A city authority in Canada reduce a significant 2 bar leak down to a slow drip by sealing a break in an underground 600mm concrete water main pipe, with the repair made particularly challenging by the crack being located where the line passed through a wall.

Case Study Overview

Site Water network
Location British Columbia, Canada
Pipe Type 600mm concrete water pipe
Pressure 2 bar
Repair Type Leak repair
Products Sylmasta AB Original Epoxy Putty, SylWrap Pipe Repair Bandage

Pipe Defect

The 600mm diameter pipe ran beneath a road in a city in British Columbia. A suspected break was detected and with other water main bursts making headline news across Canada, the city authority carried out an immediate excavation to assess and repair the leak.

A steady, hard spray of water was discovered jetting out of the pipe from beneath a joint at the exact point the line passed into a solid concrete wall. This made identifying the exact leak location under the joint impossible.

The line could not be fully shutdown for repair and there was insufficient space because of the wall to effectively apply Wrap & Seal Pipe Burst Tape with the 300 percent stretch required for sealing pressurised live leaks.

SylWrap Solution

Pressure was reduced as much as possible from the 2 bar the pipe operated at and just under 8kg of Sylmasta AB Original Epoxy Putty used to seal around the entire joint.

AB Original was recommended because it has excellent underwater and wet surface adhesion, enabling it to bond to the pipe even with water pouring out of the top whilst the repair took place.

Its two-hour work time also gave the city authority maintenance team carrying out the repair longer to work and apply the putty without worrying about premature curing during the application.

The putty was supplied in 200g sticks. Each stick was mixed by hand until it turned a uniform colour and then packed around the leaking joint.

Putty continued to be added all around the break area until water loss was reduced to a slow drip, after which the repair was wrapped with 2 x SYL866HD SylWrap Pipe Repair Bandage.

SylWrap formed a rock-hard, impact resistant outer shell offering further protection to the pipe and increasing the effectiveness of the repair.

Outcome

Because of the pipe’s importance to the city network, pressure could only be reduced between midnight and 5am. The two maintenance workers completed the repair in three hours, easily sealing the leak within the time window available.

The city authority were particularly impressed with Sylmasta’s efficiency. It took under five days from initial contact for a repair method to be devised, the goods shipped from the UK to British Columbia and the leak reduced to an acceptable level until the pipe can be replaced.

Follow Up

Repairing the leak as quickly as possible before it became a much more serious problem was particularly important at a time when Canada’s pipe network is under scrutiny.

High-profile bursts in Calgary and Montreal have led to flooding, rationing of public water supplies and a renewed focus on the country’s critical infrastructure.

Products Used

AB Original Epoxy Putty
Epoxy putty with high underwater adhesion which bonds to pipes even when wet

SylWrap Pipe Repair Bandage
Water-activated wrap reinforces repairs by forming a rock hard protective shell

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