Jimi wrote:
Well since I am in the pipeline welding business and deal a lot with
undergound pipe I have to comment... First of all you have to consider
legalities of where and what your burying in gas pipe....some places won't
allow you to bury gas lines in steel nowadays.....underground threaded
connections in steel are also a "no no" in some areas....nowadays they use
plastic to bury gas pipe......after looking into that.......This is to
answer your question..

If your going to use steel then you should go black pipe ....Galvanized
pipe will break down with gas so don't use it (galvanized steel pipe is
mainly used with water)....then coat the black pipe with tar and then tape
over the tared pipe with plastic tape to seal the pipe from exterior
moisture. If you must use fittings underground, It's best after tarring the
**** out of the joint, to use heat shrink wrap type sleeves over the tar and
fitting for a good seal against moisture.....

Again...for your sake and your neighbours, please go
plastic pipe for underground use...The joints should be "fused"....not
threaded or Flanged together for underground use...

I just hope I didn't give help to someone that is running an
underground grow operation or anything................Jimi



All the info Jimi outlines above is consistent with the info I got
about 10 years ago from NJ Nat Gas. At the time, I was president of a
condo association where we had underground black pipe failing that ran
from the meters to the units. This pipe was failing within 6 years of
being installed. I would not have believed it could fail that fast if
I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. The pipe looked like swiss cheese
in spots. If you looked at a length of it, you could see tar on the
top, and none on the bottom. They obviously had just poured tar over
it while it was in the trench. The untarred bottom was completely
shot.

NJNG at that time recommended replacing it with black pipe that was
properly tar coated and wrapped. They specifically recommended against
glavanized.

My first choice today would be plastic.







"Smarty" wrote in message
...
Is there a "best" way to install underground gas pipe? Is black pipe
preferred to galvanized or vice versa? Should fittings and possibly pipe
be covered with some coating like an epoxy paint or silicone caulk or some
other coating? Any other hints?

Thanks very much.