The FEAR of water

Recently Dani and I were sitting around a table with some friends and I had asked one of our friends if they believed that everyone has a fear? They weren't so sure, so we went around the table and almost everyone had some type of fear. Everyone except me. I couldn't think of anything that was a true fear. Then, today, it hit me, that perhaps I do? I think I have a fear of a water pipe leaking in a house when were not home. Back in Seattle we had a neighbor (our townhouse that we shared a wall with neighbor) that lost a water valve (yeah, it shot off) during the night when he wasn't home. This was on the third floor. He opened his front door (on the first level) with over 2 inches of water on the floor. So, when I say I fear a water leak, I just don't like how wiley water can be in a home when it gets out.

Another note: I LOVE our new home. It is fantastic, and I enjoy the many projects and creativity I have to use to complete them. With that said... here's a little taste of the past few days:

So a week ago I was moving the stove and noticed an old sink had been installed in place of it (years ago). As I tapped one of the original steel pipes I noticed a droplet of water and thought "oh crap, that's not good". There was a hole cut out in the wall where the pipes once connected to the sink, but the droplet was coming from above. I ran upstairs to the bathroom to check for overflow, and luckily all was fine there. I returned back downstairs and placed a mirror and flashlight into the wall to find a "T" valve about 8 inches up that likely was the "original" branch for the "original" sink that was once there. That part of the wall was covered. I noticed that the cold water pipe "T" had a plug in it, and it was fine. However, the hot water "T" section had a small pipe coming out, with a cap on it. It was corroded beyond recovery and was very likely the culprit of the leak. I waited for a while, tapped it, and again, a droplet came.

The plan was to remove the small piece of pipe, put a plug in place of it, and be done. Initial time estimate: 1 hour max., with time for cleanup.

Days later I was ready to start the small job. I first put a pipe wrench up into the wall and was able to reach the small pipe without a problem. Oh, I did FIRST cut the main water valve.... give me a little credit. I was able to get the teeth to catch, and wa-la. It was twisting in a matter of turns. However, the pipe was SO corroded, only half of it came out.
Great. I made a small incision in the wall (a few inches) to gain better detail and evaluate the situation. The pipe was so corroded, it was less than a millimeter thick in one place.
OK, so now I had to extract the remaining part of the pipe. I was thinking I once used (via my Grandfather) a pipe wrench with a head that had horizontally extended teeth. I might have dreamed this up, but I feel like something like this exists (and if not, make note--go get a patent now!). I went to a few stores and they just stared at me. I explained the situation to one guy, and he recommended a pipe extractor. Great. I showed him the pipe piece I had, and he said a 3/4" extractor should do the job. I came home, drilled out some of the corrosion, and then looked at the extractor. The pipe looked closer to 1/2", although my 1/2" drill bit sat inside of the pipe w/ about 1/8" room. 5/8" pipe? They say there is no such thing. The extractor was not going to work. I got online and googled "how to remove a pipe", and found someone that recommended an internal pipe wrench. Wow, that sounds great. Went to store, and they had a number of them. Why didn't they think of this when I explained the situation the first time? Oh well, I got one, came home, and inserted said internal pipe wrench. I twisted. The piece that locks the wrench inside broke. I said some explicatives. I returned to said home store and requested a new one. They obliged. I returned home w/ new pipe extractor. Inserted tool, twisted, it locked, and then the battle began. I used a deep socket to grab the internal pipe wrench (I'm still working on this w/ about 2" cut into the wall) and the largest socket wrench I have. Nothing. I added a cheater pipe and twisted again. Geez. I gave it all I had, and it began to come out. Whew. Pipe removed.

I thought ahead and purchased a plug to put in. It was a 1/2" plug. It fit pretty good. I put it in w/ some Teflon. Turned on water. It leaked. Turned off water. Removed plug, used teflon paste. Returned plug. Turned on water. Still leaked. Turned off water. Called Dad. He recommended a different plug. Found one at Ace that was US made. It looked better. Tried teflon paste + new plug. It leaked. Tried more teflon, it leaked too. Called Dad. He recommended as a last effort epoxy. I thought what the heck. Cleaned pipe, etc. really good and re-ran threads w/ a tap.

Before shutting off the water main I filled the sinks with water so that we'd have some for cleanup, etc. I applied a STRONG cleaning solution to the pipe (a concentrated pre-epoxy grease removed), and a small amount ran onto my hands. I figured it was the equivalent of gasoline, but it was not! It began to burn, so I ran to the filled sink of water and soaked my hands for a few minutes. Whew--good thing I had some water on reserve. Otherwise I might be typing right now.

Applied epoxy + new plug and waited 9 hours for the super Pro epoxy w/ kevlar to set. Turned on water the next morning. The plug did NOT leak. Great. However, I noticed a really small leak just below the plug on the "T" head. Crap. Well, I have all the cleaning stuff and epoxy. Why not? So, I cleaned all and applied a liberal amount of epoxy on said area. We ate out again that night.

Well, there you have it. It appears to be holding fine now. Below is a picture of the T valve inside the wall, with a liberal amount of epoxy around it. The newspaper is sitting there (for now) so that I can pull it out and check to see if any water has leaked. So far, so good... but I hesitate to say anything more, as we all know what can happen.