Before we bought our new place we were renting. We had asked the landlord permission to drill above the fireplace to hang a mirror; it was his old house and we were on good terms with him so no problem. Well, that's what I thought.
Measured up where we needed to put the two screws. It was a modern house so plasterboard walls - had all the correct fixings ready. Started drilling the first hole, met a bit of resistance and then the sudden sound and smell of gushing gas as the drill jolted through the pipe.
Turned the gas off in a panic and assessed the damage (see pic)...
We were incredibly lucky I managed to hit the pipe so central; had I caught it just to the side it would have resulted in a small leak which could have eventually poisoned us or caused an explosion. It was my fault, but what a stupid place to put a gas pipe. It ran along the top of the wall and straight down to the fireplace above the mantlepiece which is generally the area where people screw and nail pictures/mirrors!
Measured up where we needed to put the two screws. It was a modern house so plasterboard walls - had all the correct fixings ready. Started drilling the first hole, met a bit of resistance and then the sudden sound and smell of gushing gas as the drill jolted through the pipe.
Turned the gas off in a panic and assessed the damage (see pic)...
We were incredibly lucky I managed to hit the pipe so central; had I caught it just to the side it would have resulted in a small leak which could have eventually poisoned us or caused an explosion. It was my fault, but what a stupid place to put a gas pipe. It ran along the top of the wall and straight down to the fireplace above the mantlepiece which is generally the area where people screw and nail pictures/mirrors!
