New mains gas pipes

[mustang1]

I had a letter saying a company needs to replace gas pipes in my street .I've seen gas pipes being installed around my area so am aware of it going on. The letter says the work will go on for three weeks but in thee surrounding streets it's already gone past a month.

Anyway, the letter said they may need access to my property. Have any of you guys had gas people coming into your property? Just wondering what kind of things they need to do and should I just take normal precautions or is there anything else to watch out for?

 

[Smokin Joe]

I've got them coming to me on Wednesday, they need to uprate the pipes on all the houses on the estate and replace the meters. They need access to the property to make sure everything is working again which doesn't sound like it will take long. The whole job is reckoned to take half a day.

I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[classic33]

If the work is ongoing, make sure you check their badges. Someone may take the opportunity of the work going on to gain access, for other reasons.

You on a smart meter yet?

 

[Heltor Chasca]

Two years ago I booked in my gas supplier to fit a new smart meter. Still waiting indoors for them to come. Send help.

Worse story: The local water supplier banged on my door and asked me to move my vehicle off the drive. When I enquired as to why, they informed me they needed to dig my drive up to fit a new water meter and pipe from the main road. When I refused, the bloke got aggressive and combative spouting ‘It’s the law etc etc...’ Which it is for NEW HOME OWNERS and as I had lived here for years he could go and Foxtrot Oscar whilst taking a photo of him and his ID badge. He went off to his phone and started a very shouty dialogue with someone from the company. I rung customer services straight away. Turns out he got the wrong house! They sent me a letter saying he had been disciplined for his behaviour and shoot navigational skills. Tonsil.

It was lucky I had briefly come home before the school run as they would have gone ahead without my knowledge and left me with larger bills and a mucked up driveway.

 

[accountantpete]

It depends where the pipes connect.

With ours the junction from the main common pipe to our individual pipe was under the pavement outside our house - so they didn't need to come on our property. A couple of other houses the street had this junction on the driveway - so they needed to dig up this bit.

 

[Levo-Lon]

its gas,they have to check the houses as supply will be interrupted.
their very professional and wont intrude any more than absolutely necessary.

 

[User6179]

They just need in when finished to make sure the boiler is running fine, I was out so they never got in to mine, just left a card saying to phone them, I never bothered as everything was working fine.

 

[slowmotion]

If they need to cut the supply pipe to your home, air can get into it. Gas and air can easily make an explosive mixture. The gas people need to bleed off the mixture by running gas through the pipework until all the air is vented away. It's called "purging". It doesn't take long. For domestic installations they typically purge with about 0.4 cubic feet of gas. Then it's safe to re-light the boiler etc.

Edit: the explosive range for natural gas in air is surprisingly low, anywhere between 5 and 15%. Above that range, the gas burns.

 

[BoldonLad]

Two years ago I booked in my gas supplier to fit a new smart meter. Still waiting indoors for them to come. Send help.

Worse story: The local water supplier banged on my door and asked me to move my vehicle off the drive. When I enquired as to why, they informed me they needed to dig my drive up to fit a new water meter and pipe from the main road. When I refused, the bloke got aggressive and combative spouting ‘It’s the law etc etc...’ Which it is for NEW HOME OWNERS and as I had lived here for years he could go and Foxtrot Oscar whilst taking a photo of him and his ID badge. He went off to his phone and started a very shouty dialogue with someone from the company. I rung customer services straight away. Turns out he got the wrong house! They sent me a letter saying he had been disciplined for his behaviour and shoot navigational skills. Tonsil.

It was lucky I had briefly come home before the school run as they would have gone ahead without my knowledge and left me with larger bills and a mucked up driveway.

Not necessarily a larger water bill. Our water bill halved on switching to a meter. There are only two of us in the house.

 

[mustang1]

If the work is ongoing, make sure you check their badges. Someone may take the opportunity of the work going on to gain access, for other reasons.

You on a smart meter yet?

Not on smart meter yet. I have a feeling they will "sell" me that. There was a thread here about smart meters and how we should wait for generation 2 models to come out.

 

[ColinJ]

They did the street at the end of my terrace recently. I heard a knock at the door and found a couple of gas company reps on my doorstep. They asked where the gas pipe came into my property and I told them that it came in to the far end of my cellar from a side street. They said that the gas main on that street was not being touched so I was ok.

 

[bruce1530]

They’ve just done the streets around me. Replaced all the old cast iron pipes with plastic.

Had to dig a hole outside virtually every house - I believe they replaced the main by pushing plastic pipes down inside the existing cast-iron ones. They only had to dig a few driveways.

The works went on for 2 or 3 weeks, but gas was only off for a couple of hours. When reconnected, they did various pressure tests at the meter box (outside), then came into house to check boiler was OK - since most don’t have pilot lights these days, it wasn’t really necessary.

 

[subaqua]

As @slowmotion says it’s to purge the pipes and make sure you have gas at the point of use rather than gas/air mix . Nothing to worry about

 

[Tim Hall]

I've got them coming to me on Wednesday, they need to uprate the pipes on all the houses on the estate and replace the meters. They need access to the property to make sure everything is working again which doesn't sound like it will take long. The whole job is reckoned to take half a day.

I'll let you know how it goes.

You might need to temporarily change your user name to something less incendiary until they've finished the work.

 

[raleighnut]

They’ve just done the streets around me. Replaced all the old cast iron pipes with plastic.

Had to dig a hole outside virtually every house - I believe they replaced the main by pushing plastic pipes down inside the existing cast-iron ones. They only had to dig a few driveways.

The works went on for 2 or 3 weeks, but gas was only off for a couple of hours. When reconnected, they did various pressure tests at the meter box (outside), then came into house to check boiler was OK - since most don’t have pilot lights these days, it wasn’t really necessary.

They use a bit of kit called a 'Mole' to tunnel from hole to hole.

View: https://youtu.be/glpsaCSvZsI