Do-It-Yourself

TIMES INT'L

By K. Anthony Bissoon B. Eng.

In this instalment, we will be looking at a quick repair for a busted water pipe, there may be an instant where you find a leak in the kitchen or bathroom and have to get it fixed quickly, so here is a five minute fix until you can get a permanent fix done.
This fix is very fast and easy to do, I would suggest that you have little items like pieces of rubber garden hose and hose clamps tucked somewhere handy for fixes like these.
So, let’s get cracking!

Tools and materials
• Hose clips-keep hose clips in different sizes available; like in sizes of 1 inch up to 4 inches
• Small section of rubber garden hose or rubber tubing, these should be about roughly the same diameter of the pipe you are patching or at least stretchable enough to wrap around the leaking pipe
• Screwdriver to tighten the clamps
1 Loosen out the hose-clips and put them around on either sides of the leak.
2 Cut out a section of rubber enough to cover completely the leaking part and make a slit down along the side to allow you to wrap it around the pipe.
3 Fasten the clips over the hose and tighten securely in place using the screwdriver.
When leaks are detected, it’s a good idea to know and locate where the shut off valves and isolating valves are for that particular plumbing. The main shut-off valve will cut water supply to the entire circuit, but isolating valves will ‘isolate’ individual circuits so you can shut off supply to the bathroom sink for example but not affect supply to the shower.
It’s a good idea to have isolating valves for individual plumbing circuits, that way, in the event of a leak or pipe rupture, only that area will be shut off and it won’t affect the rest of the pipe lines and water supply for example to other areas of the house.
This fix is also useful not only for a hole but can fix long cracks too, just make sure when you are fixing the rubber hose/tubing that it is wrapped snuggly around the pipe covering at least couple inches on both sides and that the hose clamps are tightened well.
Happy fixing, until next time!

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