What do you do if drill through pipe?

[hairyben]

Little tip - if you're unsure use a screwdriver to gently dig a hole before drilling, the plaster is soft and you'll feel a pipe or cable before the hard bricks. Better than any fancy detector.

[kambites]

I did this when screwing something to the floor a few years ago. Had to take the floor boards up, cut out the section of pipe and solder a joint into the gap.

[paulw123]

did it with a heating pipe, putting a screw in a floorboard. first tip. leave screw in place! Drained the sealed heating system out the frond door with a bit of hose pipe I had from the drain point on the rad in the hall

[finlo]

No need to be putting a drill bit anywhere near plasterboard in the first place!

[Du1point8]

No need to be drilling or screwing anything into a wall.

https://www.spotlightstores.com/home/wall-art/wall...

[Dr Mike Oxgreen]

Du1point8 said:

No need to be drilling or screwing anything into a wall.

https://www.spotlightstores.com/home/wall-art/wall...

Would you use those to put up shelving, or hang a heavy mirror, or TV? I think not.

[Murph7355]

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Du1point8 said:

No need to be drilling or screwing anything into a wall.

https://www.spotlightstores.com/home/wall-art/wall...

Would you use those to put up shelving, or hang a heavy mirror, or TV? I think not.

Or until your picture ends up on the floor with badly keyed paint stuck to the 3M strip...

[Du1point8]

Murph7355 said:

Dr Mike Oxgreen said:

Du1point8 said:

No need to be drilling or screwing anything into a wall.

https://www.spotlightstores.com/home/wall-art/wall...

Would you use those to put up shelving, or hang a heavy mirror, or TV? I think not.

Or until your picture ends up on the floor with badly keyed paint stuck to the 3M strip...

Never had any issues with all the pictures in my property in London, even came down easily when putting the property on rental market last year.

[Andehh]

Welp, it happened! Literally 10mins after SWMBO disappeared to her parent's, I was frantically emptying the cupboard looking for the stop cock!

I was installing a switch for some external lights, and whilst tidying up the hole I found the tap's hot water feed buried in the 'dab' of the dot & dab wall. Queue hot water spewing out, coating me & everything around, as I blindly empty the sink cupboard fighting for the damn stop cock!

Trip down to screwfix, some panic over what fitting I needed, then 2 hours later *touch wood* the fix held!

[Harry Flashman]

Simpo Two said:

I've done this by cutting a rising main with a hacksaw (which I thought I'd frozen but hadn't).

1) Find hole. Rating: Easy.

2) Uncover hole. Rating: Not applicable as perfectly obvious.

3) Panic as now released water shoots out in straight line across kitchen cabinet. Rating: Easy.

4) Call plumber. Rating: Not applicable as cannot reach phone with finger over hole.

5) Try to think of way out of mess, whilst jammed half in/out of cabinet with finger over hole. Rating: Hard.

Heh.

[LordHaveMurci]

Andehh said:

Welp, it happened! Literally 10mins after SWMBO disappeared to her parent's, I was frantically emptying the cupboard looking for the stop cock!

I was installing a switch for some external lights, and whilst tidying up the hole I found the tap's hot water feed buried in the 'dab' of the dot & dab wall. Queue hot water spewing out, coating me & everything around, as I blindly empty the sink cupboard fighting for the damn stop cock!

Trip down to screwfix, some panic over what fitting I needed, then 2 hours later *touch wood* the fix held!

I know very little about these things but that doesn't look like a great idea to me

[Andehh]

LordHaveMurci said:

I know very little about these things but that doesn't look like a great idea to me

The plumbers at Screwfx that i spoke to reckoned this was the only way to do it without some serious redecorating. It's also the way the pipes are connected throughout the house - everything is push fit plastic connections.


As for the proximity to the electrics - can't do much about that, it's not ideal I agree! I am just going to leave it uncovered for a week or so to confirm the 'fix' and then cut a small bit of plasterboard to cover the hole & just keep a close eye on it going forwards.

edit: I absolutely welcome recommendations on improving things. Only thing I can think of is using some form of ''water proof'' Gripfill to create a ''bowl'' in there, so any water leaks in the future get directed to go through the wall/visible and not just soak behind all the kitchen cabinets/electrics for months & months.

Edited by Andehh on Monday 5th June 13:01

[eps]

That looks like a hazard waiting to happen. Does the socket really need to be there?

[Andehh]

eps said:

That looks like a hazard waiting to happen. Does the socket really need to be there?

I looked at this as my first idea, but the cables are all too tight for them to be moved elsewhere. No slack in any of it, including one that drops down behind cabinets & one that disappears up into the wall behind the wall mounted ones. Removing it is one option, but there would still be a junction behind.

My only thought is creating a barrier to reduce any water gets forced forwards through the wall to be visible, rather then collect behind near the sockets/down behind the cabinets.

Edited by Andehh on Monday 5th June 13:34

[Alucidnation]

Jesus.

Mind you, keep it up.

I make a small fortune, dealing with DIYers fk ups.

[Triumph Man]

Andehh said:

TorqueDirty said:

In my previous house (1902 Highland manse) I once nailed down a squeaky floorboard in the bathroom. Nice job - no more squeaks.

5 years later we had the bathroom re-done and some floor boards needed to be lifted. Turns out I had nailed straight through the floor board and cleanly in to the centre of a copper hot water pipe. No leaks, nothing. Perfect seal.

Plumber cut out the damaged section and spliced in a new bit using brass connectors.

Went on holiday to France that afternoon. Came back a week later to discover the kitchen ceiling on the flooded kitchen floor. Seems the plumber had fitted crap connectors and one had split when the hot water came on and caused it to expand.

No real relevance to the OP but the screw / nail in the hole trick would seem to be a good temporary solution - for say 5 years or so!

TD

Truly the stuff of nightmares there! What did you do about it? Get him to pay for the repairs, or home insurance?

After 5 years of living in their house (which was new when they got it) my grandparents had a damp patch of floor near their airing cupboard. They tried to trace it, and eventually found that, when the house was built, the chipboard had been nailed down, and one of the nails went through the pipe. This was fine, until it just rusted enough to blow th hole ever so slightly and cause the leak!

[Andehh]

Alucidnation said:

Jesus.

Mind you, keep it up.

I make a small fortune, dealing with DIYers fk ups.

Genuine question, what would you have done differently? Pipe has been pierced, I have called you out to made good and....?

[Alucidnation]

Plastering and painting is not my forte.

[eps]

Andehh said:

eps said:

That looks like a hazard waiting to happen. Does the socket really need to be there?

I looked at this as my first idea, but the cables are all too tight for them to be moved elsewhere. No slack in any of it, including one that drops down behind cabinets & one that disappears up into the wall behind the wall mounted ones. Removing it is one option, but there would still be a junction behind.

My only thought is creating a barrier to reduce any water gets forced forwards through the wall to be visible, rather then collect behind near the sockets/down behind the cabinets.

Edited by Andehh on Monday 5th June 13:34

I'm no expert but the proximity of live electrics next to the (hidden) pipe just looks plain dangerous to me. I mean far be it for me to go all H&S on you but water and electrics don't mix very well. It just needs you to forget it's there and do some work in 3-5 years time or someone to purchase the property, not expect the pipe to be there and... and that's not even considering a simple leak from the joint or somewhere in the pipe above... and the cable behind the pipe, what is that all about?

[Alucidnation]

What's wrong with the cable behind the pipe?

Are they not allowed to be near each other?