Punctured Kitec

seattlehiker

I have half inch Kitec and after 19 years, found out a drywall screw was holding back the water in my radiant system. I shut down that section of the manifold, and found coupling fittings at Pex Universe. Are these the correct ones to use? Fwiw, they match the others in my house, and the system has been great since day 1.

Ironman

They look like it. Put a little silicone grease on the O rings and make sure that they don’t roll out of the grooves when inserted into the tubing.

seattlehiker

Ok, thanks. I am going to cut it tonight and see if it works. I have a couple of home depot buckets on standby.

Ironman

Also: the edge of the tubing needs to be beveled so that it doesn’t cut or pull the O ring.

Mad Dog_2

How'd ya make out? Mad Dog 

PC7060

Not that is would have helped for this issue but the pipes ran close to edge of studs should be protected by nail plates.

seattlehiker

Get this folks. So, when I opened the wall and found the screw in the pipe, I also found 2 unused nail plates sitting there right below it. You cannot make this stuff up.🤷‍♂️🤣🤷‍♂️🤣 Then, on top of that, the drywallers just ignored those 2 plates sitting there at the bottom of the framing and just rocked right over them, leaving them inside the wall. You'd think they'd have said, "Oh look, the framers forgot to knock those things in. Give me a sec to put the plates on." But no-ohhh. That would have been an extra 20 seconds of work.

seattlehiker

Keep in mind, I am just an unsuccessful accountant/financial analyst who is much more comfortable fixing his house🤔😫 than doing taxes or losing money in the stock market😂

seattlehiker

No more humor and back to heating: So, there is still water oozing out of that hole and that should be normal since there was a good 10 feet of tubing beyond where the hole is. Again, I shut that region of the manifold off and since water is not streaming out, it must be the correct region. I assume I can just cut it (with a bucket underneath) and put the coupling on.

hot_rod

it is typically the plumbers responsibility to install nail plates. The plumbing inspector always wrote us up for missed plates

seattlehiker

Yes, I meant plumbers

seattlehiker

I still see water oozing out. Scared to cut that pipe and put the coupling on

DCContrarian

seattlehiker said:

I still see water oozing out. Scared to cut that pipe and put the coupling on

Give it a few minutes.

But you have to shut the pipe off at both ends, the whole system is under pressure.

seattlehiker

I gave it a few weeks. Both feed and return for that loop are shut off

pecmsg

Any chance of opening something in the basement to help the draining. 

seattlehiker

I think it is just residual water in the pipe. I could just shut down my entire second floor from the basement.

kcopp

hot_rod said:

it is typically the plumbers responsibility to install nail plates. The plumbing inspector always wrote us up for missed plates

$20 says these were originally installed and the drywallers removed them because they left a bump in the wall... I have seen it before.