Hey There,

I have a contractor coming in next week to start digging the
foundation for an addition. I have an old gas lamp from the 1950s by
the front walk. I turned off the valve in the lamp a few years ago to
save gas. The contractor will have to dig up the metal gas line to
the lamp from the foundation but it is connected in the basement to
our black pipe with a saddle valve that appears to have no shutoff
mechanism. I would like to eliminate the saddle valve altogether but
does that mean replacing the black pipe? The contractor is aware of
the line and won't dig in that spot until he hears otherwise from me.
Any ideas?

Thanks!

On Jul 10, 1:58 pm, Meat Plow wrote:
On Tue, 10 Jul 2007 10:31:38 -0700, sleepdog wrote:
Hey There,

I have a contractor coming in next week to start digging the
foundation for an addition. I have an old gas lamp from the 1950s by
the front walk. I turned off the valve in the lamp a few years ago to
save gas. The contractor will have to dig up the metal gas line to
the lamp from the foundation but it is connected in the basement to
our black pipe with a saddle valve that appears to have no shutoff
mechanism. I would like to eliminate the saddle valve altogether but
does that mean replacing the black pipe? The contractor is aware of
the line and won't dig in that spot until he hears otherwise from me.
Any ideas?

Thanks!

A valve with no mechanism? You mean it's broken off or otherwise missing?
I would replace the valve with a threaded plug if that's possible. Did you
have your gas utility company mark the digging area?

Yes, 1800Digg is coming out today to mark the property but this
particular line is not on any of the utility maps. They came out a
few years ago and didn't mark it even after I mentioned it to the
dispatch, probably because its not part of the "utility" portion of
the utilities.

Anyway, silly me, I took another look and found the tiny shuttoff
valve coming off the saddle valve before the flared fitting, after I
went out and bought a 1/4" threaded plug and could not find a 1/2x27
tap to make the threads. It is kind of dark down there. g

Still want to get rid of the saddle valve someday, but my immediate
concern is settled with the digging on schedule.

Duh me