possible old gas pipe?

[Sirbendy]

Not sure if this is the right place, BUT..

I live in a 50's wimpey house - gas comes in to the meter under the stairs. All is fine.

However, outside, roughly in line with the meter there's a tube, sticking up through the gravel. Roughly an inch or so diameter, short, cap of some sort possibly on the end, with a large square drive on the top of it. It looks pretty rusty, and it's a PITA,a s you can't do much with the area because of it.

I've dismissed it as such until yesterday when I had a builder in to do some work, who looked at it and reckoned it may well be an old (or live) gas pipe. There's never (as far as anyone can recall) been any structure on the spot that would have used it, and the builder reckons if it IS gas, it should be below ground and not stuck out and accessible.

Does this sound right, and what should I do if so? He suggested calling Transco, but said they *may* try and charge for it. I just want to know what it is, and make sure it's safe..heh.

I'll try and get a pic later on..

 

[Agile]

The correct procedure is for all old gas pipes to be capped.

So the correct solution, if its disused, is to get a gas safe reg engineer to unscrew it to the next joint below ground level and cap it again.

Tony

 

[Hugh Jaleak]

Possibly original supply to a former external meter box, really needs National Grid to check and seal off. Removing any cap with no means of shutting off the supply should it still be live would be risky IMO. Had occasions before when the Gas man said a service was dead, only to find it was used for an insertion (new plastic pipe fed through old steel pipe) and was in fact still live. (Too late once we'd dug through it..... )

 

[Agile]

Most gas reg people would be comfortable loosening and checking for gas if it looks like being disused.

Tony

 

[gas112]

Agile

You are a fool what a stupid bit of advise if this is an old live service then no rgi should be touching it at all as they are not qualified, it could be live gas without any means of isolating it if something goes wrong.

Phone NG/Trannsco out they do do not charge

 

[45yearsagasman]

Great advice, to loosen a possibly live and potentially rusty old service.

 

[misterdubya]

Most gas reg people would be comfortable loosening and checking for gas if it looks like being disused.

Tony

What you been smoking Tony?

 

[Sirbendy]

Cheers all - NG are sending someone out between 4.15 and 8.15 tonight to give it a checkover. I'll be enquiring about moving the thing, or getting it out of the way somehow if poss - it'd be nice to be able to get a car up there and get both on the drive!

As it stands, by the looks of google maps it's just been a gravelled wasted area, unused by either us or the previous owners, possibly because this pipe prevented it being used for parking! It's stuck out by a good 2-3+ inches.

I'll update when I find out more, heh.

 

[Sirbendy]

OK, NG chap came out last night at 6pm to look - "oh, yes. I see what you mean".

He looked at the meter in the hall (roughly in line with the pipe) - "ah, I see a service head adapter. That means your gas is piped with yellow pipe, which is a good thing. It's probable they've used the old metal pipe as a sleeve for it. That means there's no safety risk, IF it is gas."

He kicked the stone away from it for a good look, and said "if you want a driveway or whatever here, dig down CAREFULLY to expose the whole pipe. Then if you wish to call again, please do and we'll have another look."

Basically, he didn't want to disturb it - he couldn't give a definitive "it's gas/water/live/dead", and his suggestion for dealing with it was to "cover it with something..like that wheel over there, and that'll protect it."

Not a lot of use. Some maybe's and "um-er"'s, but nothing definitive and it's now back in our court to risk/deal.

I said - "the point WAS, you can ID the pipe and check if live or dead, surely...I'M NOT touching the bloody thing, and I can't see anyone else wanting to, in case it IS gas.". He wasn't that interested, if I'm honest.

God knows what to do now..

 

[45yearsagasman]

Ask them to come back during daylight hours and do their job properly. Do not do anything to it yourself and insist it's their responsibility.