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For as long as I can remember, gas lines run underground have been the plastic coated stuff, with all fittings wrapped in plastic tape. But my BIL has a house about 50 years old with a gas line to the pool heater that’s ordinary galvanized pipe. Was there a time when that was allowed, or is this installation clearly a bootleg job?
Thanks —
— J.S.
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Replies
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A few years ago we lived in a house built in the mid-fifties. I replaced the line from the street to the meter. The old line was plain galvanized pipe. Underground it was holding up pretty well, but it had developed a leak in the riser just above ground, probably from mechanical wear (lawnmowers, weedeaters, etc.).
The line to my parents' house (which was built in 1956) is also plain galvanized, and replacing it is on my list of things to do when the weather is a little nicer (rather than when it gets a leak in the middle of winter).
*John,Sch. 40 IP is still allowed.KK
*Copper tubing is the way to go.
*Why would you want to bury fragile copper tubing that has the potential to react with certain elements in the soil when super durable plastic is available ?
*And the plastic of which Tim speaks will have no joints below grade. Tell you supply house the exact length and they'll assemble one with metal risers at each end. All rolled up and easy to throw in the trench. Check locally for any proposed piping scheme to see if it is allowed. Also ask the gas company. Sometimes the inspector will allow something as being to code that the gas company won't connect to for their own reasons. -David
*"Copper tubing "Copper is not permitted for gas lones in some (many?) jurisdictions: the odor producing chemicals supposedly attack copper (according to a fireplace seminar I was at last week.)
*Per the International Plumbing Code, galvanized pipe is not acceptable for underground installation.
*Our house (circa 1950's) has/had galvanized. We developed a leak in the yard last summer, and gas company dug up a 2'x2' section near the street. They installed an additional valve there, and ran plastic "liner" inside of the existing IP to the house. They connected to the existing galvanized from just inside the house to the meter.Here, gas company is responsible for anything up to and including the meter.
*Whoa... Mr. Pita, I have never heard of that! ...way cool! I know it is done with large water lines and with sewer lines but gas lines? COOL! I am impressed.
*Surprised the hell out of me, too. But was VERY happy to see it. When we called them about the leak at about 11 PM, the "sniffer" found the leak right under our lilac bush - which explained why it was dying. The gas man said he'd report it, and depending on how severe the repair crew rated it, they'd be out "shortly, to dig up the yard". I said, "Um...OK, I guess we'll have the whole pipe dug up in a few days to a few weeks?" He looked at me like I had three heads, and said no, in a few hours to a few days. I had wonderful visions of 1. how much our neighbors would like heavy equipment digging the yard up in the wee hours of the morning and 2. how much is it gonna cost to resod/reseed? As it turned out, it was a few days, and then only the 2'x2' (maybe 3'x3') patch, which they sodded, and said if there's any problems they'd come back and redo the patch as many times as needed.
*I am in the Kansas City area. The gas companies used to be only respsonsible for the line up to the property line. But about 10 years ago there was a problem with a number of leaks and some explosions. So the public service commission made them maintain it to the meter.Anyway they have used plastic lines that they push in the existing metal pipes for a long time.They have program to redo all of the lines after so many years in addition to a leak monitoring program.
*We use black pipe. I would suspect the run is a bootleg job when the pool was done, John.
*What is particularly surprising is that they only had to dig at one end. That would mean that this liner was somehow able to go through a 90 degree ell.-- J.S.
*No, it's a straight shot through the wall, into the basement. There is an ell about 2"(?) inside from the wall, was 1.5" (?) but they added a connector for the liner to the existing piping.Also, to anyone interested, as I recall it's 1.5" IP, maybe 2", so they had some room to play with (relatively) in the pipe.
*Around our area the gas company will run a wire next to new plastic gas lines so they can find it with their locators in the future.
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For as long as I can remember, gas lines run underground have been the plastic coated stuff, with all fittings wrapped in plastic tape. But my BIL has a house about 50 years old with a gas line to the pool heater that's ordinary galvanized pipe. Was there a time when that was allowed, or is this installation clearly a bootleg job?
Thanks --
-- J.S.