External metal gas pipes need replacing

bondy01

Does anyone know about this. My elderly parents and their neighbours are having to have their lovely drives dug up to have the external pipe to the meter replaced by a plastic one. If they don't , then the meter would be removed. OK , it isn't costing them but I can't see the drives being repaired to their original state.

ariba10

Do you know for sure that they are going to dig it up?

They have the ability to bore below it and bring it up near the house with very little damage.

bondy01

The next door neighbour has had theirs done. It is a concrete drive in not great nick. Several feet were removed to enable the new pipe to be fed outside their boundary and the repair is a two tone concrete driveway. It is being done all over the village , just asking why.

chanz4

Its gas or no gas really

Richie-from-the-Boro

bondy01 wrote: »

Does anyone know about this. My elderly parents and their neighbours are having to have their lovely drives dug up to have the external pipe to the meter replaced by a plastic one. If they don't , then the meter would be removed. OK , it isn't costing them but I can't see the drives being repaired to their original state.

Even though the replacement with polythene of the iron or steel [usually iron and older than 40 years] gas service pipe is a safety requirement, you can refuse to let them on the land. The safety and integrity of the supply will then be provided by being cut & capped outside the property boundary.

Owain_Moneysaver

They will usually reinstate the drive as best they can with the materials that are there. So if you have a block paved drive they will lift and relay the blocks along the trench line (although possibly not quite as neatly as the original but ideally a few months later once the ground has settled you'd be unaware the trench had ever been dug).

However if it's a continuous surface like tarmac or concrete they will not resurface the whole drive to match; they will make good the trench with tarmac.

macman

So they'd rather have a potential gas leak than a less-than pristine driveway?

firefox1956

They normally try to avoid digging trenches if at all possible because that costs them more.
They normally push the new plastic pipe up the inside of the old steel pipe.
Maybe have to dig at either end for connections.
If you are concerned about the quality of the driveway repair take a load of pictures now before they dig up the driveway.
HTH