Plumbing and Piping - Cutting in a tee to existing copper pipe

Kitchen is above garage and the sink is directly above one of the garage doors. The supply lines for the faucet travel through the floor joists channel and up through the floor to the sink. A section of the hot water line in the garage runs along and is clamped to the garage door header...about 36 inches before going up through the floor.

I want to install a tee in that 36" section of the hot water supply line. No problem cutting the pipe. I figure I can use a hack saw or something like that, but sweating in the new tee has me stumped, as I don't want to burn up my header and I'm not sure how to get complete solder all the way around since I can't get to the back side of the connection that is against the header.

Also, there is no play in the pipes to move them to install the tee.

How do you guys handle a situation like this?

Thanks...RC

Hmmm, no replies.
Well, let me ask this and see what responses it brings. Has anybody ever used the Just for Copper cold weld system for joining copper pipe?
http://www.justforcopper.com/cb1b.htm

Once you cut the line, you should be able to move it enough to get the tee in (after cutting again to allow for the takeoff on tee). Put a piece of sheet metal between the pipe and the header and then solder. I am not a fan of these epoxy fix products and if it fails, you have to clean all that junk off and do it right anyways. Thats after you clean up the mess it made. Good luck.

You should have enough play in the pipes to slip in a piece of sheetmetal to protect the header like Majakdragon wrote. You might try practicing soldering. You will see that you don't need to feed the solder around the entire pipe; it will flow around the back by itself. I would try to keep a tiny tiny space between the fitting and the sheetmetal. I find it easier to solder this way. If you don't have enough "give" to spread the pipes and insert the tee, you need to use a coupling without a stop and a short piece of tube.

Yeah, I wasn't too thrilled about the epoxy method either. Just doesn't seem natural, and since it's in tight quarters the chances of messing it up are fairly high, and then I would be in the predicament of trying to clean it up to try again, as you suggested, majakdragon.

I did think about the sheetmetal but was mostly concerned about not having enough play to insert the tee...didn't think about the slip coupling option. I've done a fair amount of sweating in the past but just wasn't sure about this situation.

Thanks guys, I believe now I have enough options and confidence to give it a go.

RC

you do have one more option that nobodies mentioned,you could go and get a 5/8 compression t and a 5/8 comp coupling and the you would'nt have to solder at all.....good luck

Right...good suggestion, and I would probably go for it except I may cover the area later on with sheetrock, so that wouldn't work since they have to be accessable. Too bad.

Thanks anyway, plumerdan.