Best tape to patch/fix a hole in a garden hose?

[NewspaperTaxis]

This is less immediately urgent now the weather has broken in Surrey, but my garden hose - which I bought too long, better to buy three shorter ones and attach them I later realised - has a leak, just a small one at first but of course if you don't fix it immediately... Now it has a mini geyser coming out of it, still thin but needs blocking pronto.

I can't as yet see any tape that is custom-made for this? Electrical tape is recommended it seems, duct tape not, there is a Gorilla waterproof tape from Robert Dyas but it doesn't say it works for a garden hose. Would bike inner tube tape be any good, or not given it has to be waterproof?

The hose has been working okay for years, it's the usual yellow one - I don't want to fork out for a new one.

Without looking for specialist tape, I would go for a heavy layer of electrical tape the covered over with some waterproof duct tape. If it lasts for a summer I'd be happy with that for performance - I wouldn't expect it to be a one off fix.

Alternatively could you melt something over the top?

Thanks - but then I'm thinking wouldn't it be better to have the waterproof tape as the first layer because of course, that's where the water is!

Melting something - I don't know, what would you advise?!

Thanks for the prompt response btw

Electrical tape is water resistant in that it is made of a plastic. If you wrapped it around a number of times the adhesive would only be in contact with itself, so it would maintain its tension to cover the hole. Then covering with duct tape would stop moisture from the air/ rain getting between the layers of taut electrical tape, and would also maintain the downwards pressure over the hole.

If you were going to melt something you'd probably want to shrink some plastic tubing over the hole. To be honest by the time you've bought a heat gun and the tubing you could probably have bought a new hose.

Duck tape.

I would have thought a bike tyre puncture repair would work.

Or cut the leaky bit out and put in a joint. £2 from toolstation

I too would cut the leaky bit out and join with a joint as per @MagpiePi

You could try a puncture repair kit and then cover the whole area with electricians' self-amalgamating tape.

wouldn't it be easier (and maybe cheaper) to get a new hose?

More ecologically sound to mend it

It's a long garden so long hose, would prefer to fix it. Better to have got three short hoses however to avoid this problem not only that but it gets tangled very easily. The number of times I've thought, bloody hell, wish they did hoses in wi-fi!

I would just cut it into three, and have those clip fit things that you can attach or detach to each other, so you can use it as one long one or three short ones. Make the place where the leak is one of the cuts.

Gaffer tape.

Make sure its really dry then tape it along like a helter skelter 6" either side of the split.

Then let it set hard it the sun for a few days before using.

I fixed mine like this 5 years ago and it's still holding up.

Further to this, it's very odd but tiny holes are now springing up everywhere on the hose after literally years of it having no holes whatsoever... I don't know what's going on. It would have made sense to get those 'joints' recommended but there are so many holes, you'd need a lot of them!

I used electrical tape from Wickes but it's not always great, I made a mistake in getting the thin tape when I should have got the wider stuff I think. I've also used the Gorilla tape you get from Sainsbury's or Robert Dyas. It's holding up a bit but it's not the steady stream from the end you could use to put out a rampant bonfire, which I might be doing next week. I will see how it goes but it's odd how holes are sprouting everywhere suddenly, I can't see the reason why.

Maybe the hose has perished?

Ooh, now that's a phrase you don't often hear - the idea that something just 'perishes' with age! Stuff either breaks these days or gets replaced before that generally happens.