[Shop-talk] Is this a shutoff?

[Scott Hall]

Fair point. I suppose I should ask myself that.

I'm comfortable with sweating copper pipe, and I've done that with water
supply systems enough that I'm confident I can handle that. The gas piping
in my basement appears to be a mixture of copper pipe and black iron pipe
(which I haven't ever messed with).

I dunno--HVAC, I leave alone because I know nothing about it. Electricity
near and upstream of a breaker box I leave alone lest I kill myself. Gas
lines seem to me to be just plumbing that carries a different fluid.
Provided I shut off the gas at the meter and let it vent for, oh...a week
or so, I figure I'm not going to kill myself. Since I'd be re-doing the
whole thing from the meter down, I thought I'd just do it once and be done
with it. Maybe I'll set everything up and call a plumber and have them
pressure test it and hook it up to the meter. Might not be a bad idea.

And looking at what's there now, well, clearly someone with zero skill did
that. I'm confident I can do better than whomever installed the rat's nest
of plumbing that's there now. The existing water heater gas line will go
when the heater goes, if only because it's just a copper line dangling
about an inch over the height of my head for thirty feet from the boiler
through a different room to the water heater. It was clearly done as
quickly and cheaply as possible. I don't think I want a gas pipe hanging
out where it would get molested, and not secured to anything.

...or ought I rethink that?

And...copper, or black iron? I like copper because I know how to sweat
fittings. But if iron is better, I'll use that.

And those shutoffs: they're like that (not having handles) in an effort to
be tamper resistant? They're all over, with no logic I can divine. I'd
expect there to be one on the main line inside the house, so I can shut off
all gas without going out to the meter, one in front of every
appliance/fixture/whatever, right? It's not like that. The water heater has
one. The boiler for the radiators has about three on one line between it
and the main line. Almost like they were used as junctions for piping
(there are no tees off that line). There's not one at all for the
stove--you have to shut off one of the ones upstream of the boiler if you
want to do anything with the stove. There are lines that go...nowhere with
ball-valve lever shutoffs. I'm not sure what those were intended to service.

Perhaps I'll Google "gas plumbing system design".  I'm confident I can do
this. Then again, if you see a mushroom cloud over the Midwest, you'll know
I was wrong. :-) Feel free to tell me so--there might very well be a whole
list of things I Don't Know and Ought Not To Mess With Regarding Gas
Plumbing.

On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 5:13 PM, Jeff Scarbrough <fishplate at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 5:13 PM, Scott Hall
> <scott.hall.personal at gmail.com> wrote:
> > So I guess now this is a: "any advice for someone about to re-plumb the
> gas
> > lines in his house?" thread.
>
> Assuming you are planning on doing the work yourself:  I don't know
> how to say this without being a wee bit blunt, but it's important for
> me to ask:  Should someone who is unsure what a gas shutoff looks like
> be contemplating a DIY gas plumbing job?
>
> Me, I'd spray a bit of penetrating oil on it before I gave up on the
> existing shutoff...
>
> Jeff Scarbrough
> Corrosion Acres, Ga.