My hose bibb in the backyard has a huge crack and was causing water to flood the backyard. I went to lowes and bought a new hose bibb. I took a saw and cut off the old one from the pipe coming out of the wall. I then took like plumbers cement or some kind of cement in a jar and cemented it together, I waited 2 hours and I just turned the water back on, it is not leaking in 3 different spots. Do you know if I am supposed to solder it together? how to I do that? and is it safe with the cement because the cement is flammable? I have a torch can I jsut heat the pipe and the hose bibb until they are joined together? Thank you for any help!
You have made what could have been a simple repair difficult. Hopefully you have enough space left to cut and sweat pipes without getting too close to the siding. If not you will need to make the repair from inside the house. Either way making the repair inside will be better in the long run because you can use a long sill c o c k. (yahoo is censoring the name because it is also a vulgar term for a males reproductive organ) Sweating pipes is a fairly straighforward process. You will need to get clean fresh pipe surfaces. Clean them well with a wire brush that you can buy for this or with emory cloth. Clean both the outside of the male end and the inside of the female end. Next apply flux to both surfaces and assemble them. After that you heat the joint with a propane or map torch and apply the solder to the opposite side from the heat. when the joint is hot enough the solder will melt and be drawn into the joint. The advantage of a long sill c o c k is that the seat is about 12 inside of the house therefore preventing it from freezing during the winter. As an add on. You CAN NOT sweat pipe if there is any water in it. If for whatever reason after shutting off the water and waiting you still get a slight trickle there is an old trick to deal with this. Take a slice of freash white bread and pull offf all crusts. Roll the bread into a ball and stuff it inside of the pipe as far as it will go. you might need to do this more than once. After sweating the pipes just turnb on the water and the bread dissolves a bit and flushes right out of the pipe. If done on a line in the house remove aireator screens from faucets first to prevent them from pluging up.
Man, I hate soldering copper pipe. Its always such a pain in the a But hey, its gotta get done. Ok, a couple things you'll need: New hose bib Pipe if need be, connectors, etc. Soldering torch (get the kit from Lowes for 20$) Solder, comes with the kit Flux, also with the kit Emory cloth, small wire brush for inside and outside both pipes Hack saw or pipe cutter if you have to make any cuts to pieces of pipe you bought. Ok, first thing Cut the pipe off as close as you can to the bib thats glued up and toss it. Next, the pipe coming out, you have to sand it down so as to get a nice shiny surface, use the emery cloth first then the wire brush last. Do the same with the insides and outsides of any pieces that will be mated up to one another. Yes, even do it to the new parts, solder wont set correctly on old tarnished pipes. Next, brush on some flux to the parts you will be connecting on the mated surfaces. Then assemble. Next sweat your pipes with the torch, getting the area hot. Then apply the solder, just touch the tip of the solder to the joint where the two pieces meet, and it automatically seals into the pipes. Dont expect it to look all nice at first, but with practice you'll get it. Also, do the same with any other spots you are seeing any leaks coming from.
Your are courageous. I hope that the pipe to the hose bib is accessible in a basement or a crawlspace. I don't think you should have cut it off from the outside. Anyway, if it is accessible from the inside of the house, you will have to cut the copper pipe the leads to the bib. Usually it is 1/2 inch diameter pipe. Remove the piece of cut pipe and cut a new length of copper that is a little bit longer than the old one. Buy a new hose bib that will accept the 1/2 pipe in a sweat fitting. Clean the fitting and the end of the pipe and flux each. Insert the cleaned and fluxed pipe end into the cleaned and fluxed sweat fitting of the new hose bib and solder the two with a torch. After it cools, insert the new pipe through the hole in the outside wall from the outside-in making sure the hose bib is resting up against the siding of house so it can be fastened to the wall. Have a helper (inside the house) mark the length needed to join the new pipe to the cut in the old pipe. Cut to length. Slide a 1/2 copper sleeve onto the old pipe end and slip the new pipe end in the other side of the sleeve to check that you have the length correct. The hose bib should be where you want it when all the fittings are together. Clean and flux the end of the old pipe inside the house, the end of the new pipe, and inside both ends of a 1/2 copper sleeve fitting. Make sure the hose bib is pointing in the direction you want before you solder the inside joints. Push them together and solder accordingly. Good luck and bless your courage.
