gas pipe in copper outside, is this allowed

happyhero

Hi please can someone advise me I went round to a friends house today and we happened to notice that he has about 10 meters of 22mm copper pipe outside his house. We thought this odd as, if it were water it would suffer in the winter but we then found out it was in fact the gas supply to his house.

I think it is wrong as I would have thought copper is not strong enough for outside. I am sure when ever you normally see any form of gas pipe outside it is made of something much stronger, iron or something.

Can anybody guide me on this and maybe point me to a regulation on it so that I can show him and he can get it changed if it is wrong please?

carly

I dont know about the regulations, but around here a lot of people are modernising their homes and having updated gas central heating installed. Most of the pipework seems to be exactly as you describe , so I doubt if it's illegal or unsafe, it just seems to be the way to do it these days.

wurzelsar

British gas installed ours and it's copper pipe. A smaller bore pipe is inside the larger one on the outside of the house.

ariba10

Copper tube is what the gas board uses.

They moved our meter from inside the house to the garden and used copper to run the gas in.

Gaz_Hammer

Hi,
Copper pipe is fine for running a gas supply outside.
It just has to be well supported with pipe clips at maximum distances of every 2.5 metres for vertical pipework & 2 metres for horizontal pipework.
It can also be painted if required for added protection and also asthetics.
Also its important to ensure wherever it passes through a wall it is sleeved and sealed.

Hope this helps!
Gaz

misgrace

I have the same on the outside of my house, but they have put a label/sticker thing on it saying Gas.

You can always this pipe in with the house colour, before you put your colour on, undercoat the copper pipe with an oilbase undercoat all the way round it, then when dry put your colour on it, if you dont undercoat it, it will turn green and peel , and it will look awful.
You do this also for any copper pipework inside your home.