How Deep Is A Nipsco Residential Gas Service Line?

Purchase a mechanical permit to run gas line
Purchase PE pipe with risers and fittings
Dig your trench at least 18 inches deep
Cut and lay in your pipe with risers vertical and plumb
Pressure level exam pipe with air
Telephone call for inspection and go approved
Connect ends of pipage to source and other gas lines
Check for leaks at your new connections

Running a gas line underground to a garage, pole barn or any split out building from your home is a slap-up projection for even the average do it yourselfer. If you follow a few simple steps information technology tin can be done safely and with ease, other than perhaps digging that ditch.

The materials needed are uncomplicated and easy to assemble with no special tools required. You lot can get a visual of the unlike sizes of these materials by going hither to Amazon. No longer do you need the PE pipe welding machine.

You might want to rent a trenching motorcar.

Remember to search for the "Telephone call Earlier You Dig" number in your area.

I've helped many of my customers with this project even though they probably could take washed the whole job on their own. Especially now with great new products like PE pipe and fittings available online likewise at Home Depot.

Or this set beneath shipped to your door from Amazon fabricated by Abode-Flex.

Sometimes they merely don't want to hassle with buying the piping and they simply felt safer knowing someone was at that place that had done this before. And then I would only supply the materials and provide a helping mitt. And I didn't have to dig that ditch or fill it in.

The materials for running a gas line hugger-mugger are so readily bachelor now and you every bit a home owner are allowed to do gas piping for your own domicile. And this is true in near all counties in the USA. Not sure about countries other than the USA. Just call your local edifice section if you have one and verify.

If you are uncertain about doing this DIY projection I wrote what I thought was a convincing article most how to find a good contractor titled 30 Questions When Buying A New HVAC System. Selection the questions that apply.

The purpose of this article is to help yous feel confident that yous can do this job. Permit me make full in the blanks and help you lot run that pipage and so you can savor a warm winter working on that hot rod or whatever projects your shop allows you to turn out.

You Demand A Mechanical Permit To Run Your Gas Line

If you are unfamiliar with getting mechanical permits, information technology's generally much easier than applying for a building permit. Their are a few counties out there that make it very difficult, merely you lot can practice it.

In the two states I'thou used to doing business concern in information technology is only filling out a grade and checking a few boxes. It's washed online now and we merely driblet in the court firm and pick upwards the let. Inspections are scheduled on a phone app.

And and then of grade paying for the allow. It should be prophylactic to say that the average price for a mechanical permit across the nation should exist less than a hundred dollars.

When you purchase your permit you volition be given all the instructions on how to finalize the inspection for your particular area.

Keep all your paperwork, specially if y'all always sell your home y'all have firsthand proof that y'all did buy proper permits and had a final inspection.

In most areas you will be given a really bright card, probably pink that volition be displayed so that the inspector driving by can spot you home in example he can't see or read the accost.

Y'all volition likewise exist given the signature bill of fare that the inspector volition sign when he or she approves your chore. Go along this in a safe identify. Your county probably volition have this on record, only you be the gauge if yous desire to trust their record keeping system.

I've been doing a lot of research on this and related things on gas piping because things vary from state to land and I don't want to give out wrong information. Like, if you search for "exercise i need a permit to run a gas line undercover?".

One of the answers I got while searching on the nigh popular search engine was…………..

If you try to install a new gas line yourself, you may use the wrong type of pipe, and then the gas can build upwards, resulting in an explosion. Your life isn't worth the money you may be saving by undertaking this dangerous job on your ain.
perryplumbing.com

So, don't use the incorrect pipe. Follow forth and do this yourself, safely and reliably. Discover the best manner to run gas line hush-hush.

How Deep Does A Gas Line Have To Be Buried?

By and large the depth of your ditch should be 18 to 24 inches. The type of terrain volition take something to do with the depth.

Always bank check with your local building department for specific code regarding depth of your ditch in your surface area.

You will be using a form of plastic pipe, so the lesser of your ditch should exist articulate of rocks and debris that can cause problems with the new pipe. If the ditch is really rough it may need to be dug a footling deeper and be filled with a few inches of good clean fill dirt or sand to protect the gas line.

Before yous cover your pipe in the ditch, code requires some additional piece of work. An inspector volition desire to inspect the ditch before you embrace the pipe and cloak-and-dagger piping has to be detectable after it's covered.

More i method can be used for locating hugger-mugger pipage. If y'all're curious well-nigh what these methods are you can bank check out this site, it's well illustrated.

When future tenants brainstorm new projects that require disturbing the globe effectually your business firm, it's vital that your gas line can be discovered quickly and accurately.

Normally a dark-green coated wire cached forth side your gas line.

When the phone call earlier you dig people come to observe buried Tv cable, phone lines, h2o lines and annihilation else that may be buried on your property they will attach a signal generator to the greenish tracer wire which enables a hand held device to read the location of your gas line.

What Kind Of Piping Is Used For Underground Gas Lines?

Polyethylene pipe which we volition refer to as PE piping is made from the polymerization of ethylene. It'due south xanthous, comes in a scroll and information technology'due south very light weight. Y'all can probably fit all you need into your body.

Polyethylene (PE) gas piping is the almost widely used plastic pipe material for the distribution of natural gas. PE has a well-documented inertness to both the external soil environment and to natural gas. Extensive testing and over 45 years of successful field experience confirm that the long-term strength of polyethylene is unaffected past natural gas and its common constituents.
plasticpipe.org

Can you lot run steel gas line underground? Aye, y'all could use fusion bonded steel piping, simply it's so much more piece of work and if your ditch is over 21 feet long you will have joints underground and have to cut and thread the pipe, and the fourth dimension involved is so much longer and it's just not worth talking about here.

With PE pipe you will have i single piece of piping from end to cease and information technology's so unproblematic and clean verses the cutting and oil and wrenching and just don't do it. PE pipe is just and so superior to anything else out there for gas pipage in a ditch.

I tin but speak for the half of dozen counties I've done work in, only as an instance let me utilize my own shop. I installed the gas line later construction. I cadre drilled a two inch hole through the lesser 24 plate and the concrete. With the ditch ending just under the footing. I then poked the riser up into the wall of the garage.

This line from the meter runs hush-hush across the dorsum yard to the gas meter next to the house

It was inspected and passed with flight colors.

Before PE pipe and easy coupled fittings were available we had to take a local propane visitor fuse the risers on the terminate of our pipage.

We would have to give them the exact dimensions cease to end and hope you got it right when you laid it in the ditch. Now you tin can lay it in the ditch and cutting it to fit on the spot.

The internet has some comments about using PVC pipe. PVC stands for polyvinyl chloride. That'south something to shy abroad from. The information is unclear because of the misinformation available and PVC has specific uses and natural gas and propane are non listed.

This is where that plumber is proverb yous could employ the wrong piping and cause an explosion.

What Size PE Piping Practise I Need?

The diameter of pipe yous need is determined by the length of the pipe and the amount of Btu load at the end.

Exist certain to consider at this time any future requirement that could develop. Up sizing the PE piping in your ditch is cheaper now than later.

You may have already got a quote or ii to practice this project. That's probably why you're looking into doing it yourself. They may accept told you the size or put the correct size on their quote.

Another option to know the correct would be to phone call tech support for the brand of pipe your bought. They may want to exist helpful, they may non. Attempt another brands tech support.

Ane last option that I tin recall of, is to pay an HVAC contractor or a plumber to come up out and practise the sizing. They could even do that over the phone if you lot gave them the right information.

If you desire to figure information technology out for yourself bank check out these charts and a forum listed below.

up.codes/s/required-gas-piping-size
engineeringtoolbox.com/natural-gas-piping-sizing
doityourself.com/forum/natural-gas-piping-size-calculator.html

How Much Should Information technology Toll To Bury My PE Pipe?

These prices vary from in different areas of the country so I tried to list them on the high side of what I recall they should be.

Allow price should be less than $100.00

Currently a daily rental for a 24″ trenching automobile is less than $200.00 and closer to $125.00 for four hr rental.

On Amazon you can go 100 feet of one″ PE pipe for but over $200.00 and I chose i″ because it's an average size.

Add in two risers at about $85.00 each for ii would be $170.00

Their are always some miscellaneous items like a pressure gauge for about less than $ten.00 and the fittings to connect. You may discover a contrary threaded coupling handy.

Some inspectors may non want to see a wedlock in this application. A reverse threaded coupling would make the chore look more professional person and impress your inspector.

Reverse couplings can be a fiddling intimidating at first, but with a fiddling trial and mistake you'll become the idea.

Information technology's nothing more a short length of pipage or nipple with right handed threads on one end and left handed threads on the other. A special coupling fits on the left handed thread finish and information technology volition connect two pipes together just similar a union.

The arrows point to the unpainted reverse coupling nipple on top connected to riser at the lesser pointer.

So dorsum to how much does it cost to run a gas line hugger-mugger:

Allow $100
Trencher $170
PE pipage iii/iv X 100′ $sixty your length and diameter may vary
Two risers $170
Misc $50
Total $690

That should be a good budget number to go some ideas with. I know you're a prudent shopper and tin get it done for less. If you're like me you accept these numbers and double them. Information technology simply never seems to fail.

Conclusion

The articles on my website have been fun and are beginning to return a little revenue from ads and some affiliate links.

It is my goal to replace my office time or semi retired income from working in the HVAC arena and fully retire inside the next couple of years.

If yous have ever dreamed of a fiddling extra or a lot of extra income you lot need to see the guys that have inspired me. Take just a moment, watch and mind.

And so how do they run gas line clandestine? Elementary, correct! Now that you know, you can exist running gas line underground for grill, fire pit or whatsoever other remote gas fixture yous can think of.

Running propane gas lines hush-hush is however principle. Be sure to follow local codes and restrictions as they vary in different jurisdictions. Learn the differences betwixt natural gas and LP or propane. One is lighter than air the other heavier.

Consider an earthquake safety close off valve. I wrote an article about these prophylactic valves. You can read it here.

Customers enquire nigh running copper gas line underground. In some counties it's legal to run copper gas line above basis, only never underground that I've ever experienced or heard of. Electrolysis will attack copper and eat hole right through it.

Since yous've read this far, why not travel just a flake further and telescopic out a couple of my favorite heating and cooling products and tools.

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