The main soil stack in my 40+ year old two story home has developed small crack. I have seen evidence of a very small amount of leakage in my basement over the past few years, but it was never bad enough to goo cutting into the walls to find the source. Finally it has gotten bad enough that it had to be found. After cutting several access holes in the wall board, I discovered that a hairline crack, approx 1" long has developed in the 3" copper stack. I don't want to solder it, or cut in a coupling if I don't have to. What would be the best solution for this repair?

I would solder up the crack but if you don't wish to then a saddle camp's your answer. Check them out at; http://www.romacon.nl/Products.html
Good luck, Tom

Thanks for the quick response, I thought you might suggest a saddle clamp. The other repair I was thinking of was a 2-part epoxt putty like 'supermend' or similar, but given your experience, I'll take your advise. Have you ever heard of such a crack just opening up in 3" copper dwv after 40+ years before?

Thanks for the quick response, I thought you might suggest a saddle clamp. The other repair I was thinking of was a 2-part epoxt putty like 'supermend' or simmilar, but given your experience, I'll take your advise. Have you ever heard of such a crack just opening up in 3" copper dwv after 40+ years before?

Not a crack but I live ina 55 year old house and I've had to replace copper 1 1/2" drains because they were ate away. The epoxy should work just fine. There's no pressure on a drainage pipe but I would poke around the crack just to be sure you have solid edges if you decide to use epoxy. Good luck, Tom

I searched around my area, and failed to come up with a pipe repair clamp that would fit 3" DWV copper. I'm about to prep the surface for the epoxy repair, and I'll poke the crack a bit to get the edges defined better. Thanks for your advise!