One of the easiest ways to repair a damaged pipe is with a compression repair coupling, this is probably the best way to repair a damaged copper or plastic pipe, although pipe inserts must be used with plastic pipe.
Here we have a common scenario, where a nail has punctured a water pipe. The first thing to do is isolate the water by following the instructions on this page. Do not remove the nail until the water has been isolated, now drain the pipe work by opening the correct taps, so if it is a cold water pipe you only need to drain the cold water pipe. If it is a central heating pipe you may have to isolate the header tank (if you have one), then drain the system.
Once the water has been isolated and drained you can remove the nail. Here you can see the components of the compression pipe repair fitting. This particular one is 100mm long, so it can be used on quite long areas of damage, where perhaps the pipe has split along it's length.
In order to get the pipe repair fitting onto the pipe we need to cut and remove a section of the pipe, this can be done with either a hack saw or a pipe slice, it does not matter if the pipe is not cut straight as both ends fit freely into the body of the pipe repair coupling.
Once the pipe has been cut we can remove the damage piece of pipe.
Slide the compression nuts onto the pipe ensuring they are facing the correct way like in this picture. Then slide the olives onto the pipe.
Now push the two pieces of pipe into the body of the repair coupling and tighten the two nuts by hand, turning them clockwise until you cannot tighten them any more by hand.
Then using either two correctly sized spanners or two adjustable spanners tighten up the nuts on the coupling. Hold the central coupling nut whilst tightening each of the other two nuts approximately 3/4 of a full turn. Once the nuts are tight you can restore the water, check for leaks and if found re-tighten the compression nuts.
