We've had some problems with our drains
I got a drain cleaning expert in and he sent a camera down - there's a bright yellow gas pipe going right through our drain pipe at right angles!
Drain man says the gas people sometimes install new gas pipes using a burrowing machine that carries a pipe through and this will have caused this.
Anyone else had this? These burrowing machines sound impressive!
When I had my gas meter moved, they said that at the same time they had to replace the old iron pipe from the property to the gas main, about twenty yards away. They used a 'mole', and IIRC it towed the new pipe behind it. Unfortunately about two-thirds of the way it met the granite foundations of some cottages that had been demolished about a century previously, and got no further, so they had to connect to the old gas pipe at that point.
That happened to us years ago.
In 1981 we bought a house. While the formalities were taking place, BG fitted a meter to the outside of the house (the house had no gas, and in fact we never used it either).
In 1994 we sold the house, and a drain test revealed a damaged rainwater drain (our roof and next door). The pipe ran diagonally across the garden.
Yes, BG had clipped a semicircular piece out of the top of it, 13 years before.
We nearly had a large bang in our road when the gas 'mole' scraped the electricity feeder in the road. Every time it rained we lost our electricity supply as the water percolated downwards.
Property developers building a new large estate replaced a standard highways road sign to include a pointer to their estate. This went straight through my foul drain which was fine for a while (5 inch clay pipe on my property feeding into a square stone conduit running under the pavement), but then blocked. My drain survey revealed all the concrete poured into the conduit. They did repair it reasonably quickly, and refund my survey fee.
Well as you can't have a dip or rise in your drain to clear the gas pipe, the gas pipe is going to have to be moved.
I'd give them a call first thing in the morning, tell them it's urgent as it's causing you problems with your drainage and get them to put it all right - and refund you your costs (survey, time off work, etc.).
Transco have just done that as well as cutting through the broadband fibre for the entire street, during the process of fitting a new gas main along the footpath opposite us - the pipe installation is ongoing still. None of which affected us.
Our side had a new gas main installed a few years ago, but along the actual road, why they didn't do both sides at the same time is anyones guess. A month ago, the entire road was resurfaced at great expense, though not the footpaths - so quite rightly, they were refused the right to put the new pipe in the road.
Never seen that, one would expect that to have caused the mole to stop. Maybe the drain is cracked as well? If you can prove it was the gas mob then they should be sent your picture and asked to fix it pronto. Brian
Since I had no gas in use they just put a stop end in the main street pipe, marked it on their computer and never bothered. The next person who wants gas here will need to get a pipe run in, as the old one is mostly made of rust. Brian
Happened in West Sussex in 1986. High pressure water main and medium pressure main gas main were 'interconnected' by a burrowing device used to install new pipework, resulting in water spewing out of everyones gas appliances.
BG brought in engineers from all over the country to visit every property to make sure all gas appliances were turned off while they removed all the water from their pipes and also to make sure that when gas pressure was reinstated, no house would have a unlit pilot light.
They even commandeered our village carpark to use a base. There were several dozen BG vans based there for a few days.
My 1976-built house has the incoming SEEboard electricity cable
*inside* a length of gas pipe where it comes into the house under the front door, upthrough the slab which a hole was bashed through, then it runs along the *top* of the slab for about 3 feet and is then chased into the party wall up and into the metal wylex combined meter/fuse board box set into the party wall.I only discovered this when I dug out all the ground floor screed to have an insulated floor on battens. Luckily the section of screed just inside the front door detached from the slab before I did some gung-ho digging with my SDS drill allowing me to lift it out in big chunks.
I would post a photo but I don't have one of those imgur? accounts.
Although it is more costly, I have often thought that utilities should be run under the pavements or verges and not the roads, preventing disruption of the road sub-structure and surface and consequent future damage.
Pavements don't have to take the same punishment, so can be replaced after digging, with little effect on future life. Plus, pedestrians can use the other pavement during work, unlike vehicles, thus avoiding the need for congestion causing delays due to temporary traffic lights.
Separate utilities for each side of the road, with minimal cross-overs, or at least each utility on one side, with ducts (placed before road construction or moled in afterwards) from side to side, so the road never needs to be dug up for utility work.
My parents and all their neighbours had this last year when a water main in the road burst, spraying a jet of water 20 feet in the air, gouging out the ground and damaging a nearby gas main and flooding it. My parents didn't have water coming out of the gas cooker etc, but everyone lost their gas supply for several days while teams from all over the country were brought in to drain the pipe. As you say, BG have to visit every house to make sure the gas supply is turned off at the meter before gas is restored to the main pipe, and then they need to visit again to turn each house back on and make sure appliances are working.
Ironically, BG had just finished replacing an old cast iron gas pipe with a new plastic one; it was the new plastic which was damaged.
You could post it using postimages.org (copy and paste the resulting "Direct Link").
not asll roads have pavements. Whre they do, you often find one utility using them.
I don't think the pavements around here can take simultaneously
electricity 3 phase cable BT copper wiring and BT Fibre in ducting Virgin media Coax, POTs and fibre in ducting Blue plastic water main pipe Yellow plastic gas main City Fibre in its own ducting Stormwater drainpipe thats up to 24 inch in diameter Foul water drainpipes also in 24 inch diameter
Had exactly this a decade or few back. At least, I think it was gas. Drains blocked up so called out water company. Camera down, and some kind soul had moled straight through the drains. All fixed at no charge.
Cheers
Dave R
So. Am I the only one around here humming -
The gas pipe runs through the middle of our drain The gas pipe runs through the middle of our drain The gas pipe runs through the middle of our drain Since the company drilled our land.
Only me then? Look what Uncle Mac and Children's Favourites did to me!
Nick
ha ha the mole strikes again ...tee hee
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