Sometimes you just need to dig a hole. A small hole, though—like a surgeon making a precise incision instead of chopping off the whole leg.
Workers dig straight down to the leak point, cut out the damaged section, and clamp in a new piece of pipe. It’s fast, it’s cheap, and it feels oddly satisfying. Think of it like replacing a single rotten plank on a wooden deck instead of rebuilding the whole thing.
But here’s the catch: if your pipe is made of old stuff—like galvanized steel or polybutylene—the rest of it might be on the verge of failing, too. You might be patching one spot while five other leaks giggle nearby.
