burst pipe
Well, it got down to 5 below farenheit yesterday (what is that in celsius?) and a pipe burst in our basement, only thing ruined was my speaker mic, so that’s OK, but what a mess. Sometimes I hate homeownership. 
Any of you guys ever do the rubber gasket/ pipe repair coupling thing? Or ever replaced a section of copper pipe? Did the first, wonder how long it will last…and it looks easy to replace a section of pipe.
Bad news dude, hate it for ya, got down to 8 above here this am, wind chill about 8 below. Is the pipe cold or hot water? If it’s hot water, no good, did the same repair for my mother 2 years ago and it ruptured and flooded their basement (rubber gasket expanded). Had to get torch and flux and solder and pipe and couplings and do the cut and repair. If it’s cold line it may last. My heart goes out to ya, I really hate doing plumbing repairs, but dang it all, plumbers charge an arm and a leg for little repairs.
The joys of home ownership!
It’s a cold water pipe, one that goes to an outside spigot. The plumber wanted $150 for the first hour, and $120 for each hour after that, and wanted the city to come out and turn off the water first, which you know they weren’t about to do on a Sunday afternoon, at least not quickly, so I had this vision of a $600 repair…
"It’s a cold water pipe, one that goes to an outside spigot"
Tom, I had the exact same thing go on me last winter, repair was an easy solder/flux job. If I can do it, anybody can. You can’t really mess up solder/flux with copper, ie if your joints aren’t done properly, it’ll be real obvious when you turn the water on again 
and in that case, just dump on more solder - looks ugly but like you said, saves you 200 bucks.
Cool, Ky, I thought it looked liek something I could do. We’re gonna wait till the weather warms up a bit. 
Thanks jhonan. 
Tom - you need some heat tapes!
My days of burst pipes are over for right now but I’ve had my share of them. One time a pipe burst in the upstairs bath room of my 1st house. Water came down through the floor and ran across the ceiling of my entire kitchen & living room. It’s was pooring like a fountain onto my wood stove.
Mike
Are we talking about a water main? Or just a pipe? If it is just a pipe, then get out the torch and fix it right. No sense in being quick and dirty and just have it happen again. Copper pipe is pretty easy to solder. Get an 8 foot section, some flux, lead free solder, a torch, a tubing cutter, maybe a heat shield if you are close to a wall or other flamable surface to block the flame, and some wire brushes and fine sand paper. Get a few fittings as practice fittings if you have never done it before and maybe do a few practice runs to get the hang of it before doing the real thing. Make sure all the fitting and pipe surfaces are super clean (use your wire bush and sand paper to prepare the surface, but don’t go nuts) Use a decent amont of flux on any touching surfaces. Assemble the pipe and heat the joint. Don’t get it to hot or you will burn the copper (you’ll know, the copper turns black and burns green). Every so often, take the direct heat off the pipe and press the solder to the gap in the fitting. It should flow right in once it is hot enough. If you burn up a fitting or some pipe 75% of the time you gotta start over. You can try cleaning it, but you usually have a klinker and it won’t take solder right. Just take it easy and you’ll be fine. If I lived down the street from you I would come over and have it done in about 15 minutes assuming it is accessible. It shouldn’t take a plumber much longer if you don’t want to DIY. I replumbed my whole house with copper when I bought it. It was a fixer upper and still had lead here and there. That had to go of course and I got really good at sweating pipe.
BTW, don’t just dump on more solder. That leads to leaks later on. You really want a good joint that the solder has flowed into. Just gobbing solder on the seam is a weak joint.
Down heah in da sout’…all yun’s need is a sack of various fittin’s, some pipe and glue to fix them nasty varmints! PVC all the way.
TG
Bubba’s right, this sounds like a super easy repair. Once you get the hang of it sweatin’ pipe is real easy.
Do yourself a favor when you fix it too. Prepare for next winter. You say this is a line feeding an outside spigot. Likely there was water in the line and it froze back into the house. There’s 2 ways to attack the problem. If you start from scratch, they make long outside spigot valves, such that the sealing section of the valve is located back inside the house. This way when you shut off for the winter, there is little chance of water being in the exposed section of pipe and freezing back inside and bursting pipe. This solution is very effective, but requires more dough and installation time.
A cheaper alternative is to install a shutoff valve on the inside pipe, somewhere that’s accessable just before the pipe exits the house. You’re fixing the pipe anyway, right? All you’d need is a valve and NPT to socket fittings for it. Then all ya gotta do is shut off the ouside spigot from the inside and open the spigot to drain any excess before winter takes hold. This is the arrangement that’s been in (or I have installed…) in all the old houses I lived in. Never had a problem, as long as I remembered to shut off the outside water for the winter. Good luck…you’ll do fine…
You have indoor plumbing?!?!? A rubber hose over a wall doesn’t count. 
Naw Bubba. We uses duck tape on the rubba hose!
TG
I have one of those things you describe. I know they will last several years. But it is definately a temporary fix. I didn’t discover it until the burst. From the looks of it, it had been on there for alot of years. The rubber was very dry-rotted. In a pinch it will probably last the winter or atleast until you really feel like fixing it right.
Freezeless outside spigot! The only way to go, easy to install too.
PVC, easy as 123, purple cleaner and do re mi, PVC, get out the glue and fix for me!
Yes the cheap way to go in da South! (Specially when ya running it to da outhouse)
Outdoor plumbing in the outhouse? Sheesh. You got lektrik heat in dat thang too?
TG
Y’all are killin me.
I have to say, you guys know more than you ought to about a LOT of things… thank you!
Besides strength, I believe knowledge in numbers (quanity… not math…aw heck, you know watta mean!) is a good thing. NEVER stop learnin’ eh?
TG
We got extenshun cord run out to outhouse so we can use the lektrik toilet paper. Corn Cob with power!
Just wish we didn’t have to climb da telefone pole to answer da fone.
remember too man that solder follows the heat,so torch yer fittings acordingly,