Pipe runs beneath floor.

[Arthur]

Hi all. The Corgi guy is coming tomorrow and alongside of the other tasks, he will be laying a gas pipe run beneath the floor in the hall. The pipe will run parallel with the floor boards for at least 3 metres. I have loosened a number of boards to make the job easier/quicker. But I haven't yet made it possible to manouvre a pipe much longer than a couple of feet long into the gaps beneath the joists.

I'd like to hear your ideas on this as in what should I do.

Thanks.

Arthur

[Set Square]

Unless there's a lot of clearance under the joists, it's difficult to feed long rigid pipes in that way - 'cos adjacent joists limit the angle of attack.

You can get a better angle by feeding it in parallel to and between the joists - and then dropping it and rotating it under the joists.

Alternatively, might it be possible to feed it in through an air brick?

[Arthur]

Thanks, Set. The air vented piece of wood beneath the door step would be the likely entry point using your idea. Havinf said all this, the guy will probably run it through notches accross the tops of the joists.

Arthur

[Andrew Gabriel]

...or take a brick out temporarily. When I replaced my gas pipework, I drilled a new hole through from the outside anyway as the meter is outside and the old hole was too small and in the wrong place. I fed all the lengths of pipe in through the hole, ahead of the final one which was coupled up to the meter.

I did consider soldering them together as I pushed them in, but decided it might be hard to get the angle just right, and any deviation might put extra stress in the joints in their final positions. So soldering was done in the wriggle space under the floor afterwards.

[Arthur]

And having said 'That'. I've just checked these joists are only 3" deep so the pipe will have to go under.

Arthur

[Martyn Pollard]

What about using Tracpipe? It can be expensive if you use a lot of fittings (prices at BES), but consider the potential labour cost/metre to lay gas pipe. Its worth looking at especially when you're running a gas pipe from A to B via some convoluted route.

Martyn