Washing machine lines getting corroded, trying to prevent a problem

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Watson524

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Hi again,

Given the shower drain issue in my other post, we started looking around my godmother's basement for water drips on the floor and it looks like the washing machine feed lines may be a problem. Hard to say if the dampness on the floor is from condensation or and ACTUAL leak , but either way, I don't like the looks of the copper elbows (ran a rinse cycle and didn't get actual drips but since the insulation up there is damp...)

Anyway, open basement ceiling and drywall that I'd really rather not cut and patch if I can at all avoid it. Copper lines come across basement ceiling, elbow up into the wall and into a washing machine box. Single pull valve at the box. The elbows and what I can see of the vertical copper, particularly on the cold side, are REALLY corroded and green. I don't have enough on the vertical to just cut out the elbow and replace that part so I'd like to go from the shutoff at the box down but I don't know if you can just pull the box, connect pex down into the wall and connect that into the copper? As far as I've seen, those boxes have straps to studs behind the drywall. Do they make any that can be screwed in on the face or anything so you don't have to rip apart drywall do they? Or can I just cut down below, pull the whole thing up, connect the pex and feed it back through and reconnect in the basement?

Just trying to help out an 83 year old so she's not worried about things going south in the basement (she's not mobile enough to go down there)

thanks in advance!
 

Jadnashua

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The use of chlorine bleach over time can cause some corrosion as the vapors get into the air during the wash and drying. So, it may or may not indicate an actual leak. If the deposits are white, those may be minerals from a water leak.
 

Watson524

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The use of chlorine bleach over time can cause some corrosion as the vapors get into the air during the wash and drying. So, it may or may not indicate an actual leak. If the deposits are white, those may be minerals from a water leak.

Seems weird tho that those vapors would be traveling down to the basement from the first floor. Also given staining in the basement floor or green and white and the fact that I wouldn't even put my hand on the cold elbow because it looked so fragile, seems like better safe than sorry.
 

Jadnashua

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Most minerals in water tend to end up white. Depending on the pH of the water, that can cause some green to the copper. So, white sounds like a slow leak.
 

Fitter30

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Think there's high humidity in the basement lowering the dew point so every water line is sweating. Relative humidity levels over 50% grows mold. A combination RH thermometer can be found hardware, online for $15-20
 

Watson524

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Think there's high humidity in the basement lowering the dew point so every water line is sweating. Relative humidity levels over 50% grows mold. A combination RH thermometer can be found hardware, online for $15-20

Nope, it runs about 47 or 48% RH down there since there's 2 dehumidifiers and a wine room :) And it's not every water line, just the washer feeds
 
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