[Jack of all Trades]

step one, drain water heater *very important* turn off the water heater power...

Tips? If you're not confident sweating pipes, buy some extra copper fittings and practice. Proper cleaning and heating of both parts is the majority of that. Oh, and don't burn your house down if the pipes are close to wood. You can probably pick up a small scrap of concrete board at a lumber yard to use as a heat shield. Good luck!

[spokeshave]

The house next door to me had a big leak on his gas fired water heater....while the family were on vacation....

the cold water tripped the gas heat on and result was the house filled with steam....and water condensation everywhere.....took a week with air blowers on to get everything dry.

[tsomer]

You can probably pick up a small scrap of concrete board at a lumber yard to use as a heat shield. Good luck!

Just a thought-- some of those boards might have air pockets that would expand and possibly explode under heat. "Wonderboard" has styrofoam bulking particles. A sheet of galvanized sheet metal may work better, but I'll defer to your experience.