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.