My father in law want to run a 1/2″ gas line to a small ventless heater in a back poarch. The only way to get there is to run the line on the extieor of the house. Is this a good plan? Black pipe or galv.? Keep the pipe exposed or bury?
Whats the best plan of action? We are talking about a 50-60′ run along the perimeter of the house.
Replies
This is a local code question.You are best off adhering to what they want. Gas is not something that you want to make mistakes with. Luck.
The guys that installed our fireplace ran 1/2" copper tubing on the outside of the house. The main issue is that the pipe is painted yellow, and has yellow "Natural gas" stickers every couple of feet (and my understanding is that it must remain that way). But, other than being butt-ugly, it works fine. (This is in Maryland).
I'm no expert on gas lines but have installed one underground for my shop. First thing is you cannot run galvanized or black iron underground in my area. Second , 1/2" is too small, I believe in a 60 '-0" run you need a minimum of 3/4".
I installed a 1" plastic line made for gas 18" minimum under grade with an insulated wire on top. The wire is for detection purposes,plastic can't be detected with the gas company detectors so the wire is placed on top or within 2" of the tubing.The fittings were about $150.00 for two long 90 ° ells. The plastic tubing was much less expensive.
Best thing to do is check with your code enforcement officials,you may need a permit anyhow.
mike
Same here in PHX; inspector was a stickler and made our contractor re-dig the trench -- he'd dug 2 feet down, but in the weeks it took for the pool company to lay the gas line, dirt had fallen in and made the depth about 20"; inspector rejected it and made them dig out the extra inches again before he'd approve. I think the line is metal, though, not plastic.
If it were above-ground on the side of the house, I'd be afraid of any number of bad things happening and severing the line/generating sparks -- "accidents will happen".
I have a 30' run on the outside of my shop building using black iron pipe. It's painted to match the siding color and you really don't even notice it from a distance. Our code doesn't allow copper or flex lines above gound outdoors unless they are in a metal conduit. That said, the propane company gets away with running a poly flex line from the tank valve to the ground without any cover -- go figure.