Fill a hole in the side of a PVC pipe. It's a long story.

I have little time, when the wife comes home it's time to wrench.

I made a garden irrigation system out of PVC, some adapters, and a drill bit. The holes are too numerous, and I need to plug some to get some water pressure back.

Teach me how to plug the holes. Instinct tells me to order 100 #8-32 socket head cap screws for $4 from Amazon and a cheap tap and go to town. It doesn't have to hold much pressure, as water is always flowing or it's dry (the valve/timer is upstream).

Thoughts?

Wrap with aluminum foil tape. Faster and holds up well.

That wins on fast and cheap. Anything less ugly?

Self drilling/tapping sheet metal screws.

Skip the tap, use self tapping screws. Saves a bunch of time and cheaper. Brass won't rust and should be cheaper than stainless.

Will self tapping screws "seal" (I know it's not really a pressure tight seal that I am looking for, but it has to do -something-)?

Umm... how much pipe are we talking about here? You may very well spend (waste?) more time trying to plug those holes than to just suck it up and replace the pipe and drill fewer holes. PVC is cheap.

Ian F wrote: Umm... how much pipe are we talking about here? You may very well spend (waste?) more time trying to plug those holes than to just suck it up and replace the pipe and drill fewer holes. PVC is cheap.

Maybe 30 feet, but the deal is that it's not very often straight runs. I have tons of little bends and whatnot to go along the contour of the deck. It would be WAY faster to use self tappers if they would work.

Metal roofing screws are self drilling and tapping and have a rubber washer under the head to seal whatever they are screwed in against

Ditchdigger wrote: Metal roofing screws are self drilling and tapping and have a rubber washer under the head to seal whatever they are screwed in against

Against a 3/4" diameter PVC tube? Sounds like it's too small of a diameter

Sounds what you are looking for are Self-tapping screws with sealing washer. These may be a bit large but I have seen smaller ones.

Edit: Ditchdigger beat me to them. But I have seen smaller ones.

tuna55 wrote: Will self tapping screws "seal" (I know it's not really a pressure tight seal that I am looking for, but it has to do -something-)?

a squirt of RTV under the screw head …

Or just a squirt of RTV or silicone in the hole and let it sit overnight.

Rivets and rtv

JB weld ought to fix that right up.

I would just re-engineer the entire thing- to me 99% of the time it works better and is so much easier. Why 3/4" PVC? I'm guessing it's SCH40? You can get a pretty long roll of thinner wall black poly tubing for pretty cheap near the sprinkler stuff at most home improvement stores. Even though that stuff is fairly flexible, barb end T's and elbows are usually really cheap, too.

Sorry, I do this kind of stuff all day at work. Lowe's Plumbing Pro.

PVC collar cut in half both ways gives you four patch pieces to glue over the holes.

they sell hose that does that in a 50' roll at garden centers. Toss the pipe. unroll sprinkler hose. have beer.

Self tapping screws and caulk?

Wooden plugs that just tap in? Use a pencil sharpener to taper if necessary.

If you are going round a deck and you said that not much is straight, then I assume you have a lot of corners and elbows. They are killer for pressure drop. I think you might want to change to a flexible soaker hose.

RE: those that want me to redo it

It took a few hours to get this right, and all of the pipes are right where I want them. Hours are very precious in my world, and I don't have any more to give right now. I have a splitter in the line with its own valve to control the pressure on either side. With either side off, the water pressure is sufficient, with both on it is not, so I am not that far off. The issue with flexible tubing is that I am trying to aim the jets of water, and the garden hose with holes in it I tried last year would never stay where I left it, especially with temperature changes. I like the rigidity of PVC.

RE: plugging guys

I think self tappers are winning. I can't find brass on Amazon, but Stainless is only $5 or so for 100. That and some RTV will seal the deal (get it?)

Thanks guys.

Turn up the water pressure.

tuna55 wrote: Will self tapping screws "seal" (I know it's not really a pressure tight seal that I am looking for, but it has to do -something-)?

Silicone and a self-tapping-screw will seal a gas tank.

Something I just thought of: why not use pop rivets? They'd not seal completely, but that way you could slow the flow without cutting it off entirely. EDIT: fasted58 beat me to it.

Flex-seal!!!!!!