Why do I keep getting pinhole leaks in copper pipe?

Repeated pinholes are a pattern rather than bad luck and generally point at something acting on the pipe internally. Water chemistry, high velocity through undersized pipe and thin wall copper all contribute, and failures tend to cluster on the hot side or on particular runs. More than two in a couple of years is worth pricing a repipe of the affected runs against continued patching.

How much of a house has to be opened up for a repipe?

Less than most people expect. Where there is a basement, crawlspace or accessible attic, most horizontal running avoids finished rooms, and openings concentrate where pipes rise through walls to fixtures. PEX helps because it is flexible enough to pull through cavities rigid pipe cannot negotiate.

Is PEX as good as copper?

For residential supply plumbing PEX performs very well and is what most new work uses. It handles freezing better and has far fewer joints because it runs in continuous lengths. Copper remains the more familiar material and stays the right choice in certain locations such as near high heat. Both are legitimate.

Why has my water pressure dropped throughout the house?

Gradual loss across the whole house is the classic signature of galvanized supply lines corroding internally, narrowing the bore over decades. It cannot be cleaned out lastingly. Before assuming that, incoming pressure and any pressure reducing valve should be checked, since a failed regulator causes the same complaint and is a far smaller job.

Can a pipe inside a finished wall be repaired?

Yes, and the aim is to open one place rather than several, which is why locating the leak accurately first matters. Once confirmed, the opening is cut, the section repaired, and the pipe pressure tested before anything is closed back up.

Who is responsible for the water line from the street?

Responsibility usually splits at the meter or curb stop, with the utility covering their side and the homeowner the run onto the property, though the exact line varies by town and is worth confirming with the water department. Service line replacement requires excavation and is specialist work.

Home / Services / Plumbing / Pipe Repair

Repairs, sections and repiping

Pipe repair, and knowing when a patch is the wrong answer

A single failure in sound pipework is a repair. The third pinhole in two years on the same material is telling you something, and patching it again is money spent on a problem that will keep returning. What is behind your walls decides which of those you have, so it is worth knowing what you have.

Call (959) 600-6425 Book a visit

Identify it

What are your pipes made of

Look at an exposed run in the basement, under a sink, or where the supply enters the house. Color and feel will usually tell you within a few seconds.

Pipe material guide

What each one is, how it fails, and what that means when something goes wrong.

What does yours look like

Plenty of houses here have two or three of these at once, because each generation of work used whatever was current. Mixed materials are normal and are joined with the right transition fittings rather than being a problem in themselves.

Three scales of job

Repair, section, or repipe

These are very different pieces of work at very different prices, and the honest answer depends on whether the rest of the pipe is as tired as the bit that failed.

Smallest

Spot repair

Cutting out the failed inch or two and fitting a coupling or a short piece. Right when the failure was caused by an event rather than by age, such as a freeze, a nail through a wall, or a single bad joint. Quick, contained, and the correct answer more often than people expect.

Middle

Section replacement

Replacing a run between two points, typically a branch serving one part of the house. Right when a stretch has deteriorated but the rest of the system has not, or when a length is buried somewhere that makes future access unwelcome. Often paired with adding a shutoff so the next job is easier.

Largest

Repiping

Replacing the supply plumbing through the house. Right when the material itself is the problem rather than any one spot, which is the case with failing galvanized or polybutylene. Disruptive and not cheap, but it ends a recurring cost rather than deferring it again.

How we decide, and what we will tell you. One failure in otherwise sound pipe gets repaired. Repeated failures in the same material within a couple of years mean you are paying us over and over for the same underlying problem, and at that point we will say so and price the larger job alongside the small one. You are entitled to choose the patch. You are not entitled to be kept in the dark about why it keeps happening.

The local one

Frozen and split pipes

The most common pipe failure in this climate, and the one where what you do in the first hour changes the size of the repair.

The split may not leak yet. Ice expands and opens the pipe, but the same ice plugs the hole. The leak starts when it thaws, which is why a frozen pipe needs watching closely rather than being considered solved once water returns.
Same locations every winter. Exterior walls, unheated crawlspaces, garages, and basements that lost their heat. Outdoor spigots where a hose was left connected through the first freeze are the most common single point of failure we see.
Copper splits, PEX is more forgiving. PEX can expand somewhat with freezing water and often survives where copper would open up, though it is not freeze proof and its fittings are still vulnerable.
Thaw gently and never with a flame. A hair dryer or heat lamp working from the faucet end back, with the tap open. A torch on a pipe starts fires and can rupture it by boiling trapped water.
Fix the reason, not only the pipe. A pipe that froze once will freeze again in the same conditions, so the repair should come with insulation, rerouting, or heat where the run is genuinely in the wrong place.
If the house lost heat, that is the real fault. We hold both licenses, so restoring the heating and repairing the pipe is one visit rather than two contractors waiting on each other.

Before the first hard freeze. Disconnect every garden hose, and if you have interior shutoffs for the outdoor spigots, close them and drain the line. It takes ten minutes in October and prevents the single most avoidable burst we get called out to in January.

Questions

Pipe repair questions

Book it

Tell us what failed and what it is made of

Where the problem is, what the pipe looks like, and whether this has happened before. A photo of an exposed run answers most of it. If water is escaping now, shut the main off and call instead.

Next steps and neighbors

Leak DetectionFind it before opening a wall. Emergency PlumbingA burst pipe, answered 24/7. Emergency HVACNo heat is what freezes pipes. Fixture InstallationNew shutoffs and connections. All PlumbingEverything we cover, and what we don't. Do we cover your townOur Connecticut and Massachusetts service area.

Free, no obligation

Get the honest scale of the job

We will price the repair you asked for, and tell you plainly if the material itself is what keeps failing.