Hot water leaking outside the house

TonyInch

Basically my house is 2nd hand and the previous owner moved from oil heating to gas. The oil burner was outside in a little shed about 3 foot from the back door and I have 2 pipes coming about an inch out of the ground with stop ends on them. Over the Christmas when the thaw started the stop ends popped off. I noticed the flood in the garden and just tightened them back on, unfortunately I didn’t do a very good job and the pipe with warm water is still leaking slightly. I’ve tried unsuccessfully to re-tighten the stop end with more plumbing tape but with the water fully thawed the pressure from the flow makes it impossible. I turned off the heating and turned the valve at the bottom of the hot water tank-will that stop the water? And what should I do about these 2 pipes going no where especially when one is carrying warm water?

sky6

The pipe is obviously GB and the threads are erroded with age and rust. When the freeze came it expanded and popped of the Blank Cap.
You may be able to get at the pipes from under your subfloor and blank them off from there. I suspect the hot water that is leaking is actually coming from you Central Heating and not from your Hot Cylinder.

yoshytoshy

TonyInch wrote: »

And what should I do about these 2 pipes going no where especially when one is carrying warm water?

Them pipes are blanked ,because they were probably too hard to blank off inside the house.
Your kitchen is probably the closest room to the boiler and the pipes go up in a boxing in the corner.

Buford T Justice

sky6 wrote: »

The pipe is obviously GB and the threads are erroded with age and rust. When the freeze came it expanded and popped of the Blank Cap.
You may be able to get at the pipes from under your subfloor and blank them off from there. I suspect the hot water that is leaking is actually coming from you Central Heating and not from your Hot Cylinder.

I fail to see how one can conclude they are gb pipes. Pex have a habit of pusing fittings off the pipes when they freeze.. Could be that either.

yoshytoshy

Fingers McGee wrote: »

I fail to see how one can conclude they are gb pipes. Pex have a habit of pusing fittings off the pipes when they freeze.. Could be that either.

It's usually Gb pipes that are like this in boiler houses ,a lot of houses have 4 Gb pipes ,two for heating and two for water circuit.
It's strange that pipes are blanked outside like this though ,it would mean that water circuit was taken from somewhere else.

TonyInch

sky6 wrote: »

The pipe is obviously GB and the threads are erroded with age and rust. When the freeze came it expanded and popped of the Blank Cap.
You may be able to get at the pipes from under your subfloor and blank them off from there. I suspect the hot water that is leaking is actually coming from you Central Heating and not from your Hot Cylinder.

Ok so if I buy a new stop end that will probably do the job?And how to I stop the water coming from you Central Heating?

DoneDL

TonyInch wrote: »

Ok so if I buy a new stop end that will probably do the job?And how to I stop the water coming from you Central Heating?

Tony strangely enough its probably better to get a good plumber out, it will save you time and would be a quick job for a decent plumber. Get him to give the system a quick look over and maybe consider some antiifreeze solution.

sky6

Fingers McGee wrote: »

I fail to see how one can conclude they are gb pipes. Pex have a habit of pusing fittings off the pipes when they freeze.. Could be that either.

I agree with you, It could well anything. But as the post said. It's and old house and has had two heating systems and outdoors, then it's an old system which made me think it's most likely GB.

TonyInch

Whats GB pipe? english copper fittings or something? They aren't by the way.I've still waiting on the plumber so much for recesion I've been ringing him off and on for a full week now

sky6

Hi, GB pipe is a Steel pipe called Gun Barrel pipe. It was commonly used in Central heating systems in the 60s and 70s.
Are you saying it is English Copper fittings or its not. Can you get under the Sub Floor to take a proper look at the pipe.

Buford T Justice

GB is Gun Barrell Steel pipe, as opposed to the norm of Copper or Pex

DublinDilbert

Maybe post some pics of the outside here and the lads will be able to help.

If you can get some pics of the inside where the pipes come in, usually under the floor that would be good too.

As others have said, You'd be best re-capping the ends inside if possible to avoid further problems.