A) Why does this gas pipe seem to go straight past my meter?

B) Is this potentially not mine and therefore there’s another one hidden somewhere for me to pick-axe?

C) Any winning ‘lines to take’ to ask gas board to bury it to a more satisfying depth than 6 inches?

Ta *BOOM*

Perhaps its redundant or has a convoluted route to your meter?
Keep digging to expose its full length? (fnarrr)

Blimey, now I’m on PC I can see how awful those pics are!

Pretty much can discount convoluted route as you can see it’s going straight past meter, and no way it’ got enough space in my boundaries to double back.

I’ll admit though, I’m completely ignorant with how gas work, as in where does it ‘spur’ from? Water – fine, pavement and comes into my house – gas, not so clear.

Bump for any morning folk that may know, before I potentially embarrass myself with gas board?

This might be helpful, or it might not be. 37.5mm minimum depth for service pipes is “only a guideline”

http://www.hse.gov.uk/pipelines/faqs.htm

Surely if you are worried about where the pipe that feeds the meter goes you can start at the meter and carefully chase it back?

Is there another house to the left of your picture? Are there tobies at the street – and is there more than one?

What are you trying to do anyway? Lay a driveway?

37.5mm minimum

Looks deeper than that. 😉 (should be 375mm)

^ 37.5mm?! 375mm, shirley?

Edit, beaten to it. Balls.

Get a screwdriver and make a small hole in the top then see what comes out then get a sticky plaster and cover up.

Even if it was 375mm deep, it’s clearly not anymore 😀

If it’s on your property and there’s no legal basis for it to be there, maybe what’s in it is all yours.

Tap into it and use it for heating your house.
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Disclaimer: man who follows foolish advice is fool. 🙂

I had some success with all 3 services by suggesting I was concerned about the route my water / gas and electricity took, being too near the surface.

I basically said I was worried about cutting through them with my spade.

Had all 3 moved free (would have cost over 2k otherwise!)

At the time a friend suggested that the guideline was a spade and a half depth (probably the 375mm).

Good luck!

I imagine you live in a ‘house’, also I imagine there are other ‘houses’ near by. It may well go one of them?

*sarcastic mode off*

Looks like a standard 1″ domestic service so it’ll be you neighbours. It’ll need national grid, scotia gas or Northern gas, networks to move it (you’ll be scotia right?). I’d imagine they’ll make moving it as difficult as possible so that you’ll give up and leave them alone.

Just be grateful it won’t be one of our cabbages doing it anymore.

thestabiliser – Member
…Looks like a standard 1″ domestic service so it’ll be you neighbours. It’ll need national grid, scotia gas or Northern gas, networks to move it (you’ll be scotia right?). I’d imagine they’ll make moving it as difficult as possible so that you’ll give up and leave them alone…

That would be when I accidentally dented it with my pliers spade, and cut off the supply. I’m sure they’d be along shortly to fix it, but unfortunately there’a a solid garden feature on top of it.

Gas really don’t care. I’ve had one just under the base of a footpath. Around 100mm if I remember rightly. I’m also liking the zero sand above and distinct lack of marker tape!

In fairness, the housing developer may have laid the services and the gas board just commissioned them.

If I was you I would seek the advice of Professor Nosmo King.

It’ll be the cannabis farm next door tapping off your gas supply.

why would a cannabis farm want a gas supply???

Rachel

The cannabis farm we redeveloped a few years back had indeed gone underground for gas and electric.

why would a cannabis farm want a gas supply???

I dont know…….why would a cannabis farm need a gas supply ?

I say, I say ,I say……..did you here about the cannabis farm that has no gas supply ?????

It was stoned cold!

Reminds me of when I were a lad and I offered to weed next doors’ garden for a few bob.

Turns out he had gas running to his house in a plastic pipe that ran directly under the flowerbed at the edge of his lawn, about 10cm down with no protection or markers. That was a short days gardening 😳

Previous experience has shown that once within your boundary the depth matters not to them, I think they might stuggle to maintain a guaranteed depth when “moleing” a service to your meter.

What are these ‘markers’ you talk of?

I’m going to dig along a bit further to expose where exactly the pipe goes (probably straight past my house & next door by the looks of it), but any potential failings in procedures (such as these mysterious marker things and the sand WS spoke of) would help my case with Gas board for getting them to sort it, rather than use my precious renovation funds.

EDIT: The ground is essentially solid bricks/slate/crap with a bit of soil thown in, and is a bastard to dig out, so it’s fairly obvious someone just couldn’t be arsed to dig properly.

Bear in reality it should be nicely surrounded by a bit of fill sand (cheap sand that’s no good for building with) to protect it from sharp edges such as the crap your yard seems to made up of and then a bit of marker tape above it which is about 5 inch wide yellow and has gas main below written all over it.

Cheers WS, appreciate your input. Whilst it appears the depth is not regulated, is there a contravention of rules with it being surrounded by sharps and without markers?

Sorry, I have googled but have only found ‘guidance’.

Genuinely a bit 😯 as to digging any more.

Very nice chap from Gas board has been & scratched head.

Going to get a ‘team’ up to figure out what’s going on, as I’ve got a plastic service, a has my neighbour.

This is a metal pipe, coated in plastic.

Could be dead, could be live, could be my other neighbour’s service (in which case, they’ll remove & end up doing a lot of the groundwork around my gaff for me 😀 )

(Do you know how they find out if it’s live? They drill a ******* hole in it!)

Get a tee on it, quick!And one for me – free gas for EVERYONE!

I was managing a site once where we needed a gas main moving. Medium pressure so 7 bar in a steel main, they just drilled into that too. I asked the guys working on it if they’d rerouted it first or something, but no it was still live. I asked about sparks and they pointed out that there was only gas in the pipe and no oxygen so the sparks or heat would do nothing. I spent the day as far away from it as I could!