Building over buried lines

Freds · May 31, 2006

Thanks for your reply and no, it's not too late. I'm still in the coordinating phase of various things I'd like to do around here and what goes where.

You sound like you have quite a bit of experience, can I throw a couple questions at you?

What are the chances that a new plastic gas line develop a leak and do you increase that chance by putting in a couple splice joints to move it?

Also, and here's a biggy....
A gas line was run from my well to my house back in 1978. No one is around anymore who knows where it might be /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. I had the local gas co. and the well people come out trying to locate it with their instruments and if it was where they thought it was, it would have been found when we were trenching the property for underground utilities.
Do you have any educated guesses as to what depth it might have been run at or what material the pipe may be? Do you know of a way to locate it without digging holes all over the property? Would a larger gas co. (National Fuel Gas as compared to North East Heat and Light) have better instruments?

Thanks for any insight and for commenting on my post.

Freds · May 31, 2006

Thanks for your reply and no, it's not too late. I'm still in the coordinating phase of various things I'd like to do around here and what goes where.

You sound like you have quite a bit of experience, can I throw a couple questions at you?

What are the chances that a new plastic gas line develop a leak and do you increase that chance by putting in a couple splice joints to move it?

Also, and here's a biggy....
A gas line was run from my well to my house back in 1978. No one is around anymore who knows where it might be /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif. I had the local gas co. and the well people come out trying to locate it with their instruments and if it was where they thought it was, it would have been found when we were trenching the property for underground utilities.
Do you have any educated guesses as to what depth it might have been run at or what material the pipe may be? Do you know of a way to locate it without digging holes all over the property? Would a larger gas co. (National Fuel Gas as compared to North East Heat and Light) have better instruments?

Thanks for any insight and for commenting on my post.

Bird · May 31, 2006

Freds, lobottomee has it exactly right, of course. And while I'm sure I have no where near his amount of experience, I did do gas leakage surveys for gas companies for a couple of years, so I can answer at least part of your questions. Chances of a new plastic line developing a leak? I don't know what the odds are, what percentage (small, I expect) develop leaks, etc., but I've found leaks on some that were less than 6 months old; most likely due to doing a poor job of splicing. As for your existing gas line, I don't know what it might be, but would guess that a 1978 line would be black pipe, although it's possible it's galvanized. And assuming it's one of the other, I don't understand why a gas company would have trouble locating it. If there's a place to connect their equipment to it, they should be able to follow it from that point at least 50' and I would expect more.

One place I was doing a gas leakage survey and following an 8" gas main, there was a business that had decided to build a new garage right on top of the gas main. They had already poured and completed the concrete floor/foundation when they were told they were on that gas main, and of course, the gas company had an easement, so they were about to start tearing it all out. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Bird · May 31, 2006

Freds, lobottomee has it exactly right, of course. And while I'm sure I have no where near his amount of experience, I did do gas leakage surveys for gas companies for a couple of years, so I can answer at least part of your questions. Chances of a new plastic line developing a leak? I don't know what the odds are, what percentage (small, I expect) develop leaks, etc., but I've found leaks on some that were less than 6 months old; most likely due to doing a poor job of splicing. As for your existing gas line, I don't know what it might be, but would guess that a 1978 line would be black pipe, although it's possible it's galvanized. And assuming it's one of the other, I don't understand why a gas company would have trouble locating it. If there's a place to connect their equipment to it, they should be able to follow it from that point at least 50' and I would expect more.

One place I was doing a gas leakage survey and following an 8" gas main, there was a business that had decided to build a new garage right on top of the gas main. They had already poured and completed the concrete floor/foundation when they were told they were on that gas main, and of course, the gas company had an easement, so they were about to start tearing it all out. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Freds · May 31, 2006

( I don't understand why a gas company would have trouble locating it. If there's a place to connect their equipment to it, they should be able to follow it from that point at least 50' and I would expect more.
)

They never connected anything to either the well end or the meter end. The well is several hundred yards from the house, across a creek that has a 10 ft ravine as the crow flies and can be forded if they zigged then zagged. The gas co. had some kind of wand instument and the guy said he didn't know if he was picking up the gas line or an underground stream. He mentioned something about the trees being younger looking on either side of the creek in one spot, but that would have meant they would have had to go under the creek at the deepest spot in the ravine, about 10 ft from ground level to the creek.

We turned the line off at the well when digging and I remember the excavator saying that he couldn't believe we didn't *find* it. Sure would be nice to know where it was or how deep.... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

Freds · May 31, 2006

( I don't understand why a gas company would have trouble locating it. If there's a place to connect their equipment to it, they should be able to follow it from that point at least 50' and I would expect more.
)

They never connected anything to either the well end or the meter end. The well is several hundred yards from the house, across a creek that has a 10 ft ravine as the crow flies and can be forded if they zigged then zagged. The gas co. had some kind of wand instument and the guy said he didn't know if he was picking up the gas line or an underground stream. He mentioned something about the trees being younger looking on either side of the creek in one spot, but that would have meant they would have had to go under the creek at the deepest spot in the ravine, about 10 ft from ground level to the creek.

We turned the line off at the well when digging and I remember the excavator saying that he couldn't believe we didn't *find* it. Sure would be nice to know where it was or how deep.... /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif