I bought this house in 2002 and put in some additions which included running copper pipe to a powder room, a laundry room, and a master bathroom. In the past year or so I have been 'blessed' with several pin hole leaks in some of the copper piping. When it happens I remove the old pipe and replace it with new copper. But that's getting annoying! Some of the piping is in a crawl space that I know I can't get into and I'm just 'waiting to see a leak there.. I recently had to replace some piping behind the wall and above the ceiling in the powder room. Is there something I can do with my existing piping to stop the leaks? Thanks.

Rich

 

In rare situation the water can dissolve the copper causing leaks.

It's a water chemistry issue and I would think it might be something your experiencing every day, hard water, high/low ph.

First thing I would do is get a water test and find out what you have and what it would take to neutralize.

 

I had experienced the same thing when my house was new. I cleaned the external area around the pinholes, heated the pipe (water removed) and applied solder over the pinhole. It has held for 30+ years.

 

Replace it with PEX and there will be no more leaks.

 

Multiple pinhole leaks is not a good sign. There are many parts of my county where the well water is corrosive to copper. The only solution is to replace ALL the piping with plastic. When pinholes appear it is the tip of the iceberg and leaks become more frequent. I've switched my rental houses over to PEX. And, with the older installations I have seen brass fittings failing as well so now I'm going plastic with everything.

 

I am going to seriously check into that plastic stuff. I just got done fixing another leak and it was out in the open. What a royal pain in my keister and I've been plumbing since 1968! Thanks for the replies.