Can I demand new gas supply pipe from meter goes below ground into house?

[clive.r.long]

Hi,

(On the basis of the experience at my mother's house). Currently at my hous e the electricity and gas meters are hidden away under the stairs. At some time (*) I guess whoever owns the meters will want them placed on an outsid e wall. That's fine for me as I have a spot on the front of the property wh ich will be convenient for me and the meter readers.

When my mother had this meter swap done, the gas pipe that came out of the meter was a 15mm copper pipe which was tacked along the outside wall at a h eight I thought was fantastically vulnerable until the pipe plunged into he r house. Now in my house the current gas supply pipe (I think it has a yell ow plastic shield around it (?)) comes in at a depth of about 50cm below th e front door step then runs a short distance to the existing gas meter unde r the stairs. I know this because at the moment I am have various floor joi sts and boards replaced (a different, painful, expensive other story). The soil around here is clay and the current gas supply pipe on my property lie s below a driveway and path made of concrete paving bricks (correct name?). Both the pavers and the clay are "easy" to remove, nothing is cemented in place, the pavers are easy to lever out the first and lift out the others. So my contention would be, should I ever need to have this discussion, is t hat as the front drive would need to be lifted to terminate the gas supply pipe to an external gas meter. The "consumer side" of the gas meter could s imilarly be laid below ground alongside or in place of the existing pipe, e ntering my house below ground, travelling to the existing position of the g as meter. Then where the existing meter currently is located, the standard "meter bypass" ( I seem to remember some flexible hose at my mother's house ) would be put in place of the existing meter.

Again, none of this is scheduled yet and make take years to reach my proper ty, but forewarned is forearmed.

Thanks for any shared experience of dealing with this.

Regards,

Clive

(*) I don't have a date for the meter moves and I am not pushing for it.

[harry]

On Tuesday, 16 February 2016 20:05:17 UTC, [e-mail] wrote:

use the electricity and gas meters are hidden away under the stairs. At som e time (*) I guess whoever owns the meters will want them placed on an outs ide wall. That's fine for me as I have a spot on the front of the property which will be convenient for me and the meter readers.

e meter was a 15mm copper pipe which was tacked along the outside wall at a height I thought was fantastically vulnerable until the pipe plunged into her house. Now in my house the current gas supply pipe (I think it has a ye llow plastic shield around it (?)) comes in at a depth of about 50cm below the front door step then runs a short distance to the existing gas meter un der the stairs. I know this because at the moment I am have various floor j oists and boards replaced (a different, painful, expensive other story). Th e soil around here is clay and the current gas supply pipe on my property l ies below a driveway and path made of concrete paving bricks (correct name? ). Both the pavers and the clay are "easy" to remove, nothing is cemented i n place, the pavers are easy to lever out the first and lift out the others . So my contention would be, should I ever need to have this discussion, is that as the front drive would need to be lifted to terminate the gas suppl y pipe to an external gas meter. The "consumer side" of the gas meter could similarly be laid below ground alongside or in place of the existing pipe, entering my house below ground, travelling to the existing position of the gas meter. Then where the existing meter currently is located, the standar d "meter bypass" ( I seem to remember some flexible hose at my mother's hou se) would be put in place of the existing meter.

erty, but forewarned is forearmed.

Unless there's a current safety issue, they'll charge you. When they come to put a new meter in, it will be done to current standards. ie like you mums.

[Tricky Dicky]

If your gas network provider is replacing pipes then the pipe to the proper ty will be underground, it may not necessitate any trench work they used a mole device on my last house to get it up most of the drive and would have completed it without any trench work except the mole hit a tree root. If yo ur meter is in the house and you wish to keep it there then they will bring the pipe up vertically as near the meter outside and connect through the w all. If you opt for an external box they will fit one free bringing the pip e externally to the box. After the meter they will take the the most conven ient route internally or externally to connect to the pipes to where the me ter originally was. After the meter it is entirely up to you how the pipes enter your house but I doubt the network installers will do it as they will be under contract to do it for a price and that may not run to extra work merely for cosmetic purposes.

You can hire your own installer to reroute the pipe work to your specificat ions, l would suggest if this involves doing any digging, do it yourself as this can work out very expensive at gas installer rates. You might be able to convince the network installers to do it as a foreigner but it will onl y be done after they have initially connected everthing up as they will req uire to test the installation is safe.

Richard

[stuart noble]

Outside boxes make it easier to read meter (and disconnect the supply if necessary)

[Harry Bloomfield]

Phil L formulated on Wednesday :

They are presently replacing all of the old gas mains in the village. We already had an outside meter installed, but the supply pipe was being moved from the rear, to the road at the front of all all the properties.

I found them very helpful in negotiating the route of the pipe up my drive, so as to avoid areas I didn't want disturbing. Some of the houses were faced with having surface pipes, due to there being no better route. Next door was one such house, but I agreed to them T'ing off our pipe to avoid having to have an ugly surface pipe.

They made several deep narrow holes, and used a mole to link the holes

- disturbance was minimal.