Dear Plumbing expert,
Our 1969 year old property is supplied from a well. The well supply is feed under ground to a verticle riser made of copper. Water is leaking I suspect from the copper pipe in the cement and wicking upwards and wetting the cement floor. There is a lot of corrosion at the union above which is surface rust and calcium buildup. This union did leak but has sealed itself off. Now the water I feel is migrating into the house at the cement and water supply. The copper pipe seems to have undergone wall thinning and is not as rigid as you would expect. How do you go about to fix this?
Of course is is located behind the hot water tank and no man can fit and work in the corner. So I guess the first step would be disconnect hot water tank. 2) would you jack hammer the cement to expose the leak or would this make it worse.
I'm scared to hear your remidy doctor. I just imagine digging a deeper hole than I am prepared for?

YUP! The first step is to remove the water heater and evaluate the leak with a flashlight.

If you can't see the leak, then as you suspected, you'll need to break out the jackhammer and start to find the leak.

Stay away from the pipe while jackhammering. Figure that you will need to repair this pipe so you will be needing to get tools in there and the hole will need to be at least a foot or more wide. Depth is, of course, the unknown here. You won't know depth until you find that leak!

Any more questions just pop back and post an answer at the box at the BOTTOM of the page!

Mark