Gas leak problem

[Gregory01]

i hope someone might be able to help with a current issue.

So a bit of background. About 1 year ago I got the gas supply to our house changed to an outside meter box. They moled through from the pavement and I told them I would be putting a drive in so asked them to make sure it would be deep enough.

Here we are 1 year later and the driveway is underway. The guys went down roughly 20cm and fortunately no sign of the pipes. They have today been using a wacker plate and digger to level out the type 1 and compact. A few hours later we get a smell of gas in the house by the old disconnected pipe (also by the electric supply).

Call out the gas people and have about 5 guys on site for about 5 hours trying to identify the problem. (Not that they actually did much more than an hours work tops). In the end they concluded that we have a small leak between the main supply and our outside meter box. They think the wacker or digger driving over and compacting the soil may have damaged it.

Onto the bad bit. Firstly they want to Bill me for this (and it's likely to be over £1k already). They also want to come back tomorrow and start digging up some of the driveway to see if they can prove it was the driveway guys who caused the damage. This is on double time as its Sunday and I also have the driveway guys who are hoping to be laying the paving blocks tomorrow.

So does anyone know where I stand with this? Surely when paying for a new pipe to be installed and explaining about the drive it would be expected that cars etc would be driving over it. I'm not sure what to do and certainly can't afford a couple of thousand £. The driveway company have public liability but am worries they won't pay out and I will have to foot the bill.

Thanks

 

[PrenticeBoyofDerry]

The company doing your driveway they are ultimately responsible, but the the supply pipe should have been laid in a trench at a minimum distance of 375mm on your land.

So if the pipe was not laid equal or greater than that, then whoever laid the pipe would have a responsibility. But to what level that responsibility is anyone guess, as in law there is no specified depths just guidelines/recommendations.

But if you have altered(decreased) the level of your private land since the pipe was laid, you can hardly blame the company laying the supply pipe!

 

[theprinceofdarkness]

That 375mm sounds good, but somewhere the pipe has to rise out of the ground to get into the external meter box. So what happens there. I would expect the leak to be at that joint or at the other end. This is because the action of the wacker would have pushed the new pipe deeper so tended to pull it out of its end connections. Or it was not laid properly in the first place a stone has pierced it.
Frank

 

[^woody^]

It's not just the depth, but the provision for movement/compression by putting the pipe in a plastic duct or surrounding the pipe in sand. There should also be a warning tape laid above.

A wacker plate would not press a pipe down so much that it opened joints, or even fracture a plastic pipe. Your argument would be that the joints were so poorly made in the first place, or protective cover inadequate, so as to make the installation below the required standard.

You should be covered on your home insurance.

 

[bernardgreen]

When a builder was digging a trench for a cable along a driveway he damaged a gas pipe, one of two that were side by side by side and very close to the surface. As I recall National Grid repaired that free of charge as they accepted it was not deep enough. However the builder then, further along the driveway, damaged the other gas pipe that ran parallel with the first one he damaged. This repair was charged for as the builder should have been more careful knowing that gas pipes were running near the surface of the drive way.

It was close to the surface due to a large drainage culvert it had to go over. I got involved as it was the drive way to my previous house.

 

[^woody^]

Of course National Grid would love to charge everyone for their work. But that does not mean that they are entitled to receive payment.

If a pipe is not laid to the correct standard, they are responsible if it's damaged, and pipes can be damaged no matter how careful the contractor is.

 

[Gregory01]

Ok so an update to the situation. Had the guys out today to find the leak. It was about 1 meter inside my boundry and fortunately just the other side of the new driveway so saves any digging up of the work the guys are doing. The guy found a very small hole on the underside of the pipe with a tiny bit of flint in it. He said he will write it up in his report but ultimately is up to the gas company if they decide to charge. He has been asked to provide pictures and also to bring the pipe back incase they decide to charge. He did say that their response quite often is that they will charge. Their reasoning being that if the weight of the digger or the wacker plate compacted the ground and pushed the pipe into the stone it might still be classed as our issue.

Im aware normally pipes are surrounded by sand which obviously would have saved this problem however as when they put a new pipe in they moled through this was not possible.

Unfortunately my home insurance wont cover it as we have limited cover until we move in. This happens to be today.. doh. knew we should have moved in on Friday.

 

[^woody^]

Well, that just proves that the pipe was not properly laid to prevent punctures in the first place.

The whole idea of a drive, is for vehicles to drive on, and all services must be able to resist that. They may well seek to recharge, but would need to prove that the pipe was damaged by your negligence, which would be very difficult.

That's the important thing to remember. You are not responsible for any damage to any pipe unless you caused it maliciously or negligently. If national grid chose to lay their pipe via a method where it can not be protected, then that's at their risk, not yours.

 

[Gregory01]

Thanks woody. Your take on it sounds spot on to me. Will see what they come back with but thanks for the input.