After a friend told us about a unique patch she’d done underneath her sink, we had to know the story AND the material she used. Her “desperate measure” has become an essential tool in our arsenal.

When she went to repair her sink drain’s slow leak, she found the copper pipes were were too stiff to forge good connections at each joint in the run. Over years, they had subtly shifted with the settling of the building.

After a couple of hours of threading and rethreading pipes with plumber’s tape to no avail, and no time to start from scratch with flexible pipe, she decided to test drive a product she’d bought after seeing a YouTube video about it:  a self-fusing silicone rubber tape called X-Treme Tape. 

It is not adhesive, rather, it permanently sticks to itself as you stretch it tightly around whatever you need to fix. (Video link here.)

Our friend first wound yards of plumber’s tape into the leaking joints, effectively stuffing them. Then she used an entire 10-foot roll of X-Treme tape to secure it. She said she hasn’t seen any sign of further leaking for many months. Although she  intends to redo the plumbing properly, the $6 roll of tape bought her time and saved her money in an emergency plumbing repair.

It turns out X-Treme Tape is good for all sorts of uses (it holds in temperatures from 60′ to 500′ and is UV resistant. ) Here are a few in the realm of household repairs (Bold face indicates what we’ve used it for):

• Dishwasher Hoses
• Dryer Vents
• Washing Machine Drain Hoses
• Vacuum cleaner hose
• Leaky P-traps
• Cracked drain 0ipes
• Garden hoses and fittings
• Repair power cords
• Electrical Repairs
• Wind it around tools for grips
• Repair small electronics wire
• Seal Electrical Connections
• Air and Dryer Vents
• Protect against corrosion
• Clamp/hold glued parts in place
• Seal the frayed ends of rope and twine

 

 

It comes in colors as well as different thicknesses so you can style things up if you need to.

 

 

Maybe this is the stuff to use to stripe our homely hammock stand….