HUGE Water Leak Ruined my entire flooring in house. PEX To Compression Caused ?

[Brandon Kelling]

Can anyone please help me ? We purchased this new house last year and less than 6 months living there we woke up to a completely flooded house coming from our claw foot tub. Severe leak coming from the cold water line shown in the photo...Did the plumber use the wrong fitting ? How do I fix this the correct way now that I have new floors installed? 15k in damages later. So to be clear we are going from 3/4 PEX to Single Offset Supply for Claw Foot Tub.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

Added Image

 

[Sponsor]

 

[Reach4]

You can use Microsoft Paint or other software to reduce to 800 pixels or less each way.

You can choose to resize, or you can crop -- which trims out unimportant parts of the photo.

Save the picture as a JPG usually.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

You can use Microsoft Paint or other software to reduce to 800 pixels or less each way.

You can choose to resize, or you can crop -- which trims out unimportant parts of the photo.

Save the picture as a JPG usually.

Thanks; got it finally

 

[Reach4]

In the photo, the chrome tube does not look square with the nut to me. Did the water come out above the hot-side nut?

3/4 PEX is 7/8od and 1/2 inch PEX is 5/8 OD. Running 3/4 would not be as good as 1/2 inch because bigger pipe takes longer to get the hot to the tub. I am not a plumber.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

From the plumber that came out and tried to fix this he said the leak cam from the threads with Teflon on them. Said it wasn't "tight enough" I think those fittings are incorrect. This said plumber left and never returned. He didn't want any part in this repair.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

In the photo, the chrome tube does not look square with the nut to me. Did the water come out above the hot-side nut?

3/4 PEX is 7/8od and 1/2 inch PEX is 5/8 od. Running 3/4 would not be as good as 1/2 inch because bigger pipe takes longer to get the hot to the tub. I am not a plumber.

Oh I see your point ; I believe that is not square because i rough handled it when I pulled the PEX through the floor to look at the situation

 

[Reach4]

From the plumber that came out and tried to fix this he said the leak cam from the threads with Teflon on them. Said it wasn't "tight enough" I think those fittings are incorrect. This said plumber left and never returned. He didn't want any part in this repair.

Oh, wait... you don't use Teflon (PTFE) under a compression nut. I am not sure what fitting you have there.The right side looked like a MIP adapter. The left side... well, I am not sure what that is, but I am pretty sure it is not close to right.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

Oh, wait... you don't use Teflon (PTFE) under a compression nut. I am not sure what fitting you have there. The right side looked like a MIP adapter. The left side... well, I am not sure what that is, but I am pretty sure it is not close to right.

Okay that was my hunch; what do I go back with ??? Thanks for the extreme promptness

 

[Reach4]

Okay that was my hunch; what do i go back with ???
An attorney comes to mind, but I don't have much knowledge of litigation.

How about your insurance agent? If they paid for the repairs, they would probably want to go after the the person who did this.

I can say that compression nuts don't get put on the type of adapter on the blue side. Compression nuts are made to go on fittings made to receive them , and those are much finer thread than for NPT/FIP thread, which I think that plastic fitting on the right shows if I am correct. You can get a thread gauge to help with the autopsy.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

Reading another forum on this page I found a similar situation but I am not sure....Link is below.
The copper stubout would then just be cut and put the compression fitting on I guess ?
Claw foot tub supply lines | Terry Love Plumbing Advice & Remodel DIY & Professional Forum

 

[Reach4]

Reading another forum on this page i found a similar situation but i am not sure....Link is below.
The copper stubout would then just be cut and put the compression fitting on i guess ?
Claw foot tub supply lines | Terry Love Plumbing Advice & Remodel DIY & Professional Forum

Are you looking to fix this, and not worry about destroying evidence? Is the person that put in the PEX the same one that put in the tub?

I saw no copper stubout in your photo.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

Are you looking to fix this, and not worry about destroying evidence? Is the person that put in the pex the same one that put in the tub?

I saw no copper stubout in your photo.

I am going to fix this plumbing; my new floors are in and i am ready to put the bath tub in. Can i go and find a 3/4 sharkbite to compression threads fitting and be done ?? Copper stubout is attached.

 

[Reach4]

So you are saying that you would add a copper stubout. Do you have access from below?

I think you should sketch out what you have in mind. I would not use a Sharkbite to connect a copper stubout to the chrome tubes, if that is what you are asking.

A digital caliper is useful for understanding what you have and what you need.

 

[Jeff H Young]

Brandon, My take on a decent job is to have the threaded adaptor screw in side a shut off valve exposed matching just above the floor escutcheon, then the connection to your supply line to tub. no Teflon tape on connection from valve to the chrome supply tube.
how it was installed before I don't know I see the picture the only thing wrong that I see is Teflon tape on a compression joint certainly not right but we see them often it a look of armature but often never leaks . My opinion the shut off valve belongs there too but again not a cause of leak.
So there you are put it together as you choose!

 

[Brandon Kelling]

Brandon, My take on a decent job is to have the threaded adaptor screw in side a shut off valve exposed matching just above the floor escutcheon, then the connection to your supply line to tub. no Teflon tape on connection from valve to the chrome supply tube.
how it was installed before I don't know I see the picture the only thing wrong that I see is Teflon tape on a compression joint certainly not right but we see them often it a look of amature but often never leaks . My opinion the shut off valve belongs there too but again not a cause of leak.
So there you are put it together as you choose!

Thank you for the reply; my other concern was that the fitting on the PEX side is NPT which i believe is the wrong threads for the compression fitting...Ill attach a photo here.
I will add a shut off; I agree

 

[Reach4]

Is the OD of the chrome tube 0.375 or what? That is a very common size, but there are other sizes.



Is there a ferrule/sleeve (shown in gold below) under the nut? The proper thing to receive the tube and the accept nut will also be set up to deal with the ferrule. The ferrule is manditory.

"3/8 compression" thread is 9/16 24 TPI. (UNEF) 5/8 inch wrench often. Major diameter is 0.563 inch.

3/8 compression is used on 3/8 od tubes.

 

[Brandon Kelling]

Is the OD of the chrome tube 0.375 or what? That is a very common size, but there are other sizes.



Is there a ferrule/sleeve (shown in gold below) under the nut? The proper thing to receive the tube and the accept nut will also be set up to deal with the ferrule. The ferrule is manditory.

"3/8 compression" thread is 9/16 24 TPI. (UNEF) 5/8 inch wrench often. Major diameter is 0.563 inch.

3/8 compression is used on 3/8 od tubes.

I am unsure of the dimensions you are requesting but here is the link to the exact compression fittings i have coming to the tub 3/4.
Water Creation 1/2 in. or 3/4 in. Single Offset Supply for Claw Foot Tubs, Triple Plated Chrome-SL-0002-01 - The Home Depot

 

[Reach4]

I am unsure of the dimensions you are requesting but here is the link to the exact compression fittings i have coming to the tub 3/4.

It says

• 1/2 in. O.D. supply

I don't think they say that using either supplied nut on the bottom is intended -- the nuts are to choose from for the top.

A 1/2 inch compression nut, 1/2 inch ferrule are made to go on a 1/2 inch compression valve or adapter. The thread on that would be
11/16-20 thread UNEF. 0.6875 major diameter.

Click Inbox, above.

A 1/2 inch NPT (MIP) thread would be 0.840 OD at its widest and would taper down toward the open end

EDIT: Are you really in France? All dimensions I cited presumed you were in North America. Your use of a Home Depot link would not be consistent with actually living in France.

 

[Jadnashua]

If your profile is correct, your tubing and fittings may be metric, versus US style inch-sized...so hard to say what best to fix this reliably.

If you're trying to use compression to pex directly, it can work, but you MUST use an internal stiffening sleeve so there's something to compress against. Copper is stiff enough, where you don't use an internal stiffening sleeve.