Leaky tub

[umjorge2]

After butchering the cedar panel siding of my 17 year old tub and tearing out foam to locate several incessant leaks over the last few months, I've found the leaks coming from behind several of the jets where the PVC elbow fitting meets the flex pipe. Whats the best way to fix this? Could I seal it with marine epoxy or some sorta plumbers putty?

[clovett]

Plast-Aid possibly

[Kev B]

 No!!!! The glue is giving up....start thinking of a new tub and make sure you get one that is not fully foamed. And these days they plumb them with 3/4 inch tubing going into barb fittings so you never have to deal with bad glue and foam again.

[clovett]

Plast-aid will seal it.

[umjorge2]

I was looking at plast-aid actually and it looks good. Others have said to cut out the PVC join and put in a new one but that's a lot of work. If a glue/epoxy solution works then that would be great.

[clovett]

Just make sure to really clean the area well.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

And be prepared to to make MANY more repairs. Sounds like your spa was made right around the time the EPA required a reformulation of PVC glues. The first new formulation at the time, failed to hold over time. If a few joints are failing now, more will come.

[Kev B]

Plast-aid will seal it.

Wow---we can call this the Mickey Mouse forum now

[Quickbeam]

Wow, Wow - Another helpful post!

[Kev B]

 So quickbeam...what is your idea of helpful? Tell him to clean the leaky glue joints well before applying plastaid? Then put a little happy face on the end of it and say good luck?

[umjorge2]

Appreciate all the replies. Here's where I'm at so far. I have discovered even more leaks, around 10 in total mostly the same kind of leak I initially described, including a nail that was driven through a section of flex pipe! The things you find when you rip something apart! There is a massive amount of foam to get through and I have to figure out how to put all the wood skirting I've cut back together. Its a huge pain but its gotta be done. Can't deal with leaks in the middle of winter with subfreezing temperatures almost everyday for 5 months. My plan is to seal around every join I can access with a special PVC sealer/epoxy I got from a plumbing store made to fix leaks and even seal the ones that aren't leaking that I've exposed to preventatively stop any future leaks. My tub doesn't have a ton of jets so I'm probably addressing almost half of the joining sections, so I'm hoping that will work. I am running out of time as winter is approaching here in Canada so I need to act fast and need to go with the repair that is the most effective but at the same time the least time consuming. As much as I would like to completely overhaul the plumbing, as I know that would be the proper fix, there just isn't enough time and its not worth it for an old tub either I feel.

Once I'm done with that I need to figure out how to replace the foam I've torn out. I want to use the same type that was in there which was a closed cell spray foam but its expensive. Any ideas/recommendations how to replace foam you've torn out?

[Quickbeam]

So quickbeam...what is your idea of helpful? Tell him to clean the leaky glue joints well before applying plastaid? Then put a little happy face on the end of it and say good luck?

Well Kev B, I'll tell you what I don't find helpful. I don't find it all helpful when someone else offers a different suggestion than yours and you resort to calling this a "Mickey Mouse forum". I find that childish and a little over the top.

[Dr. Spa™ Ret.]

And what if there's a disagreement over how a repair is done? If one pro through experience, feels plastaid is a hit or miss bandaid, how should they respond to someone suggesting it? Should someone spend 20 minutes of their time (which they're NOT getting paid for, BTW), typing out a FULL explanation about their knowledge, experience and why they think it's a mickey moused repair?

Personally, I think it's a mickey mouse repair, that may or may not work, on a spa that was made during a time when PVC glue was known to be bad, where even now, more and more leaks are being discovered. Would I use plastaid? Sure, if it was going in an area that could be constantly monitored. In an area that's going to be refoamed, sealed in and  and hidden? NO WAY IN HE%%! There are some people that firmly believe, if you're going to do it at all, do it right.

[Tman122]

And to say don't buy a well insulated tub next time so you won't have this trouble is ridiculous. So buy a non foamed in tub and spend twice as much on power to run it and have it last for 10 years less. Yep good plan.

[Quickbeam]

And what if there's a disagreement over how a repair is done? If one pro through experience, feels plastaid is a hit or miss bandaid, how should they respond to someone suggesting it? Should someone spend 20 minutes of their time (which they're NOT getting paid for, BTW), typing out a FULL explanation about their knowledge, experience and why they think it's a mickey moused repair?

Personally, I think it's a mickey mouse repair, that may or may not work, on a spa that was made during a time when PVC glue was known to be bad, where even now, more and more leaks are being discovered. Would I use plastaid? Sure, if it was going in an area that could be constantly monitored. In an area that's going to be refoamed, sealed in and  and hidden? NO WAY IN HE%%! There are some people that firmly believe, if you're going to do it at all, do it right.

Not to split hairs, but he didn't call it a "Mickey Mouse Repair". He called the entire forum "Mickey Mouse".