Old bathroom pipe problem
I have a clawfoot tub that was installed in the 1940’s. The supply was two brass 1/2 pipes thru the floor. Under the floor it mates with 3/4 galvanized iron. About a year ago the brass pipes developed a leak at the threads topside where they connect to the offset adapter pipe to the faucet. Through years of stress and corrosion they actually broke at the threads. As a temporary fix I cut off the brass pipes about 6 inches above the floor and found some heavy rubber tubing to clamp over it. I then connected it to the faucet with a new adapter kludge that the rubber tubing would go over. This temporary fix has now been there a year on both hot and cold and I really need to get it back to being hard plumbed.
The galvanized iron pipe that supplies this bathroom is the only iron pipe in the house. All other has been replaced with copper. The flow is good and to replace it would involve an entire bathroom pullout and riping up the floor. Something I would rather not do.
What I would like to do is cut off the brass pipes protruding through the floor to about 1-2 inches, thread them, and then buy a new offset supply with shutoff valves and install that onto the threaded brass pipes.
I have a rachet threader BUT my fear is that the stress of threading will break or weaken the pipe at the threads below the floor where it mates with the galvanized pipe.
I realize it will be hard to make any assumptions on this but does anyone have any thoughts on the direction I am going?
You have a small problem. Brass becomes very brittle over time. If you try to do anything with it at this point, there is a great likely hood that you will cause a leak further down the line. The fact that the older brass lines broke off at the threads is proof to me that the brass is at that stage.
Anything you do aside from replacing the piping must be done with extreme care.
If trying to un-thread any pipe, you MUST hold both the pipe and the fitting with separate wrenches. DO NOT let the remaining pipe move at all. You may be successful and you can the carefully replace the pipe coming through the floor with copper.
The best solution would be to see if there is a closet below to run some new PEX tubing in, and either take down some ceiling or flooring and replace as much or all of the piping possible.
