Accidentally flooded my basement trying a fancy pipe soldering trick

Last weekend I watched a YouTube video about using a wet rag to keep solder joints cool near plastic pipes. Thought I was being smart, tried it on a copper pipe right next to a PVC drain in my basement in Columbus. The rag slipped and water sprayed everywhere for like 5 minutes before I found the main shutoff. Ended up with about an inch of water over half the floor, had to rent a shop vac from Home Depot for $25. The worst part is the solder joint still leaked a bit and I had to call a plumber anyway to redo it properly for $150. Anyone else fall for one of those "pro tips" that just made things worse? What's your most expensive DIY screwup?

3 comments

3 Comments

lucast8121d ago

Friend of mine once used duct tape to fix a leaky toilet supply line, woke up to three inches of water in his finished basement.

ray_sullivan21d ago

Wet rag trick got me too a few years back. Water pressure just blows everything out of place. Soldering near plastic is always a gamble unless you pull it apart first.

flores.emma21d ago

You ever notice how most of the stuff we try to fix around the house is just one bad decision away from a disaster? It's like the universe has this rule that the cheaper the workaround, the more expensive the cleanup. Duct tape on a water line? That's not a fix, that's a promise of a bad morning. I've seen it with electronics too - people use a paperclip to hold a battery in place and wonder why their phone catches fire. The "it'll hold for now" mindset always seems to come back to bite you when you're least ready for it.