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Nate Nagel

wrote:
On Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:24:09 -0400, Nate Nagel
wrote:

wrote:

On Sun, 10 Jun 2007 16:31:40 -0700, "Eigenvector"
wrote:

Has got me thinking of what kind of maintenance does the gas supply to my
house require?

It was my impression that I am responsible for everything that exits the
meter - piping and the works, but the gas company is responsible for the
meter and everything that feeds it. As a homeowner should I periodically
test valves, inspect pipe fittings, purge the system or anything else like
that?

One of my friends at the rifle range happens to be a field engineer and
inspector for the local gas company and he recommends getting the meter set
changed out or inspected when work is done to the bonding of the electrical
panel. Arguably a person would only do that once in the life of the home so
I believe he was referring to the fact that typically a different meter
hookup is used in houses that don't have grounding installed and when
grounding is installed the meter hookup needs to be changed to protect the
cathodic protection the gas company has on their lines.

But back to my main question. If I see visible corrosion and pitting on my
gas lines would I be advised to contact the gas company and/or simply
replace the lines

If they are after the meter, it's YOU that is responsible for them.
If the pitting is deep, replace them, if it's just surface rust, wire
brush or sand the rust off and paint them with a rust preventative
paint such as Rustoleum. Just use black since gas pipe is always
black.

Actually in most places where the gas pipe is painted, it's painted
yellow for some reason.

nate

I've never seen yellow inside the house. The street mains are yellow
though. In the house it's always been black iron pipe. Of course
this may be some new trend that I have not seen.

The most dangerous parts of gas pipes are those flexible pipes behind
a stove or water heater, and heaven forbid the aluminum tubing once
used. When I was in my teens, we had one of those alum tubes going to
our clothes dryer. It developed a small hairline crack and my dad
just applied some epoxy to the pipe. To me that was not safe. I had
a friend who'd father was a plumber so I asked that father. He told
me to tell my dad to shut off the gas till he replaces it. My dad
hired the guy to replace it. I was young, but that glued leaky pipe
seemed really bad to me.

I don't know if it is common in a residential app. I agree that most
gas piping is simply black iron pipe. In a commercial setting where the
install specs call for piping to be painted however, usually in a school
building, it's always yellow.

nate

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