Homeowner's aging copper pipe needs to be replaced promptly

Q. I would be interested in your take on a strange plumbing issue.

My home is 21 years old, and there have never been any problems with any of the copper piping in my house. In my unfinished basement laundry/furnace room, I recently noticed a few drops of water on the floor. I looked up and noticed they came from the cold water copper pipe that runs to the electric hot water heater.

What I see is some green scale (picture attached), but here is what is puzzling: There are no joints at this location; the moisture is inconsistent - sometimes dry, sometimes a few drops; I do not ever recall any damage to the pipe in this area; I do not see any other spots like this anywhere else.

Above this pipe is the kitchen, but there is nothing obvious directly above this spot. It just seems to be this one random spot where this occurs. I'm worried this is some weak spot in the pipe that might eventually spring a leak. Any ideas?

Also, the hot water heater (80 gallon) is original with the house and working fine. We have only three people in the family and pretty normal hot water use. Would you recommend I look at replacing this now simply based on age, or can I typically let this roll until some noticeable issue occurs? Would you recommend electric or gas? I can probably get a gas line extension from my furnace without too much trouble.

A. The photo you sent indicates there is a weak spot at the top of the pipe.

It can be a porous area that sometimes oozes a small amount of water, or there may be a very tiny hole, so small that it self-seals most of the time from the calcium in the water. Whenever a drop of water gets out, it runs down the pipe and dries there or falls to the floor.

The verdigris seen on the pipe is what happens to copper roofs as they age and are subjected to weather. The same chemical process occurs on your pipe as water runs and dries on it over time.

Copper pipe walls often vary in thickness and density, and corrosion from acidic water with a low pH (below 7) eats at the pipes' interior walls.

The part of the pipe showing the green scale may burst open at any time. You should have that section replaced as soon as possible.

You should also have your water tested to determine its pH, and if it is found to be below 7, consider having a water treatment system installed to preserve your pipes, or you may eventually face a very expensive major replacement.

As to your 21-year-old water heater, there is no need to replace it until a malfunction develops. Purchase an electronic device that will sound an alarm if water from the heater starts leaking, which usually happens very slowly. The alarm is comprised of a small detector that is placed on the floor next to the heater, while the alarm is set on top of the heater.

You should find a choice of several brands in hardware and big-box stores as well as in plumbing-supply houses. When the time comes to replace the water heater, the choice of fuel depends on the rates in your area. Have the new heater set in a rubber pan that is designed to contain leaks.

Q. My sunroom windows look like double-hung, but the top portion is stationary (single-hung?).

Two of the windows have been cracked by birds and need new glass. How do I do this? I've tried two handymen and they wanted an exorbitant amount to fix the windows, $300 plus glass for the two. Can you suggest how I can do this myself?

A. If the upper sash is fixed, your windows are single-hung. If you can remove the sashes with the broken glass yourself and leave the space open for a while, take the sashes to a hardware store that reglazes windows (these stores also rescreen broken screens).

If you can't leave the spaces open for any length of time, and you know the brand of windows you have, you can order new sashes and replace the broken ones when the new sashes arrive.

You may want to consider hanging some bird netting on the outside of your sunroom windows to avoid a recurrence. This netting is hardly visible to us, but very effective at keeping birds away from windows.

You can buy netting online at www.bird-x.com/bird-netting-pages-198.php.

Q. We have a hard water problem that leaves the toilet bowls looking like they haven't been cleaned in a year.

To try to solve the problem, we called a plumber. He said we have hard water, gave us his bill and advised us to call Culligan.

Our softener is only 1½ years old, and we have to replace the filter every month, which is costly and a nuisance.

The Culligan man's advice was to call the well man, and handed us his bill. The well man said, "You have hard water; there is nothing wrong with the well." The well didn't need chlorination at this time. He handed us his bill.

If we don't change the filter every month, our water pressure throughout the house is nil. Do you have an answer?

Also, I tried almost every toilet bowl cleaner on the market, including acids. Can you recommend one?

A. It sounds as if the submersible pump in your well is drawing a lot of sediment.

Here are several possibilities for this to occur (though, there are also others): The pump may be too low in the well; the well may not store much water; the pump may be too powerful and stirs up the dirt, etc.

Your well man (or another well man, if yours is uncooperative) is the one to test for all these possibilities.

Your water softener may also need to be changed to a reverse-flow type, which may help lengthen the life of your filters.

If you are unhappy with the Culligan man, consider switching to another company, such as Kinetico.

By acid, do you mean muriatic acid? That usually works well. If you haven't used it, give it a try, but you must be very careful using it.

Wearing rubber gloves, skin and eye protection, gently pour about two cups of the acid in the toilet bowl, close the lid and let it sit overnight. In the morning flush the toilet and brush the bowl. The stains should be gone.

Q. I had an addition put onto my ranch house in 2014. When the excavation started, water began to appear. Apparently, there is a stream running under my house. In simple terms, the whole area used to be a swamp. The contractor assured me he had dealt with worse issues and that it would be OK.

A sump pump was installed to pump water while the construction continued. The contractor said we would deal with the swamp that was made in my backyard from the discharge from the sump pump in the spring. (Construction was completed in late November 2014.)

I am trying to find a solution to this problem. In my city, I cannot connect to the sewer system or pump into the street.

Do you have any ideas? This needs to be addressed now or I won't be able to sell the house in the future.

A. It is difficult to advise you soundly from a distance without seeing the site, but I have several questions:

Does your house have a basement or a crawl space, and is it leaking, or was it built on a slab on grade? Was the excavation for the addition for a basement or a crawl space - and why, since the area used to be a swamp? Since you mention not being allowed to pump into the street, is the sump pump still used to control water penetration in a below-ground foundation?

Under the conditions you describe, it would have been best to build the addition on a monolithic concrete slab on grade.

Of concern is why your yard has not dried since November 2014. Is it because the sump pump is still in use? Or is it that the final grading is deficient?

Now that the damage is done, consider having another contractor with considerable experience in drainage and grading problems inspect the conditions and see if it is possible to regrade around the addition to naturally drain the "swamp" to the street (the best option), the backyard or the sides of your property without causing problems to the adjacent neighbors.

If there is no local contractor able to solve that problem for you, consider retaining the services of a professional engineer with the kind of experience described above.

Follow-up from a reader on mole control: "Moles are insectivores. Therefore, poison pellets that resemble seeds will not work. They eat a wide variety of insects along with grubs. I have successfully used Tomcat Mole Killer; it is an earthworm-shaped poisonous bait, similar to a gummy worm. I believe that is what your reader was referring to when asking about 'some type of worms that were poisonous to moles.' It is not a live insect as they suggested. They can be purchased at local big box stores and nurseries."

• Henri de Marne was a remodeling contractor in Washington, D.C., for many years, and is now a consultant. His book, "About the House," is available at www.upperaccess.com. His website is www.henridemarne.com. Email questions to henridemarne@gmavt.net, or mail First Aid for the Ailing House, Universal Uclick, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.

© 2016, United Feature Syndicate Inc.