As stated in a previous post, I am about to "own" my first home. One thing I noticed alot in my 6 - 8 month home search here in Texas, is that many homes have gas H2O heaters and gas heaters, but electric ovens.
I would prefer to cook with gas and am wondering what the difficulty level would be to run gas into the kitchen for a stove.
Thanks for your thoughts.
ER
Easy enough.
First, you have a gas diameteric performed to insure that you have enough capacity from the meter to all the existing gas units with the additional load of fuel on the line. Second, you may wish to contact the local jurisdiction to find out if a homeowner in your area can legally modify an existing gas setup, and if so, will permits be required. An inspection will surely be required, and it is in your best interests. Find out the requirements for your locale for the line to be ran. Copper is not your best bet, particularly if the existing lines are stainless, or iron. Make sure you follow the International Gas Code, for the final termination, and you are set.
It all depends on where the gas enters the house now, where the stive is, and what kind of access you will have to run the line. Gas is typically run in black iron pipe but there are also coated flexible stainless steel lines. You may need to run from pretty close to the gas meter as the lines to the other appliances are usually not big enough to add things to.
In article , snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com says... :) As stated in a previous post, I am about to "own" my first home. One thing :) I noticed alot in my 6 - 8 month home search here in Texas, is that many :) homes have gas H2O heaters and gas heaters, but electric ovens. :) :) I would prefer to cook with gas and am wondering what the difficulty level :) would be to run gas into the kitchen for a stove. :) :) By chance did the homes you look at have the oven/stoves in place already and they happened to be electric? The gas connection may already be there. I can't think of seeing a home that had gas hook up not include the kitchen.
Sometimes it costs a developer to install or extend the gas mains into a new neighborhood, and they find it cheaper to just leave it out and make the houses all-electric.
Depending on the design of a home, say, a utility room in the rear of a garage, but the kitchen at the opposite end, it's not cost efective to have the plumber rough in a gas pipe all the way to the other side of the house, especially not knowing if the future homeowner would prefer gas or electric cooking. so the only 2 gas appliances are effectively right on the other side of the meter... no muss no fuss.
And some homes, like mine, had gas installed after the home was built, and if your gas codes are like mine - you're not even permitted to install gas lines or stub-outs for "future use." - the appliance to be connected must be there. So when I converted from oil heat to gas, only the water heater and boiler were connected and installed.
I wanted to convert everything possible, clothes dryer, range, BBQ, and pool heater, as the old appliances expired.
The plumber couldn't, by code, leave a capped-off "T" in the line at a convenient location for my future gas range, clothes dryer, nor a "T" outside by the meter for future pool heater and BBQ.
When the inspector showed up at the end of the day for a mercury pressure test, he turnd out to be a good friend's father... I asked about the inability to place stub-outs or at least t's capped off for the dryer, range and pool heater and BBQ and he said that was absolutely correct, and If I wasn't his son's friend he would not let it happen. But since I am, it was ok and luckily, both elbows where I would have preferred a T were leaking, and had to be removed... and were promptly replaced with capped-off T fittings.
I think that regulation is lawyer talk to "stupid proof" houses. People have been known to remove caps -- just because they were there -- and the house blows up. Don't allow caps, and the threat of the problem goes away (in the regulator's mind).
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Where does one turn for fireplace help? We just bought a house and the fireplace is in bad shape, i.e. the glass doors. They look terrible, but I don't know if I should simply replace the doors, the entire unit or if a good cleaning of the doors would suffice. Where can I find help with fireplaces?
A related question... I would like to build a small outdoor fireplace, but when I searched the web on the subject I didn't have much success. Any good websites or books on the subject?
Thanks much, Michael
This is Turtle.
Hey if you have gas to your home already and want gas to your kitchen. call your local gas supplier and request them to get the info on doing so. They have people working for them that do nothing but get info and details on getting more gas sold and lining you up to get gas to anywhere you want it to sell more gas. On most cases they don't do the work but they have all the info and detail info you need to get it done. In my area of Louisiana the gas company will buy you a free gas hot water tank if you have a electric hot water tank and want to switch to gas. Call them for this is your start.
TURTLE
Um, what exactly do you mean that the glass doors are in bad shape? Is the metal rusted or something? Is the glass just mucked-up so you can't se thru it? What?
On the bright side, you don't usually need to yank the whole thing (I'm guessing you have a metal box fireplace) unless there's something seriously wrong with it at the box level, like the damper permanently "welded" open or closed by rust, a bazillion air leaks, etc. If I recall right from the ugly experince I had with my box fireplace, replacing the doors (including the glass) isn't a major deal if you want to do that instead of embarking upon a DIY resotration project to occupy your time.
As for the outdoor thing, are you talking about building a fireplace or a fire pit? Fire pits are pretty simple -- they can be as simple or complex as you'd like depending on any prevailing local codes. You can get as simple as a hole with a bunch of rocks around it, a chimera sold by anywhere other than Home Depot or Mendard's, or something that resembles one of those big, huling limestone-faced BBQ thingamajigs our relatives with a bit of money built during the 1950s-60s.
AJS
And here I was thinking I was going to get a recipe for some a$$ burning chili.....................
For local help, contact a Certified Chimney Sweep. They can be located on this industry site:
Call TXU Gas (formerly Lonestar Gas) and ask for the Construction Services Dept.. they can talk you thru everything you'll need. I used to work there :)
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