Author: Scott McCarthy

Why flooring and carpeting companies should always be prepared for pipework disasters

Emergency pipe repair is not just for plumbers. Pipes are everywhere and many trades encounter them on a daily basis. Electricians, builders, decorators, gardeners, carpenters, carpet fitters… the list goes on.

Having contact with pipes means that there is always a danger of accidentally cutting into one. When this happens, the damage can be severe, as a family in Hampshire discovered to their cost.

The Newton family were settling into their new home with their 12-month-old baby. Their kitchen had been refurbished and extended, the property newly decorated and new carpets fitted. Only one thing was bothering them – a loud, creaking nose from the floorboards in the bedroom.

They thought it may have been caused by all the construction work below. To get to the bottom of the problem, they called in a trained carpenter to investigate.

The upstairs flooring was chipboard rather than floorboards, so a section had to be cut away to gain access to the RSJ below. It was then decided that additional screws in the joists might reduce the creaking.

Unfortunately, the carpenter had not fully investigated what was lurking underneath the chipboard, resulting in the screws being placed in a perfect line down the centre of the mains water pipe supplying the tank in the loft.

Initially at least, the screws were not a major problem. Worse was to come however when the carpenter went to remove another section of chipboard, only to end up cutting through the pipe with a circular saw.

Catastrophic damage had now been caused to the already perforated pipe. With mains water gushing into the floor space, the family rushed to turn off the supply, only to find that the stopcock was seized up and could not be operated manually.

After some time, a wrench was found and the water turned off. The family then called a plumber to shut off the damaged section of pipe so that the home could still run other water services.

The plumber cut the pipe, plugged what he thought was the end leading to the mains, and turned the water back on. Alas, he had plugged the wrong end and so once more mains water was pumping into the floor space from an open-ended pipe.

Supply was again shut off and the plumber rectified the error. Still, several more gallons of water had been released, adding to the destruction of the home.

The damage led to damp and water ingress in the new kitchen and dining room. Much of downstairs had to be replastered and redecorated, as did the master bedroom where the pipe breach had occurred.

New carpet and underlay had to be fitted and a new living room ceiling. The home was also without water, heating and electricity for four days – hardly a good situation at the best of times, but catastrophic with a 12-month-old baby.

Had the carpenter kept a SylWrap Pipe Repair Kit on his van in case of emergency, then all of that could have been avoided. SylWrap enables any user to permanently repair a leaking pipe in less than 30 minutes even when water flow cannot be turned off.

A SylWrap Kit can make repairs pressure resistant to 30bar and temperature resistant to to 200ºC. They are WRAS approved so can be used safely on pipes carrying drinking water and are effective on pipes of any size made from copper, PVC plastics, steel, stainless steel, malleable iron, GRP, ceramic, clay, concrete, lead, and rubber.

With SylWrap, the leak could have been minimised within minutes, preventing it wreaking such destruction. A full, permanent repair would have made the pipe serviceable and mains water could have been reinstated.

Accidents happen, as the Newton family, the carpenter and the plumber involved found out to their cost. Being prepared for emergencies by carrying a SylWrap Kit can help prevent them turning into the sort of disaster seen in Hampshire.

To speak to a Sylmasta technician about how your company might benefit from stocking SylWrap Pipe Repair solutions in case of an emergency, then please contact Sylmasta via email or on +44 (0)1444 831459.

SylWrap Emergency Pipe Repair Kits

SylWrap Universal Pipe Repair Kit
Contains Superfast Epoxy Putty, Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape and SylWrap HD Pipe Repair Bandage for permanent live leak repairs

SylWrap Pipe Repair Contractor Case
Easy-to-store, robust red case with enough SylWrap Pipe Repair products to make up to six permanent live leak repairs

Repairs Made With SylWrap

Case Study: Alcohol Line Live Leak Pipe Repair at Sugar Mill in Costa Rica

A sugar mill in Costa Rica seal a 70mm pipe running vertically up a tower after alcohol juice extracted during cane fermentation was found spraying out a pinhole at 2 bar pressure

Case Study: Live Leak Repair of 150mm Cement Coated Steel Pipe on Water Network in Mexico

A live leak repair is made to an underground cement coated steel pipe supplying potable water in Mexico after removal of the outer shell revealed a 80mm split in the line

Case Study: Repair of Leaking Stainless Steel Pipe Inside Farm Biodigester Tank

A leaking stainless steel pipe damaged inside a biodigester tank at a pig farm is sealed after an initial repair attempt via patch welding was discovered to have failed

Case Study: Live Leak Pipe Repair of Above and Below Ground Water Supply Pipelines

Water pipes located above and below ground as part of a network servicing a town in Libya required live leak repair to seal cracks without disrupting supplies

Case Study: Repair of a Leaking 150mm Steel 90 Degree Elbow Bend at a Quarry Wash Plant

When a quarry in the UK could not fit a pipe repair clamp around a leaking 150mm steel 90 degree elbow bend, they instead used a SylWrap Pipe Repair Kit to seal the line

Introducing the Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape Repair Calculator

Using a waterproof pipe repair tape to fix a leaking pipe just became that little bit easier thanks to the introduction of the Sylmasta Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape Repair Calculator.

Gone are the days of trying to manually work out how many tapes are needed to make a repair with high enough pressure resistance. Simply enter the data about your repair into the Sylmasta Wrap & Seal Calculator and it will do the rest for you.

For fixing pipes in domestic plumbing, using one 25mm x 2m Wrap & Seal has usually been suitable. This small version of Sylmasta’s waterproof pipe repair tape holds pressure up to 5bar and with most plumbing applications operating at between 1bar and 2bar, there has never been much confusion over the quantity of tape required.

When it comes to larger, industrial repairs however, clients have not always been sure of the number of Wrap & Seal required. Factors which influence the number of tapes include pipe pressure, pipe diameter, the dimensions of the crack, and the size of Wrap & Seal being purchased.

For complex applications, this would often lead to clients having to contact Sylmasta before procurement to ascertain the quantity of waterproof repair tape required.

A combination of extensive testing at Sylmasta HQ and the introduction of the Pipe Burst Tape Repair Calculator removes that additional layer from the buying process. Sylmasta’s clients can now simply enter their repair data on the relevant product page, discover the number of Wrap & Seals their repair requires and then order accordingly.

To use the Calculator, a customer enters the water pressure of the repair, the diameter of the pipe in millimetres, and the length of the crack. For pinhole leaks, the repair length field is left blank.

Once they have entered their data, selecting the size of a specific Wrap & Seal Tape will show the quantity of that specific tape recommended for completing the repair. You can try the Calculator for yourself:

Wrap & Seal is made from self-fusing silicone, is twice as thick as most other waterproof repair tapes and stretches by 300 percent. It features a unique tapered profile which prevents water tacking underneath.

As it is wrapped around a pipe, Wrap & Seal forms a solid rubber band over the leak area for a high-pressure repair. Additional tapes will bond to previously applied layers, enabling a repair to be built capable of holding up to 30bar.

The Repair Calculator has been added to the product pages of Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape, the SylWrap Universal Pipe Repair Kit, and the SylWrap Pipe Contractor Case.

Wrap & Seal is available in three sizes when purchased as a standalone product; Small 25m x 2m, Large 50mm x 4m, X-Large 50mm x 11m.

The Universal Pipe Repair Kit contains one roll of Wrap & Seal alongside Superfast Steel Epoxy Putty and a SylWrap HD Pipe Repair Bandage. Additional Wrap & Seal can be purchased separately to increase the pressure resistance of repairs made with the Universal Kit. The Repair Calculator now formulates how many additional tapes are required prior to purchase.

A SylWrap Contractor Case features multiple Wrap & Seal and SylWrap HD along with Superfast Steel. It allows regular pipe repair users, including water companies and facilities management, to make up to six live leak repairs at a cheaper-cost-per repair than when using individual kits.

Contractor Case users can now determine the number of Wrap & Seal they require from their Case to carry out a high-pressure repair. They can also order any additional tapes as recommended.

(Calculations serve as a guide to potential maximum pressure resistance only. Actual pressure resistance depends upon pipe material, condition, hole size, leak type and tension maintained during wrapping. If you are unsure, then more than one Wrap & Seal can be used to stop the leak.)

If you have any question about making a repair using Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape or require technical assistance, then please contact Sylmasta via email or on +44 (0)1444 831459 and a technician will be happy to advise you.

Wrap & Seal Pipe Repairs

Case Study: Alcohol Line Live Leak Pipe Repair at Sugar Mill in Costa Rica

A sugar mill in Costa Rica seal a 70mm pipe running vertically up a tower after alcohol juice extracted during cane fermentation was found spraying out a pinhole at 2 bar pressure

Case Study: Repair of Hairline Crack Around Diameter of Porcelain Toilet Soil Pipe

A homeowner makes a DIY repair to a porcelain soil pipe with a hairline crack around its entire diameter caused by a toilet moving away from the wall it was connected with

Case Study: Leaking Welded Saddle Joint Repair on 150mm Steel Pipe at Pumping House

A leaking saddle joint welded on a 150mm steel pipe connected to a pumping house in Malaysia is sealed by building a repair up and over a 20mm step between the line and the joint

Case Study: Live Leak Repair of 150mm Cement Coated Steel Pipe on Water Network in Mexico

A live leak repair is made to an underground cement coated steel pipe supplying potable water in Mexico after removal of the outer shell revealed a 80mm split in the line

Case Study: Repair of Leaking Stainless Steel Pipe Inside Farm Biodigester Tank

A leaking stainless steel pipe damaged inside a biodigester tank at a pig farm is sealed after an initial repair attempt via patch welding was discovered to have failed

Leaks on the water network were cut by 7% in 2019-20

Leakage levels in the United Kingdom hit a record low in 2019-20 as technology, innovation and pipe repair saw the amount of water lost on the nation’s water network cut by 7%.

216 million litres of water were saved per day – enough to fill 86 Olympic sized swimming pools – to bring the volume of water being leaked down to 2,954 million litres, the lowest since records began in the mid-1990s.

Britain has over 215,277 miles of water pipes, enough to go around the world eight-and-a-half times. Maintaining such a vast network provides a significant challenge for the nation’s water companies, who have been set an ambitious target of cutting leaks by 16% over the next five years by the industry regulator Ofwat.

The 16% figure forms part of a broader target of halving leakage figures from their current levels by 2050.

To achieve this, water companies are adopting the latest technology and innovation to both identify and repair leaks quicker. The faster that a damaged pipe on the water network is logged and fixed, the less water that is lost to leakage.

Smart pipes capable of data capture, noise loggers which listen out for leaks, satellite technology and thermal imaging drones are being used by various water companies for the purposes of leak detection.

SES Water have partnered with Vodafone to create an intelligent water network which helps them detect and fix leaks while Yorkshire Water are currently piloting the UK’s largest smart water network.

Northumbrian Water have begun using satellites to detect and pinpoint leaks in Suffolk and Essex and Anglian Water have adopted thermal imaging drones for the same purpose.

Affinity Water had the best published leak reduction results across the industry, cutting their amount of lost water by 15%. Affinity achieved their figures through data capture and analysis, state-of-the-art technology and innovative ways to find leaks.

Detecting leaks is only half the job; once a leak has been found, it must also be fixed. Sylmasta’s pipe repair technology is helping in the battle against leakage, having been approved for use by Anglian Water, Southern Water and Affinity Water.

Anglian, Southern and Affinity contractors are now carrying SylWrap Pipe Repair Contactor Cases on their vans. More water companies are set to follow suit in the coming months as pipe repair becomes a pressing issue if those ambitious leak reduction targets are to be met.

SylWrap Contractor Cases enable up to six permanent repairs to be carried out to leaking pipes of all types and sizes, even when pressure cannot be turned off.

A repair can be made in less than 30 minutes, significantly cutting the amount of time which a damaged pipe is leaking water for. With a cost-per-repair as low as £18.77, SylWrap Kits provide excellent value-for-money.

Their versatility means they can be deployed in tight spots for difficult repairs, making them more user-friendly and lightweight than traditional pipe repair clamps.

Commenting on the leakage figures, Water UK Chief Executive Christine McGourty said,“Enormous progress has been made in tackling leaky pipes, and that’s brought leakage levels down significantly in the last year.”

“But the water industry is committed to doing much more, and companies are putting innovation and technology at the heart of a commitment to radically reduce leakage over the long-term”

“Intelligent networks, smart sensors, satellite technology and drones are all part of the armoury that’s being deployed to detect and fix leaks faster than ever and at lower cost.”

The improved picture on leakage in the UK came as part of a wider update published on the Discover Water website. It was also revealed that interruptions in water supply were now down to an average of just 12 minutes and the amount of water used per person has fallen slightly from 143 litres to 142 litres per day.

Pipe Repair Contractor Case

The Pipe Repair Contractor Case is easily stored on the vans of water company contractors. When a live leak is detected, vans equipped with a Case can carry out an emergency repair to pipes of any size and type in 30 minutes.

Cases contain enough products to make up to six live leak repairs. They provide a lightweight, user-friendly and much more versatile alternative to traditional pipe clamps.

SylWrap Pipe Repair Contractor Case
Easy-to-store, robust red case with enough SylWrap Pipe Repair products to make up to six permanent live leak repairs

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