a matter of identification

[studips]

alright peeps,
got a question for you all - there i was, digging a hole and nice and shallow and i hit a steel pipe of about 1.5 ro 1.75" diameter, in good condition wrapped in a thin coat of what seems like paper soaked bitumen. it flakes off and i've got nice shiny steel where i've been chopping at it. it's now wrapped in denso and has been reburied.

but what was it?

the situation is that a couple of houses up the hill have their sewerage run down shallow through this garden to the highway below, now i'm wondering if this pipe could be water, gas or electric feeding these houses. i don't see why it should as they face onto a road themselves.

anyone recognise the description?

i'll try asking this in plumbing if you're all shaking your heads

 

[Taylortwocities]

Untitled

• Taylortwocities
• 17 Apr 2008
• 30

 

[chivers67]

Years back paper was used and oil soaked to insulate vulcanised rubber, hard to say shame you didn't use a non contact voltage detector.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Or hack a bit longer and harder.

 

[JohnD]

"wrapped in a thin coat of what seems like paper soaked bitumen"

the wrapper sounds to me like electrical. However the steel armour is more often wound, so that it is flexible, round my way, rather than gas-barrel pipe.

 

[JohnW2]

"wrapped in a thin coat of what seems like paper soaked bitumen".... the wrapper sounds to me like electrical. However the steel armour is more often wound, so that it is flexible, round my way, rather than gas-barrel pipe.

'Electrical' would have been my first guess. However, the short lengths of pipe which exit the ground at either end of the run from my LPG tank to my house (the long underground run is all plastic) are steel wound with something 'black and sticky' - so maybe gas is another possibility. Mind you, what the OP describes sounds rather large for a gas supply pipe to a single property.

Kind Regards, John