My Water Pipe Punctured While Installing Wood Baseboards

Wooden Baseboard

• If you puncture a water line while installing wooden baseboards, you must have hit a pipe that is inside the wall. Depending on the room in the house where you are installing the baseboards, this may be a water supply line for a downstairs sink, or a line running to an upstairs bathroom. If you have driven a nail through the baseboard and the drywall and into a water line, you are likely using nails that are longer than necessary for a simple baseboard installation.

In-Wall Water Line Repair

• Shut off the main water line to your house until you can ascertain where the pipe feeds water, then turn off that individual line. Shut off the circuit breaker for the room where the leak has occurred to reduce the risk of wetting any electrical wires or junction boxes in the wall. You may need to cut the water line where it splits off from the main house line and install a valve with a compression fitting. Remove the wooden baseboard and cut a small hole in the wall in order to gain access to the damaged pipe. Cut and replace the damaged section of pipe and repair the wall before reinstalling the baseboard and securing it with smaller nails.

Wooden Baseboard Heater Cover

• Wooden baseboard heater covers are decorative baseboard heater shields that are intended to look like traditional wooden baseboards. They can be custom-made, or they are available as mass-produced products at most home improvement stores. The mass-produced units typically come as a set with a matching baseboard.

Baseboard Heater Cover Repair

• If the heater cover came as a set with the baseboard and copper pipe, you will need to replace the set. You may also try contacting the manufacturer and inquiring whether the baseboard can be ordered separately. If the heater cover is designed to go over an existing baseboard, shut off the water to that zone and cut the damaged baseboard line. Repair or replace the copper pipe, then reinstall the heater cover.