HWBB piping leak...uh oh.

FranklinD

My friend called me up this morning saying he found a leak in his water heater closet. Upon examination, it’s at the “manifolds” for his half of the houses baseboards (original to the house, mid-1950’s built on a slab). The supply and return from the boiler (in the other half of his duplex) run under the slab to the water heater closet and come up out of the floor. These two pipes have been replaced by copper. The supply then splits off, through two reducing tees, into pipes that go back into the slab and off to feed the baseboards. The return “manifold” isn’t visible in this picture. The pipe in the middle coming out of the slab is rotten where it enters the bottom of the tee and a solid stream of water is coming out. We drained pressure off the boiler and stopped the leak with the obvious downside of having no heat. We’re sitting around 15°f here. He talked to his plumber, who is about 3-4 days out on a different job. Is there any reasonable way to temporarily patch it? Normally I’d never ask, I’m not a “temporary repair” kind of guy, but he begged me for ideas beyond JB Weld (no clean metal to bond to here). Thanks!

Ironman

If you can clean it up real good, this stuff works. There are other brands of it as well.

ratio

Clean it as best you can & try this stuff around it. I used it for a temporary patch on a steam line, it lasted a season & a half!

Larry Weingarten

Hello, What pressure is it running at? Do you think some rubber sheet, a hose clamp, and some luck might get you by?

Yours, Larry

JUGHNE

That blue monster tape worked for me on 40 PSI drip/leak.
Seemed spendy, but worth it at the time.

Jamie Hall

You could try this stuff...https://www.lowes.com/pd/Keeney-1-in-x-14-ft-Pipe-Wrap-Tape/50061565?cm_mmc=SCE_BINGPLA_ONLY-_-RoughPlumbingElectrical-_-TubularDrainage-_-50061565:Keeney&CAWELAID=&kpid=50061565&CAGPSPN=pla{ifdyn:dyn}&k_clickID=bi_264334745_5481216600_13814743270_pla-1100008777823:aud-806125762_c_&msclkid=a0f9a2234c301e740eacf9c4212794cb
I haven't used it personally, but I used to use something like it -- years ago -- and it will hold. For a while. Under low pressure...

Clean the pipes as thoroughly as you can -- try to avoid putting more holes in the rotten pipe! -- and build up that pipe first, to the diameter of the T, then continue wrapping over both the buildup and the T a few turns. I'd be inclined to reinforce the resulting kludge with a radiator hose clamp... and pray.