Running your own Nat Gas Lines?
- Thread starter Joel 67
- Start date
oiler
Well-known member
280 ft of 1 inch underground with a rented mini trencher
took about 6 hours
nothing too, it I'd do it again especially with the cost of hiring someone
took about 6 hours
nothing too, it I'd do it again especially with the cost of hiring someone
TurnipTruck
Well-known member
I have replaced and rerouted every single pipe in my house and to and inside the shop. But I am employed by an industry that is highly motivated to keeping flammables inside their pipes, so I am very familiar with threading and what a pipe can and can't do.
Red Green
Well-known member
I have done some Black pipe for Propane. It is fairly strait forward. Menards or Lowes should have some pictures in the black pipe section. Do you have any specific questions?
djjsr
Well-known member
This sounds potentially dangerous for someone not familiar with the proper way to do it (like me!). Anybody know what the requirements are for how deep the line must be? If you use pex, does it have to be protected? I dig a lot of holes (my wife is a flower & shrub junkie) and I can just imagine cutting through a gas line with a shovel.
HoosierBuddy
Well-known member
I think you just proved your own point.
You can't use PEX to run natural gas in. Your choices are limited to black pipe, high density Polyethylene LABLED FOR GAS USE, or CSST in an approved conduit (which you have to be trained and certified to even use).
You should either hire a plumber OR get a very knowledgable person to help you with it that knows what he/she is doing.
Phil
t. jones
Well-known member
I bought a black garden hose from TSC it has a yellow stripe. Ran it from my outside BBQ outlet, temporary setup works fine. Plan to do a buried line in the spring.
Thanx Trevor
Thanx Trevor
djjsr
Well-known member
shovel
Well-known member
Call your city inspector and ask about doing this and meeting code. If he is a good guy, he should explain it. I did this about 20 years ago. Code in that city was iron pipe with a protective coating, buried at least 1' deep. I had to do a pressure test which was just adding a gauge, valve and schraeder air fitting to put 10 psi on it and hold over night. The inspector would have to sign off before the gas copany would allow hook-up. good luck to you and keep us posted.
Falcon67
Well-known member
Whats the best sealer for black iron delivering natural gas? I have to move a line for the stove pretty soon. Not much pipe, I was thinking tape wrap with a touch of thread seal but have been too lazy to Google the requirements. 
Actually, I'd more trust an opinion delivered by someone here.
Actually, I'd more trust an opinion delivered by someone here.Red Green
Well-known member
On propane I have been using the yellow pipe dope. I think that it is required by code.
HoosierBuddy
Well-known member
Whats the best sealer for black iron delivering natural gas? I have to move a line for the stove pretty soon. Not much pipe, I was thinking tape wrap with a touch of thread seal but have been too lazy to Google the requirements.
They make tape based coating systems for pipe. Polyken is the brand I'm familier with...you can do a web search to find a vendor. It generally consists of a can of primer (a thick, black, sticky product) and rolls of special tape designed to work with the primer. If you go that route you need to bond the pipe to an anode (either zinc or magnesium) to protect coating holidays (voids) from pitting. IF YOU DON'T use an anode, you'd actually be better off just burying bare steel, as then your corrosion will be uniform and not concentrated at one area. A coated steel line with no anode will rust through much faster than a bare steel line.
The garden hose comment is classic. I'm betting sometime during this cold-snap one of two things will happen:
1. The hose will crack due to the cold resulting in a major gas leak.
2. The poster will come home and find his water pipes frozen because the gas company saw the hose hooked to gas and shut off and locked the meter on a major-safety violation.
Come to think of it...I bet both 1 and 2 happen. The hose cracks, a passerby calls 911 because they smell a gas leak, the FD rolls in and finds the problem. They call the gas company and the gas company shuts off and locks the meter. Quite predictible.
You know those red neck jokes..."you might be a red neck?" Well...here's mine....
"If your gas piping includes hose clamps? You might be a red neck."
Phil
Last edited:
dipper
Well-known member
^^^Glad i'm not your neighbor.^^^
To the OP, going 10 feet from your basement to the attached garage is not that big of a job. I re-did all my gas lines in my basement and buried 75' of poly out to the detached garage and then converted to black iron to the heater. I did have some experience beforehand and also had a gas sniffer that I borrowed from work to check my connections.
If you don't feel comfortable doing it, bottom line is hire it out so you know it's safe. Not sure what the codes are in your area, but you should be able to use black iron pipe and fittings available from local home centers. The other variable is sizing the pipe for what you need. You could always do it yourself and then have your gas supplier come out and inspect/leak check before turning the valve on too. I bet most suppliers will do that, i know mine will.
rickairmedic
Well-known member
Whats the best sealer for black iron delivering natural gas? I have to move a line for the stove pretty soon. Not much pipe, I was thinking tape wrap with a touch of thread seal but have been too lazy to Google the requirements.
Falcon any pipe dope will work fine . What most people dont know is that pipe dope is more of a lube than a sealant its main purpose is to allow the pipes to go together tight enough to seal . Yes before I get any haters it is also a sealant but its main purpose is to lube the threads so that you can get them tighter .
Rick
mustangcrazy77
Well-known member
I just went through something similar. What I ended up doing was digging a trench and burying some 3" sch 40 electrical conduit. I then picked up some wardflex (not rated for direct burial) and tied into my existing 1" main line with a union and a few new shut-off valves. The wardflex ran through the wall in the crawlspace (it's a tall crawlspace) into the conduit and up through the stud space in the garage to the ceiling. At that point I merged the wardflex into 3/4" blackpipe which was run the rest of the way to my IR tube heater.
Falcon67
Well-known member
Thanks. I thought that was pretty much the case as the sealer I have it rated to some xxxx PSI for gas and NG line pressure in the house is pretty low.
SteveP
Active member
So if I use the regular pipe dope for underground propane lines am I still ok?
Friartuck
Well-known member
Isn't there a code requirement that if you run any underground non-metal gas or propane lines (like high density Polyethylene LABLED FOR GAS USE, or CSST) that a copper wire is also fastened to the line so it can be picked up by a metal detector? Thought this was for locating lines in the future long after the owner has forgotten where the line is actually buried.
unpredictable1
Well-known member
I had the local gas company run my under ground lines since I needed the original one sleeved before I poured my pad (the pad goes over the initial line.
Then later (over a year or more) I had them in to run a secondary from my house back out to the garage.
I have the nub sticking up out of the ground, apparently it's 'not locked' according to the gas guys so they don't have to come back when I go to get my furnace done.
I wonder how hard it is to tap into that and run it to my furnace that I'm getting very soon...
Then later (over a year or more) I had them in to run a secondary from my house back out to the garage.
I have the nub sticking up out of the ground, apparently it's 'not locked' according to the gas guys so they don't have to come back when I go to get my furnace done.
I wonder how hard it is to tap into that and run it to my furnace that I'm getting very soon...
carcruse
Well-known member
Yes, and anodeless connectors above ground.
Friartuck
Well-known member
carcruse,
Can you elaborate a little on anodeless connectors? Is this strictly above ground or pipe in the ground and transitions through the ground to the connector or meter?
Can you elaborate a little on anodeless connectors? Is this strictly above ground or pipe in the ground and transitions through the ground to the connector or meter?
carcruse
Well-known member
Use them for transition from below ground to above ground. 1" ones were $50 each at Carter Lumber.
http://www.perfectioncorp.com/en/326.html
dlewis
Well-known member
Alot of inspectors want you to use the magnetic tape that you bury above underground utilities so it can be found with a locator,also if it's not marked and your digging you hit the tape first which is marked with the proper utility elecrtic pipe,gas pipe,water pipe etc.
6768rogues
Banned
The gas utility did mine. They put in a separate service with a meter at the garage. They allowed a certain number of feet and I was just over, it cost me $7.
anaxagoras
Well-known member
This is a bit off topic, but a friend of mine is running propane through annealed copper pipe, i'm pretty sure this is dumb, and expressed my concerns to him but he's confident that "it's fine". Any experts care to chime in? The line is mounted above ground secured to his siding running from his propane tank to his gas grill, probably a 50 foot run.
t. jones
Well-known member
Copper is ok inside or buried steel if it exposed outside Thanx Trevor