Advice needed on weird 17mm pipe under bath?

[pipehell]

Hello there!

I really need some help! Long story short i ended up having to pull my poor bathroom apart when a pipe under the basin failed... only to find another very slow leak in a hot water pipe hidden under my bath.

I've shown it to two plumbers who are both perplexed by it... the problem apparently being that it's a 17mm pipe which appears to be connected (in a rather bodged-about manner?) to a 15mm pipe. I've been lead to believe that 17mm pipes are rarer than hens teeth (my house was built in the 30's so maybe it was a weird 30's thing...?) My plumber says that it is so close to the tee that it will be impossible to solder without melting and is suggesting that we might have to follow it round as far as we can and may need to be prepared to pull up walls and floors

Surely there must be another way? Do i need to find some kind of blacksmith to make me a bit of pipe!!?? I've been googling as much as i possibly can and Phillmacs Universal Transition couplings seem like they could possibly offer a solution but the leak seems so close to the tee i'm not sure how it they would work in practice?

Any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[Agile]

Its not clear what pipe is what.

But its not the end of the world to fit about 500 mm of new tube.

That could cost all of £6 to buy!

Unfortunately there are all sorts of cheapskate plumbers who will do all sorts of bodges to avoid using a bit of tube!

 

[Nige F]

17mm od pipe - 1930's -0.67" od.... 2 perplexed plumbers ! surely it's a half inch bore copper pipe that can be adapted with a compression fitting or if you have in inside/outside caliper get a 1/2"x 15 pre soldered socket (yorkshire fitting) and measure the id of it- and also the id of a standard 15mm olive from the compression fitting. Too much maths for me How old were these plumbers ?

 

[bernardgreen]

My plumber says that it is so close to the tee that it will be impossible to solder without melting

Then melt the T, remove the T fitting. clean the pipe ends and fit a new T and a new length of 15mm to replace the 17 mm

That way you have all new joints (in the affected area ) and no strange pipe, Use a real plumber and not a quick fix dummer

 

[Agile]

"Showed it to two plumbers" ?

Were you asking them to give you free advice so you could DIY it? If that was the case then its not surprising they did not feel like giving you a free lesson on how to repair it yourself.

If you called a competent plumber to do a paid job then I cannot see any reason why any would not just do the job. That is a comparative doddle compared with some abortions we get called to.

Tony

 

[stardanny]

That look like a 15mm to 22 mm reducer, a bodge job.

I'm sure a 15mm compression fitting will fit, maybe a tight fit.

Daniel

 

[pipehell]

17mm od pipe - 1930's -0.67" od.... 2 perplexed plumbers ! surely it's a half inch bore copper pipe that can be adapted with a compression fitting or if you have in inside/outside caliper get a 1/2"x 15 pre soldered socket (yorkshire fitting) and measure the id of it- and also the id of a standard 15mm olive from the compression fitting. Too much maths for me How old were these plumbers ?

Nigel F - Thank you for your advice. What kind of compression fitting would you suggest? i can’t seem to find any online that would connect a 15mm pipe to a 17mm pipe (hot water pipes) though perhaps i’m misunderstanding the nature of compression fittings. My plumber (who might i add is reputable, competent and experienced) didn’t seem to think this was a possibility.

We have no idea how far back into the house the 17mm pipe goes (probably all the way across the floor, through the walls down to the kitchen) and i don’t fancy wrecking my home digging it all up to replace it, so it’s not quite as simple as “just replace the lot"

 

[Madrab]

Just to confirm, you seem to have, running from the right -

A 15mm pipe that's connected badly to a 22mm to 15mm reducer, that's then connected to another piece of 15mm pipe and that is then connected to what you say is the 17mm pipe? That's on the left with the T in it going off to the left and coming forwards?

Have you scraped/sanded down a little of that pipe on the left to confirm what material it's made of? I'd suggest you do that to confirm it is actually copper.

 

[Nige F]

I Agree with Rob - it needs a good clean up . I think it's later than when the house was built - there would have been iron and lead pipe then - it needs measuring when cleaned, preferably in imperial . A 15mm olive should go on a old half inch bore pipe

 

[dilalio]

1st rule of plumbing: archeology

Correction!... 2nd, rule. 1st rule is where and how to turn the water off