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A plumber came over for installing a wash basin on a Saturday morning. It was expected to be an hour-long job, but it turned out to be a wasted Saturday morning. I narrate the ordeal below along with the steps taken to mitigate the problem:

  • The house is in India where RCC construction is done unlike the wooden construction in the US.
  • The plumber, while installing the wash basin, drilled a couple of holes into the wall without first locating the water pipeline and, like it always happens, the worst thing happened (Murphy's Law: If something can go wrong, it will). The drill bit went straight into the pipe. See picture 1. enter image description here This resulted in water, water everywhere!
  • Fortunately there was an inlet valve that we shut off.
  • After some thought, it was decided that we deadend the pipe so that the warm water pipe is effectively out of the water circuit. A small piece of the water pipe was then cut out with a hacksaw and two CPVC ends were glued to both the ends. See picture 2. enter image description here. This was done mainly to limit the damage. It is okay if the warm water is unavailable in the wash basin. The "Fake CPVC" piece of pipe was only inserted to signal the deadends should there be a future repair, there is no functional purpose of it.

I will now monitor the situation and will slowly release the valve and check if there are leakages. My questions to the forum:

  • Would you strongly suggest against such a "hack"? What are the potential dangers?
  • What additional care should be taken to make sure there is no leakage?
  • What might be the expected life of such a repair? I am expecting this to last at least 4 years.

Update after a day

It was observed that hot water pipe (drilled through, now deadended) is not leaking at all, but the other cold water pipe had a thin cut inflicted by a chisel that started leaking! You can see that in picture 2, bottom right. Because it started leaking, the plumber has decided to use a grinder to remove the concrete and siporex wall material around both the pipes, connect both the pipes with proper pipe connectors (which are, I believe, CPVC ones), and make it like how it was before (sort of) (completing both the hot and cold water circuits). Perhaps you can let me know any additional precautions to take now by editing your previous answers.

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  • It's a relief to see that it was repaired with CPVC glue and pipe. How long has the repair been in use and under pressure?
    – ojait
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 19:29
  • I do not see why you would not just repair the pipe so water could continue to flow to the fixture, instead of capping it. Also why not just cap the supply end (or the other end) why the "fake pipe" in the middle?. Does the upper pipe go on to supply other fixture or plumbing that may send water back down? Why 4 years? wouldn't you want a more long term solution?
    – Alaska Man
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 19:57
  • @AlaskaMan, I updated the post to address your "fake pipe" observation (which, BTW, was correct!) -- Fake pipe is just "hanging in there". I am not yet sure if the upper pipe has any other purpose than to supply water to this basin faucet; but it looks like that's the only purpose of it. I of course want a more permanent solution, but I thought that given the unreliability of professional work, 4 years is a decent period of time.
    – Kedar Mhaswade
    Commented Jan 17, 2021 at 0:17
  • @ojait I only partially released the main valve after 6 hours, observed and found a leak in the other pipe and shut it off again. Please see my update to the post.
    – Kedar Mhaswade
    Commented Jan 17, 2021 at 0:51
  • Was the "fake pipe" put there to hold the caps in place until the glue dried?
    – ojait
    Commented Jan 17, 2021 at 1:11

2 Answers 2

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That will not last long, source and use a proper pipe connector for that pipe.

The heating and cooling will cause the glued joints to fail, it may be that the glue will not adhere well to the outer pipe covering anyway.

Either there will be a repair version which is made long or you will need two end or butt connectors or joiners and a piece of spare pipe to join the gap between two connectors. This means you will have to make a larger hole in the wall.

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  • "Use a proper pipe connector" -- is that a PVC pipe connector? If you can point me to an image on the web of what it may look like, that would be great.
    – Kedar Mhaswade
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 11:15
  • Agree with the above. I think all you need is a competent plumber -- they'll have access to the right parts.
    – Aloysius Defenestrate
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 15:50
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    @solar mike, why would you believe that a properly glued CPVC cap is more or less likely to fail than a properly glued CPVC coupling? Why would you expect a normal glued joint (of any type) to fail due to heat cycling? Am I missing something here?
    – Jimmy Fix-it
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 16:10
  • @JimmyFix-it because I just used similar 3 layer pipe in my son’s house and it does not use glued connectors that glue to the outside layer - which btw is not the sealing layer, but designed fittings that have a double internal sealing ring and a special olive for the compression as the middle layer is aluminium.
    – Solar Mike
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 16:35
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    OK, so that is not typical CPVC pipe then... and the repair should have been done with fittings/connections appropriate for the pipe type. If that is the case then that makes sense
    – Jimmy Fix-it
    Commented Jan 16, 2021 at 16:42
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It's difficult to say with assurance how long the repair will hold. If it was repaired using proper fittings the odds are very good that it would hold leak free.

If the repair has held up for a few days now and you'd rather not incur extra expenses I would not bury the pipe for now (if possible) so as to monitor the repair. If your water pressure is strong repair it properly. A knowledgeable plumber or handy person should be able to complete the repair in under an hour.

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