Home DIY

Got a call last night from a mate saying he had a leak. His insurance covers a plumber, but not "track and trace", which in this instance means that they won't get a plumber out to you unless you know what the source of the leak is - not that he needs to have a QR code to scan. Confusing terminology to have at this time.
This alone struck me as pretty bizarre - imagine a sparky saying they'd only come and look at your electrics if you knew the location of the fault?!
Anyway, after some exploratory hole making into the plasterboard behind his kitchen units, I got access to the cavity between the chimney breast and the wall by contorting myself through the 12x20 inch hole. It was fucking soaking. So wet that trying to figure out the source of the leak seemed impossible. Until we realised it felt like it was raining in there, and we spotted that one of the old copper feeds to the boiler upstairs had sprung a leak and was spraying water out (only a pin sized hole). Thanks to someone in this thread who recommended LSX leak sealant when I was refitting my toilet, I had a tube in my toolbox. So I was able to clean up the area around the hole and coat a bandage in the paste and bind it on - which seemed to do the trick until he can get a plumber from the insurance to come out.

My brother in law was very keen to explain to me over the phone how to fix it properly with press fit fixings, but I can't say I was that enthusiastic at half 9 at night.

The point of this very long winded story is to ask how reliable LSX fixes are, and is it normal for a completely undisturbed pipe to spring a leak? He's getting a plumber in to fix it properly but I advised that letting the plumber know it isn't urgent will likely save him some money.

My mate says he's been hearing dripping for weeks and even had a plumber out, but the plumber just told him he was being paranoid. Weeks go by and last night my mate spotted a big wet patch under the unit in the corner - hence my visit. FFS, why are so many tradespeople happy to fob customers off like that? The water was spraying very near the back of a load of sockets - could have been disastrous if it got any worse.

Oh, and the insurance won't cover any works to make the plaster right etc. I'm happy to do that myself, but the scope of the insurance is shockingly half arsed. One question about that - where I've cut through the plasterboard, I've also gone through the membrane/building wrap, and the plasterboard is foil backed. When I come to patch it back in, are there any considerations I should make as to repairing the membrane/integrity of the foil? I've never repaired plasterboard with a moisture barrier like that.

Anyway, /csb.