricks so spent an entire morning clearing a path.

 

[PlumbersMate]

Leak coming through a ceiling in kitchen, customer didn't want me to cut hole in ceiling, so instead wanted me to lift floor in master bedroom. Pulled back carpet, no floorboards it's that chipboard? Gear. So had to skill saw a lot of it up, and turned out it was mains pipe that went all way up to tanks in loft, only problem is, the floor under the built in bedroom furniture had to be cut out to access it. So again rather than let me cut hole in ceiling I had to remove said built in furniture, cut floor up and then last but not least the pipe was covered with some sort of metal trunking, so had to try n cut this with tin snips, so could cut out leaking elbow, which was of course totally tight against brick wall one side and wooden joist the other, so getting cutters on and turning them was nigh on impossible. Cherry on top was customer sat on the bed watching me the whole time and he was a former policeman. Finally managed it, replaced elbow, rejoined all pipes, tested, job done. 6 Hours Later, soaked through with sweat, and fingers and arms cut to shreds.
god I love plumbing

 

[cr0ft]

I did consider the plastic pipe option but I've seen first hand what happens when they fail on mains pipework. Too risky for me to chance. The customer is paying to have the soil stack cut out at mid-level in the house and replaced after as it's an insurance job. I like your thinking though!