Hammering down an old gas pipe?

[AMS1]

I'd be really grateful if someone could give me some advice:

I'm redesigning my kitchen and replacing old, shabby, council-installed units with a proper fitted kitchen.

In the corner of the kitchen, which is the only place the washing machine can now go, used to be an old freestanding boiler (a Thorn one, I think) This was replaced 3 years ago with a Combi boiler in the upstairs airing cupboard, and the space the freestanding boiler left was just boxed in.

Unfortunately, there's a thick, copper (I think) pipe rising from the concrete floor where the boiler used to be. It's been capped off but obviously is a stumbling block to placing my washing machine there. It bends upwards 4 or 5 inches from the concrete the rest of the pipe is encased in, and I'd say the diameter of the pipe is about 1.5 inches.

My sister-in-law (who is a Gas Safe heating engineer) has taken a look at it and says that it's not an insurmountable problem ... that she'll just cap the pipe off elsewhere (she seems the think this can be done in my front room, where the rest of the pipe seems to lead to) and then this bit of pipe in the kitchen can then be hammered down and covered over with concrete, or sawn down.

I'm a bit nervous about this ... that pipe looks extremely sturdy and thick and I can't see it being able to be hammered down very easily, and I can't imagine what sort of saw could cut a pipe that thick (my OH has an angle grinder but I'm worried about sparks + gas)

I'm all for taking the path of least resistance, and just buying a slimdepth washing machine, so that it can be installed into the corner but just up to where the pipe sticks up (the pipe sticks up about 6 inches in from the back of the wall) but she's having none of it and insists that this can be done 'easily'.

I don't want to seem like I'm questioning her professional knowledge, but I thought I'd come on here and ask for a second (and third and fourth?) opinion on the job.

Thank you.

 

[FiremanT]

I don't want to seem like I'm questioning her professional knowledge,

But you are, anyway!

but I thought I'd come on here and ask for a second (and third and fourth?) opinion on the job.

The pipe, if it IS gas, is likely to be iron, at that size. If the supply can be capped elsewhere it can be angle ground to ground level. This is technically wrong, as it should be capped (let arguments ensue), but is common practice.

 

[mysteryman]

Unused gas pipes must be capped off both ends.

 

[stardanny]

Should be able to unscrew that bit of pipe as there might be an elbow fitting buried in floor and cap it with an iron plug, with socket set and blue tack to keep plug in socket as you screw in inside without dropping it. I come across a lot when doing new kitchen.

Dan.

 

[Terrywookfit]

Unused gas pipes must be capped off both ends.

But why?
Surely an unused/disconnected gas pipe just becomes a "Pipe".

Which rule or regulation says that a pipe must be sealed at both ends.
I have used redundant pipes as a conduit for cables to save lifting flooring.

 

[stardanny]

Unused gas pipes must be capped off both ends.

But why?

I think all I know it that when it open, it leave a little trace of smell of gas even there isn't any gas leak. I argeed with mysteryman it should be capped.

Dan.

 

[mysteryman]

I am just stating what every Gas Safe person should know - it's in the regs.

 

[MIGEM]

Unused gas pipes must be capped off both ends.

But why?

Which rule or regulation says that a pipe must be sealed at both ends.
quote]

Regulation 22 (1) (2) (3)

 

[Terrywookfit]

Unused gas pipes must be capped off both ends.

But why?

Which rule or regulation says that a pipe must be sealed at both ends.
quote]

Regulation 22 (1) (2) (3)

But a pipe that is not connected to and is no longer part of the installation is no longer a gas pipe.
It is just a pipe. If it were flushed through with water it would become a water pipe!

 

[MIGEM]

Quite correct, but what is to prevent somebody connecting into that pipe at a later date, if they think that it is an existing gas pipe?

Say a gas fire has been disconnected.....and under the dining room floor, the pipe is also tee'd off to the old point in the front room.....old victorian terrace. You want a fire back in the dining room, so you use the existing pipe, which you see sticking out the floor under the stairs.
An RGI would test the pipe first, but if not done by an RGI and tested, the DIYer would fit the fire, reconnect the disconnected end to the meter in the cupboard under the stairs and the gas would not only run to the fire in the dining room, it would escape through the open end in the front room, which was not capped off. It may also run up the wall in lead, to an old gas light....... ( I have the old lead pipe still in my wall from gas lights.....capped at both ends! )

Or it might just carry on down the hall to an old copper tube that has been hammered over and buried in the screed...... BOOM!

 

[mysteryman]

Which is why it is - or was - in the regs.

 

[FiremanT]

Quite correct, but what is to prevent somebody connecting into that pipe at a later date, if they think that it is an existing gas pipe?

Say a gas fire has been disconnected.....and under the dining room floor, the pipe is also tee'd off to the old point in the front room.....old victorian terrace. You want a fire back in the dining room, so you use the existing pipe, which you see sticking out the floor under the stairs.
An RGI would test the pipe first, but if not done by an RGI and tested, the DIYer would fit the fire, reconnect the disconnected end to the meter in the cupboard under the stairs and the gas would not only run to the fire in the dining room, it would escape through the open end in the front room, which was not capped off. It may also run up the wall in lead, to an old gas light....... ([i] I have the old lead pipe still in my wall from gas lights.....capped at both ends! )

[/i]

God, don't telll the caravan dwellers.

He might even connect into one of millions of discoonected iron WATER pipes. (He MIGHT even fit a fire into a blocked flue) It is a rule, but it is nonsense.

 

[Terrywookfit]

Quite correct, but what is to prevent somebody connecting into that pipe at a later date, if they think that it is an existing gas pipe?

Say a gas fire has been disconnected.....and under the dining room floor, the pipe is also tee'd off to the old point in the front room.....old victorian terrace. You want a fire back in the dining room, so you use the existing pipe, which you see sticking out the floor under the stairs.
An RGI would test the pipe first, but if not done by an RGI and tested, the DIYer would fit the fire, reconnect the disconnected end to the meter in the cupboard under the stairs and the gas would not only run to the fire in the dining room, it would escape through the open end in the front room, which was not capped off. It may also run up the wall in lead, to an old gas light....... ( I have the old lead pipe still in my wall from gas lights.....capped at both ends! )

Or it might just carry on down the hall to an old copper tube that has been hammered over and buried in the screed...... BOOM!

Any stupid gunt who uses a pipe without checking it's integrity first,Deserves to go boom!

Ps, Which appropriate fitting did you use to cap the lead?

 

[MIGEM]

Ps, Which appropriate fitting did you use to cap the lead?

There is a screwed brass cap on the wall and a 15mm ef stop end on the copper tail under the floor, where the lead was soldered to copper, no doubt many years ago