Spontaneous Leaks in Copper Pipes

[David C.]

This has now happened 3 times in my primary residence.

I find a puddle on my basement floor, look up and a copper pipe is dripping very slowly from the middle of a length of pipe, its not at a joint, and the rest of the pipe is dry. Just a spontaneous pinhole leak.

So far I've been lucky, this keeps happening in the basement, but now these last two are only a few weeks apart.

What would cause my copper pipes to corrode spring spontaneous leaks? This last one was in a part of the ceiling with a drop-ceiling that has not been touched for months. The other 2 leaks were in an 'unfinished room' where I figured I probably hit them with something I was moving. But this last one is clearly an undisturbed pipe spontaneously leaking.

Should I not be drinking my water? Should I be getting the whole house re-done with PEX? Home was built around 1989.

Thanks for any ideas.

[George C.]

For a hot water heater to blow up, it would be a faulty pressure relief valve combined with a limit failure on either a gas or an electric unit, both on the unit itself, a blowup wouldn't be caused by the guy running pex to it.

Cross connections getting people sick? Maybe if they confuse the 1-1/2" to 3"waste line with the 1/2" pex and tie them together. You'd have to be next to brain dead to screw that up.

That $10K Licensed "pro" will probably not even be doing the job himself, he'll probably send the dropout who's been working for him for six months, or one of the guys he hires out of the bar to do your work and be around your family. Eitherway, you wont be getting $10K worth of plumbing, that price is *WAY* too high.

We all go through life taking varying levels of risk, This is one I'm willing to gamble on, hiring a competent handyman. Overblown scary scenarios don't phase me.

If anyone plans on being in the real estate business, especially at start up and plans on solely using only licensed trades to do all your repair work, then your gonna have a tough time making money at it. $10K here, $3k there adds up way too fast.

Every investor here should have a good handyman that they can call to do this kind of work both reasonable & right, or better yet, be able to do it themselves.

This is coming from a licensed contractor / new home builder who has been in the construction field for 25 years. I hate seeing people get screwed.