Hello there,
This is my first post here. I’ve been up in the attic of my 1907 house beginning to seal air leaks in anticipation of adding insulation–the house has none at all currently. I’ve come across a network of old gas pipes that originally serviced gaslights. I need to remove these lines–but I must admit some trepidation. Logic tells me they’re not connected to anything since I can see the open ends of the lines where the light fixtures are. I’ve even sawn about an inch off of one in my entryway where it was protruding from the ceiling. Nonetheless I can’t tell exactly where the line goes as it makes descends down the gap between the plaster and the exterior wall.
Is there a way I can test that these pipes aren’t connected to anything before either A) going for it or B) calling a plumber to verify? Information on this scenario is difficult to come by, and anyone’s individual experience or wisdom would be appreciated.
Thanks
BL
Replies
If the pipe's been cut open and you don't hear a "ssss" and smell gas (and the house is still standing) then everything connected to that pipe (up to the point of any valve, of course) is "safe". (Or as close to safe as one can hope for.)
But you may want to go into the basement and trace the gas line as it enters the house, and figure out where its various branches go. Hopefully you will only find one or two branches leading upward (other than the gas stove), and they will have shutoff valves where the lever is at right angles to the pipe rather than being in-line with it, indicating the "off" position. Ideally, the pipe above such valves should be disconnected and capped, just to be sure.
(In fact, if you call a plumber don't have him go into the attic, but instead make sure all unused branches in the basement are shut off and capped.)
Thanks for your reply. Right after I wrote my post, I did go down to the crawlspace and indeed, that pipe is disconnected, though not capped. No valve was present that I could see.
You can never
be sure where a branch might take off and feed a pipe that you think is unused. You might be looking at a disconnected pipe that fed *some* of the gas lights, while others were fed from somewhere downstream, say, near the range or water heater.
And, you can never be sure that someone won't come along some day and inadvertently reconnect a pipe that's sitting there with the other end open.
The best thing to do is have a plumber trace the lines and remove whatever can be removed. He can put caps and plugs in as needed if it's not clear. All you need is to have stuff out of the way so you can air-seal, which doesn't necessarily mean removing all of the visible pipe... although that's what I would do if possible.
It would take a pretty big idiot to come along and reconnect a gas pipe in a 100-year-old house without pressure testing it first. Not that there aren't such idiots, but you can't guard against every idiotic thing that MIGHT happen.
The main thing is to make sure that there's more than just a shutoff valve disconnecting the unused pipes. They should be physically disconnected from the main line in the crawl and the stubs from the main line should be capped, even if there are valves.