External gas supply pipe question ?

[GlennSpray68]

Hello All.

I hope someone can help clarify a concern I have.

My daughter has recently moved into a new home , and is wanting to replace the existing electric cooker with a range with a gas hob.

As the existing cooker has no gas supply , she has had a quote for this and other works , that states the gas supply for the range will be ran externally along the wall and back into the kitchen at the range .

The external wall is facing a neighbours property and is between my daughters house and the neighbours (Not on the neighbours buildings).

Is this allowed ? , and if so should the pipe be protected?, I know with electric cables the cable is sheathed/armoured usually.

Thanks in advance for all help given

Glenn

 

[Mottie]

Down my street it’s all semi-detached houses. Many have had their boilers relocated to the loft and plenty of them have a 22mm copper gas pipe coming out of the understairs cupboard on the flank wall (direct from the gas meter) and going straight up to the loft as it’s the easy option so I’d assume it’s ok to do that. I think it looks ugly so mine is routed up on the inside, under floors and then up through a disused chimney that was purely for the old boiler that was floor mounted in the kitchen.

 

[FiremanT]

[QUOTE="Motman, post: 4246466, member: 244085" mine is routed up .... and then up through a disused chimney that was purely for the old boiler that was floor mounted in the kitchen.[/QUOTE]

Up through a chimney? Really. Was this a RGI?

 

[Mottie]

Dunno. Disused, part dismantled and now redundant chimney. Not a current, complete but unused one. It was done in about 1992. We originally had an old floor mounted boiler in the kitchen that must have been fitted when the house was built in 1960. It was pumped heating and gravity hot water. It was one of those that had a constant pilot light on and drew its air in from the room so we always had to have an air brick open in the kitchen. It was always bloody freezing in there. The boilers flue was a series of asbestos pipes that went up a chimney that was solely for the boiler flue (and nothing else), through the upstairs landing, through the loft and out of the roof. When the boiler was replaced with a Potterton profile, a plumber/heating engineer (don’t quite know what, just a friend of a friend) fitted it in the loft on the flank wall and routed the gas feed, flow and return pipes and a couple of cables from the controller/pump up to the boiler in the loft through the now redundant chimney. The portion of chimney in the kitchen and the portion from the loft floor up and out of the roof was removed and the roof made good leaving just the approx 18”x18” chimney on the upstairs landing which was used as a convenient cable and piping route from the boiler in the loft to the hot water cylinder/pump/3 way valve and controller that was fitted in the downstairs airing cupboard. I’ve had two RGI's in in the last two years, one to convert the system to sealed with an unvented hot water cylinder and just recently another one to replace the old Potterton boiler with a Vaillant Ecotec plus. Also had two others round quoting for the boiler. None of them commented on the pipe routing. Is there anything wrong with running pipes and cables up a portion of what used to be an unused chimney then?

 

[Mottie]

“Up through a chimney?” Yes, that what I said. “Really?” Again, yes, that’s what I said. “Was this a RGI?” Dunno but I’d be grateful if you could read it again and answer my question especially as you felt the need to comment on it in the first place rather than answer the OP's question.

That’s what I like about this forum sometimes. No helpful answers, just astonishment at what’s been said and more questions. Why bother asking a question if you’re not going to answer it?

 

[ScottishGasMan]

Hello All.

Is this allowed ? , and if so should the pipe be protected?

Glenn

This is allowed and no extra protection is required running a gas pipe on the exterior of the building.

 

[Mottie]

How about running it up a section of bricks that was once part of a disused chimney?

 

[ScottishGasMan]

How about running it up a section of bricks that was once part of a disused chimney?

There are rules and issues with running a gas pipe inside a disused chimney as it's classed as a void/duct so can require ventilation at different parts of the void to prevent a gas build up should there ever be a leak, and also soot from old chimneys can be corrosive to metals and there for damage any gas pipework. It would be dependant on the installation as to whether it was considered safe or not, and very unusual to use a chimney for such a thing.

 

[Mottie]

Thanks. No soot in there, just clean brick as it was solely built into the house for the boiler which had an asbestos chimney going up and out the roof. Also, it is open at both ends - one end in the now airing cupboard and the other in the loft, level with the loft floor. Well, I say open - it has a loose fitting board over it so that I don’t accidentally step into it when I’m up there. Thanks again.

 

[Dan Robinson]

And how do you plan to support this gas pipe through the length of the chimney?

 

[OvertonPlumber]

Skyhooks

 

[Mottie]

And how do you plan to support this gas pipe through the length of the chimney?

I don’t plan to as I’ve said, it’s already done and has been done for some time. The total run of the 'chimney' is one floor of my house so about 2.3 metres. The gas pipe plus the flow and return pipes from the boiler are in hinged plastic clips - the sort that snap shut when the pipes are in them. From memory, the clips are fitted inside the chimney about an arms length from either end (so probably a max run of 1.5 metres vertically between supports) and they’ve worked well as nothing has moved for 26 years. Are there any regulations regarding the maximum distance between pipe clips on copper pipes then?

Edit: It's okay, I've just looked it up here: https://copperplumbing.org.uk/sites/default/files/content_attachments/fixing-copper-tube_0.pdf
According to that, it looks like its well within the limits so you RGI's can all sleep easy in your beds tonight.