Monday, May 31, 2004

Boxes and leaks

(Originally posted on Monday, May 31, 2004 by Cathy)

Well, we filled a ton of boxes this weekend. All of the books, most of the games, and too many knick-knacks. I didn't realize we had so much kitsch!

Meanwhile, we've been living without water again today, trying to plug the leak behind the water heater. We'd tried plumber's goop and reduced it to a very slow trickle, but never got it stopped, a few weeks ago.

So today we turned the water off, got the pipe as dry as we could, and tried a solid epoxy that's supposed to glom onto copper. Well, it was hard to work with, and had no affinity whatsoever for copper. First application leaked. Next two patches - still leaked. Yuck. The problem is that the pipe is low to the concrete in the garage, so it's still got a bit of residual water pushing out. That's why the goop failed, and the epoxy stuff didn't care to stick enough to have a chance anyway. Oh, and we don't want to solder (the obvious first choice) because it's BEHIND the water heater, inches from the gas supply line (which has of course no shut-off between it and the gas meter). Even without that gas pipe, I don't think there's enough room to solder without possibly setting my hair on fire, thanks to the utility sink. There're two ways to access the pipe. For semi-two handed access to one side, laying sideways with most of one's body under the utility sink, reaching around the back leg of the utility sink, resting one's head on the gas line. From the other side, wedging one's upper torso between the wall, the water heater, and the grounding wire from the furnace to the water line gives one-handed access, more or less.

Ugh. We're going to call a plumber, who will likely want to MOVE the water tank, which is on two concrete blocks and weighs enough even EMPTY to make it difficult for two people to lift it. Gonna be a fun week. :P

No comments:

Post a Comment