Gas Line Location?

[Hawkwind]

Where is the location of the gas line for pre-owned homes that have natural gas for heat and cooking? I would assume that it is run through the concrete slab but in some parts of the country it is run through the attic.

[BogeyBoy]

My house that was built in 2006 had the lines through the attic.

[ricthemic]

Our house was built in 2001. The gas main from the meter also goes up to the attic where it has an adjustable pressure regulator/reducing valve (PRV) then pipsx to a header which feeds all the gas appliances with flexible piping designed for natural gas.
If you are adding additional gas appliances you may need to have your PRV adjusted especially when your furnace is operating.

[ijusluvit]

Most, if not all of the gas lines in TV run through the attic. The problems with that are: 1) that these piping systems are not as easy to ground properly, compared to the iron pipe systems up north which are mostly located in basements, combined with 2) that the inferior quality of the piping used in some attic installations make those homes particularly vulnerable to devastating fires, mostly from lightning strikes. Several years ago, multi-state class action suits against several piping manufacturers (whose products are in many TV homes) resulted in awards to home owners sufficient to pay for the installation of lightning rod systems. In what might be the 'lightning capital of the US' you may remember that a couple of homes in TV have been destroyed in minutes when small fires caused by lightning spread and quickly melted attic gas lines.
TV building codes don't require lightning rods on homes, but just look around at the rec centers, town squares and other administrative buildings. If they have a gas line inside there are lightning rods on the roof.

[The Great Fumar]

YEP !!! HAVE OWNED TWO HOMES .......03- ONE IN CALUMET GROVE AND
05 ONE IN CHATHAM AND BOTH HAS GAS LINES IN THE ATTIC .
BUT THAT IS NOTHING COMPARED TO MY NEXT DOOR NEIGHBOR WHO HAS THE WORST CASE OF GAS I'VE EVER SEEN (or heard) IF YOU CATCH MY DRIFT AND I CERTAINLY HOPE YOU DON'T............

Fume-mar

[Hawkwind]

Thanks Ijusluvit you hit on the exact reason that I posted this question.
I am a ham radio operator and very familiar with grounding requirements for towers and the effects of lightening. I have friends that have taken direct hits and I saw the damage.

I was reading on a ham radio message board and someone posted a message regarding a house in the Dallas Texas area that took a lightening hit and burst into flames and was a total loss. The fire department believed that the gas pipes in the attic were not properly grounded and there were no lightening rods on the house.

Up north the gas lines are iron on older homes and do not run in the attic but we do have basements. I am not sure what is now being used for new constructed homes but the run from the street is some type of plastic pipe.

[Kelsie52]

The plastic piping in NY used in the street is HDPE --high density polyethylene---once inside the house must be iron pipe on flexs at the appliance --

[bestmickey]

that an all electric home will be just fine! I don't like the idea of having gas lines in the attic, especially not in the lightening capital of the world.

[SteveFromNY]

We have gas lines that run across the attic. We had a lightning protection system installed, which includes properly grounding the gas lines and the gas main. Having witnessed a fire that took out a house (lightning strike and gas lines in the attic) we decided the investment in the LPS was worthwhile. Turns out, just about every municipal building and even skyscrapers all have them. Even the fire house on the corner of Bonita and Buena Vista.

[nkrifats]

Steve, Could you share who you used to install the LPS?

[SteveFromNY]

Steve, Could you share who you used to install the LPS?

We used A1 Lightning. You can find them at http://www.a1lightning.com. They know what they are doing.

[nkrifats]

Thanks