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Discolored cold water piping (copper)


Bob White

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Yes that is just oxidation.

The cold may have more of a tendency to dis-color due to the fact its temperature will attract more condensation.

Think of all the times you have gone into a basement and seen how it drips down on certain days.It is normally the cold pipes.

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Originally posted by chicago

Never heard that one,but Bob there is only room for one of us with that name,so could you go back and touch that pipe while standing in water then get back to us in the name of science.

That was a 1962 Fannie Mae house i did today for a couple of brand new "investors" --- I'm out of it now, an' I ain't going back in.

1200 square feet (in the Adamsville part of town, for youse who knows Hotlanta), and I coulda written something about every foot, I think.

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Originally posted by SonOfSwamp

Originally posted by Scottpat

Back in the dark shadows of my brain, I seem to recall that this could also be a sign of electrical current flowing through it.

Folklore.

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Hey, don't I get some credit for at least thinking about it?? [;)]

I don't think that the oxidation is from condensation. If it was condensation I would expect to see a splotchy pattern.

Best thing you can say is "I do not know why it is that way", anything else is most like a WAG.

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Originally posted by Scottpat

Originally posted by SonOfSwamp

Originally posted by Scottpat

Back in the dark shadows of my brain, I seem to recall that this could also be a sign of electrical current flowing through it.

Folklore.

WJid="blue">

Hey, don't I get some credit for at least thinking about it?? [;)]

I don't think that the oxidation is from condensation. If it was condensation I would expect to see a splotchy pattern.

Best thing you can say is "I do not know why it is that way", anything else is most like a WAG.

Best I can recall, the whole "stray currents" thing came from an eccentric Florida sparky who wrote a long -- and to my mind nonsensical -- treatise about magical electricity and copper piping coming together to make color changes. It was all very X-Files.

Later, the subject was debated (online) by all manner of fancy engineers and geniuses. The consensus, as I recall, was that discolored copper happens all the time, without electricity. Consider every old penny you ever pulled out of your pocket.

WJid="blue">

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As an artist I learned how to dis-color copper overnight,as it is a chemical process.

Try this if you want to turn copper that mint green color without the 10-20 year wait.

Miracle Grow with just enough water to make it a past then apply or brush it on with a thinner solution.

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Originally posted by Bob White

I'm scratching my head....

Can anyone tell me why the cold water piping in this house is blackened? The hot water piping remains copper colored....

Fact: Something in the air reacted with the cooper to cause it to blacken.

My Opinion: The cold-water pipes turned black faster because their surface temperature was low and allowed "something" to condense on them. The discoloration may have started as a splotchy pattern, then progressed to complete coverage over time.

Query: Was this a crawlspace? Had there been a broken waste line down there in the past?

Unsubstantiated Bullshit: Stray electrical currents, improper grounding or pixies caused it.

- Jim Katen, Oregon

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Hi,

It looks like it might be over a crawl, which has me wondering if the chemical composition of soils down there allows the ground to off-gas hydrogen-sulfide in small quanties. Of course, if it had been hydrogen-sulfide, why didn't it discolor the other pipes? Perhaps for the same reasons already stated, that the gas only condensed on surfaces cold enough to bring it down to dewpoint.

OT - OF!!!

M.

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Originally posted by chicago

Would it kill someone to say I agree.lol

Not, but it might cause a bellyache. In my humble experience, as soon as the talk about the discolored pipes simmers down, somebody will start up about discolored copper wires in the panel(s) and the conversation will turn X-filish.

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Originally posted by Jim Katen

Fact: Something in the air reacted with the cooper to cause it to blacken.

My Opinion: The cold-water pipes turned black faster because their surface temperature was low and allowed "something" to condense on them. The discoloration may have started as a splotchy pattern, then progressed to complete coverage over time.

Query: Was this a crawlspace? Had there been a broken waste line down there in the past?

This was an unfinished basement, but it had been humid under there.

The driveway led down from the street to the basement garage door, and drainage from the yard also was directed to this drain just in front of the drive-under garage door:

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The flue cap was missing (I don't know how long) and the flue was rusted through. The subfloor around the flue was rotted but not wet yesterday (but it hasn't rained much here of late)

70% of the plank subfloor under the half bath was missing (It rotted away over years of neglect) ....

There was active leaking (toilet seal, among other things) in the full bath, and the subfloor measured greater than 20% with my Extech over about 100 sq. ft. of subfloor under and around the bathroom area.

There's prolly a lot of raw sewage embedded in these subfloors --- might be what's holding up the bathrooms...

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