Sealant for leaky pex ?

Ron Jr._3

Buddy of mine laid down pex in his kitchen on an existing slab . He used 2 by 4s on the flat , installed the pex between the wood and poured concrete over the pex to the level of the top of the 2 by 4s . Did it this way to put down a beautiful and very expensive hardwood floor .



Found out the pex is leaking somewhere in that zone . Just one loop of 1/2 inch . Is there a sealant that is geared toward pex ? Before he abandons the zone totally he wants to give it a try . The system is connected to a Peerless Purefire modcon and I told him using sealant might not be a good idea . The floor is inaccesible from underneath also .............



Thanks in advance .   

Charlie from wmass

None i would suggest

saw zall time. The leak should be easy to find. If you air test it it you should be able to hear it. 

Mark Eatherton

Bummer....

You can bet there is a nail stuck in the tubing somewhere...



Any leak sealant will also, unfortunately, settle in places that you DON'T want it to settle, including the heat exchanger on the boiler.



Best bet is to find it and fix it. Keep the loop pressurized, and keep the boiler loop hot but keep the distribution pump off, and the water will follow a path to the leak. THen use IR to fine tune the area, cut the tongues off of the T&G wood, breakout the concrete, and fix and cover.



In my 36 years of wrestling with this stuff, I have never seen a random leak in the middle of a tube, without having someone or something responsible for it...



ME

Ron Jr._3

Thanks guys

I should have taken some pics of the kitchen . It's beautiful and ripping up the floor would be almost as heartbreaking as finding that leak in the floor originally . I suggested a toe-kick heater under a cabinet . Poor guy redid the whole place by himself on weekends and vaca time . Didn't even move in yet . I'll let you know what route he takes ..................   

jp_2

use air pressure

I read this the other day on the wall,  use air pressure and a stethoscope to pin point the leak.  then you can cut out the smallest portion of the flooring as possible, its hard but doable, I've repaired a lot of maple flooring, you can see the repair but they're not that obvious and most people don't see it..