Bathtub spout removal broke piping at the wall....

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Ben VanH

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Hello - I was working on putting a new faucet/downspout on the bathtub and while removing the old spout the pipe from the wall just broke off (not clean). I've read through any related posts and one thought would be to use an inside pipe wrench but I'm not sure this is threaded. The house was built in 1968 and is all copper pipes so I'm not sure what happened here and I barely have any amount sticking out past the wall. Any thoughts on repairing? Thanks for the help!!
 

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hj

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IT looks like a galvanized nipple and the fitting in the wall is right behind the sheetrock, so the "right" internal wrench may remove it. It was so bad, that it would probably have broken off if you had grabbed it to keep from falling.
 

WorthFlorida

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... The house was built in 1968 and is all copper pipes so I'm not sure what happened here ...!

It does look like a galvanize fitting. Get a small file or knife and scrap at the fitting. It's either galvanize (steel so get a magnetic to be sure), copper will be obvious or it's brass. It is possible that it is a drop ear as shown below, or a threaded elbow. The drop elbow is usually used for the shower head but who knows what behind your wall. At that moment the plumber may not have had any threaded copper fitting and there was plenty of galvanized pipe around in 1968. What is on the other side of the this wall? If it is a closet or plain wall of a room you can open the wall behind it and get access to the plumbing. It's easy to patch a wall, not tile or a real good excuse for you to overhaul the bathroom.

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Jadnashua

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Even if you do get the remnants of the old nipple out of there, it may have messed up the threads enough that getting a good seal with a new one may be impossible. ANd, being behind the tile, it would be harder to tell for sure. If you DO get it out of there, put a new brass nipple in and cap it, then turn on the water to see if the connection leaks. Steel in potable water lines is not, nor ever was, a great idea; even if it was galvanized. But, it was what was available. Brass or copper or bronze can last a very long time, in potable water (potable water has fresh oxygen in it, iron pipe can work in a closed system because all of the O2 gets used up and then the water is essentially close to inert), iron has a much more limited lifetime. Depending on the spout you have, you might solder a copper or brass threaded connection onto a copper pipe, and screw that in and test...if it seals, cut off the excess and install the new spout. I'd be worried about that connection, though. Do you know what the rest of the plumbing pipe and fittings behind the wall are? If galvanized, that might only be the tip of the iceberg.
 

Ben VanH

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Hello all - thanks for the advice - I went to Ace and picked up an internal pipe wrench at 1/2". It gripped a little but ended up slipping as the nipple there was just to thin from what it had used to be. I was pretty determined to get the bugger out so I hammered it down as much as I could (hammer to flat head screwdriver) until it started collapsing in on itself. I then got a pair of vise grips on it and pinched in from both sides as I turned the vice grip with a 14" plumbing wrench. That got the piece out and the threads still look good. I picked up a new brass/copper 2" x 1/2" nipple from Ace and Teflon taped it up and set it in. I then added the new pieces (plastic shoot and metal faucet) and all worked - there is a slight leak but I believe that to be between the plastic shoot (tip fitting) and where the metal spout attaches there. That is my test tonight (make sure it's not leaking behind the faucet) :)
 

Reach4

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Nice on the removal. I did not follow the bit about the plastic.

If the leak is at the nipple, did you use enough teflon tape on the nipple? I think it pays to get thicker teflon tape, because it is easier to work with, but maybe more wraps of the cheap stuff will be OK. Don't spiral the tape, but give it several overlapping wraps just after the first thread. If the leak is not at the nipple, this does not apply.
 

Ben VanH

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