New Gas Supply and Meter

[Ninemill]

Hi everyone, having a bit of trouble with the National Gris regarding the installation of a new gas supply pipe. I’ve just moved in to the house and when I tried to have a meter fitted was told that the supply had been disconnected, I’ve applied to get a new supply and am excavating the trench myself to save some money. We’d ideally like to keep the setup we have at the moment - the gas pipe enters through the wall at the side of the house and the meter would be under the stairs. Two questions:

I’ve read in a couple of places on the net that gas meters aren’t allowed under stairs any more, although I’ve not read anything in any documentation from National Grid about this. Also, British Gas seemed happy enough to install a meter there when they came, before they were thwarted by a dead pipe. Does anyone know any more?

The pipe needs to enter the house 4m from the front face of the house, according to National Grid the meter can be no more than 2m from the front of the property. How long has this been a regulation? Is it rigidly enforced? My neighbours all have their meters further back, where I’d like mine and some had there’s moved there within the last 12 months.

Thanks for any info you may have!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Better off posting in the plumbing section. I've asked the mods to move it.

 

[Agile]

Their policy now seems to be that the meter should be outside for all new supplies now.

Thats either a wall mounted white box or a reddish flat on the ground box.

Tony

 

[adlplumbing]

if choice go for white one wall mounted

 

[Ninemill]

As far as under the stairs goes, it's not a regulation, just that they prefer the meters to be outside now.

However they seem pretty firm on the 2m rule, so I think we'll have to go with a recessed box at the 2m point and then route the gas pipe along the outside wall to the boiler.

Bit of a pain and quite annoying as everyone else in the street has them nicely located further down the house!

 

[gas112]

If your digging the trench they will ignore the 2 metre rule. Done one other week that was at least an additional 10 metres and because road closure involved managers where there and not a word said .
Understairs is allowed as long as house not 2 storey or above

 

[Silvia0723]

Hi

We are also having to get a new gas supply in. THe property has existing gas pipes, but when Southern Gas came to do a live or dead check they said the supply was dead.

Quote is £400+ if we excavate ourselves or £800+ if they do all the work.

We were thinking of excavating ourselves, as might also have to replace the lead water supply pipe - is there efficiency in this?

Is there any advice on how to excavate? Do we need to get a builder in or can this be a DIY job? If so any instructions?

Thanks!

 

[Jake1886]

Is there any advice on how to excavate?

Use a shovel.

 

[kirkgas]

your water pipe needs to beat least 760mm deep and your gas pipe either 40mm if under path/monobloc etc or 375mm if under soil, both pipes need to be bedded in to stop damage from sharp stones etc, so in theory nothing wrong with them being buried together as long as they are identified etc, as with everything the simplest way to minimise your work & cost is to get exact requirements from the people fitting the pipes this way there will be no hassle/delay additional cost on the day of the job, if planned properly it could be possible to fit the water pipe, get it inspected then backfill to required depth for the gas pipe then get it fitted, however in the real world it is very difficult to liase between one utility and their contractor never mind 2 prob easier to fit the gas pipe at 760mm

 

[Agile]

While discussing this last week presumably there ius no reason a yellow plastic gas pipe can be used underground outside AFTER the meter?

 

[kirkgas]

While discussing this last week presumably there ius no reason a yellow plastic gas pipe can be used underground outside AFTER the meter?

the only issue with this is having someone who has the ticket to fit the yellow pipe

 

[namsag]

What ticket is that kirk? .
Where did you get those depths from kirk and are they for service pipes which is completely different from internals ran under ground . It used to be 18 inches but now they say they say there is no fixed minimum depth