As you wrap, it will amalgamate to form a solid rubber band, completely sealing the leak.
#WHERE TO BUY PUTTY TAPE CRACK#
For some context, mains water pressure in a domestic home is typically between two and six bar.Įven with water gushing from the leak, pipe repair tape can be anchored next to the damaged area and wrapped across to cover the crack or hole. The best pipe repair tapes are made from self-fusing silicone and depending on the number of rolls used and the width of the tape, can resist pressure up to 30 bar. When this is the case, then you turn to pipe repair tape for fixing the leaking pipe. Isolating burst pipes to carry out a repair is even more troublesome on the public water network we know of one leaking water main so important that it was allowed to leak for 15 years rather than supply being interrupted for a repair or replacement to be carried out. In domestic settings, you might not be able to locate the stopcock or it might be so badly rusted up or damaged that it no longer works.įor industrial users, it is often impractical to turn pressure off as it can lead to entire sites having to be shutdown. It is not always possible to turn off water pressure to carry out an emergency pipe repair. Use pipe repair tape to fix leaking pipes where pressure CANNOT be turned off Which is why epoxy putty is best suited to fixing a leaking pipe when pressure can be turned off. Any sort of live leak with pressure and you will struggle to get an effective repair. Whatever the work time, epoxy putty will not be able to cure effectively if there is still water flowing through the pipe. Depending on the putty which you purchase, that could be as little as five minutes or as long as a couple of hours.
The downside to epoxy putty is that it needs time to work. By the time the putty has cured, it will have formed material stronger than concrete. Whilst this happens, you can push it into cracks and holes to fill them. It will either come in two separate parts or as a preformatted stick in which the two components are combined, one on the outside and one on the inside.Īs you mix the two parts together, a reaction takes place and it begins to harden. When you buy epoxy putty, it starts out as a soft material which is clay-like in consistency. Use epoxy putty to repair leaking pipes where pressure CAN be turned off It does not need to be though, as knowing when to use which product is a lot more straightforward than you might think. Two quite different materials, so the confusion surrounding which one to use is often understandable. The other is a waterproof repair tape that you wrap around a leaking pipe, where it will self-fuse to form a solid rubber band over the leak area. One is a repair compound that hardens in cracks and holes to seal them. When faced with the challenge of fixing a leaking pipe quickly and easily, two products normally dominate the debate over which is best for the job: epoxy putty and pipe repair tape.