Frozen-burst copper plumbing.

This afternoon a 1/2" copper pipe in my garage started leaking as the ice thawed. It used to be for a washer hook-up and I have plans to install a garage sink there soon. I shut off the water and picked up a shark bite fitting. With the pipe cut off below the split, I found that the copper has expanded and the shark bite will not fit. Is there a good way to compress the end of the copper back to size? There's only about 8" of pipe sticking up from the concrete floor now and it looks like nearly all of it has expanded slightly from the freeze.

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Pretty sure you're gonna have to chip concrete back to undamaged pipe and replace it from there...

If the material is stretched, there's 0 way to unstretch it. I was thinking a pipe clamp, but once the damage is done even compressing it like that isn't going to make the material smaller like you need. Would a copper cap fit? I know it's more work than the shark bite, but I think that ship has sailed. 

Ok just me thinking here.  1/2 copper pipe is 5/8ths OD.  How about getting some 5/8ths ID steel pipe and flare the end.  Then use that to form the copper back to 5/8ths OD.

The material is stretched. It's compromised. The walls are thinner.  That means it is also close to bursting. 

I don't work with copper very often, but the little I know says Paul has it right. The stuff is picky and doesn't take well to any sort of deformation. 

Depending on how much it swelled you might be able to open up the ID on a brass fitting/valve and solder it on as a temporary fix, if you need to turn the water back on. 

Depending on the house layout, I would be considering abandoning the under slab line and running new PEX overhead with shutoff valves in a less exposed part of the house. 
 

It sounds like a pain, but it's not as bad as chipping concrete. 

I would anneal the stub by heating it to cherry red and water chilling it, and then try what Stampie suggested. That will not work if you don't anneal, but should if you do, and make the taper in the end of the steel as smooth as you can plus use some grease.

If you need a temp fix for this week, I would get a rubber hose that fits snug and use a clamp. Then cap the other end. That should allow you to have water while you come up with a proper solution. 

Now everyone feel free to tell me I am an idiot ... but that's what I would do 

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

How old is the house?  Is there a sleeve or pipe insulation of any kind showing where the pipe comes out of the concrete?

Copper and concrete don't get along. The lime, fly ash, etc in the concrete degrade the copper. 
 

If there is no evidence of a protective sleeve and the house is 40 years old or so, then I would not trust the old pipe. The swelling of the pipe could just increase the abrasion potential.

A leak under the slab could go unnoticed, and be very bad.

A new PEX line is cheap insurance.

In reply to Slippery (Forum Supporter) :

no idiot comment from me. Good thick rubber fix till the PEX gets run.

As Paul said - PEX is the ticket.

just beware... "there is no fix quite as permanent as a temporary repair!"

Thanks for the replies. The house was built around 1960 and it looks like plain copper going into the floor. The garage is a slab floor, but there's a large crawl space nearby which is where the pipe originates.

I'm at work right now and Mrs AAZCD is at home with a couple 5 gallon buckets of water on reserve. A plumber probably isn't an option till after the weekend.

Considering your comments, I'll check if there's enough good pipe above the concrete to get a fitting on it. If not, I'll just cap it off in the crawl space rather than chipping the floor. Run PEX when I put the sink in.

Follow-up and maybe pics tomorrow.

In reply to AAZCD (Forum Supporter) :

Good plan. Should be easy to cap that line in the crawl space. 
 

A 60 year old copper line in direct contact with concrete with known freeze damage isn't worth trying to save. 

Yep sounds like cut and shark bite.. in the crawl space.. is the best plan. 
 

Hoping that's your only busted pipe!!

Good news, it's fixed for now.

The stub in the garage was not salvageable.

The crawl space was a quick easy fix with the fitting that I had intended to use in the garage.

...That was the cold water side. I found the hot water side frozen in the garage this morning. Hopefully it hasn't split the pipe. Either way, it's going to be cut off too and PEX routed to the garage. For now, I'm ready for a nap. It was a busy night at work and my energy is running out quickly now.

Thanks for the assist in figuring it out.

Glad you got it sorted. Lots of plumbing happening in the next little bit. 

For anybody else dealing with this now or in the future. If you are expecting a hard freeze and you have pipes exposed to unconditioned space, open the faucet to the smallest stream of water you can get. Just above a drip. This keeps the water moving and your pipes won't freeze.

My brother and I were always sent around town to any vacant properties and warehouse spaces by my dad if we were in for a cold night. There were some places we just let the water drip most of the winter and it was still way cheaper than the plumbing job that would have resulted from a frozen pipe.

jgrewe said:

For anybody else dealing with this now or in the future. If you are expecting a hard freeze and you have pipes exposed to unconditioned space, open the faucet to the smallest stream of water you can get. Just above a drip. This keeps the water moving and your pipes won't freeze.

My brother and I were always sent around town to any vacant properties and warehouse spaces by my dad if we were in for a cold night. There were some places we just let the water drip most of the winter and it was still way cheaper than the plumbing job that would have resulted from a frozen pipe.

This can work but there are two things you need to keep in mind if you do this.  One is that in extreme cold that won't work.  The other is that while it can keep the water in the feed pipes from freezing you can end up with the trickle in the waste pipe slowly building up a layer of ice until it's blocked completely.