Lead pipe at meter

TheProfessional

Hi all

We had someone out to replace the traditional gas meter to a smart one and upgrade the electricity one to a SMETS2 so they could talk to each other. 

When he looked at the gas meter he said the lead piping was crimped in parts which was normal for the time but it also went under the floorboards and because of all this they couldn't work on it

Does anyone know a rough cost for a gas engineer to come and renew the lead piping to modern material? 

I don't know whether the piping goes all the way to the kitchen gas cooker (approx 7m) or to the 20 year old boiler upstairs (a long way)

Thanks in advance 

Section62

TheProfessional said:

We had someone out to replace the traditional gas meter to a smart one and upgrade the electricity one to a SMETS2 so they could talk to each other. 

When he looked at the gas meter he said the lead piping was crimped in parts which was normal for the time but it also went under the floorboards and because of all this they couldn't work on it

Does anyone know a rough cost for a gas engineer to come and renew the lead piping to modern material? 

I don't know whether the piping goes all the way to the kitchen gas cooker (approx 7m) or to the 20 year old boiler upstairs (a long way)

The first step is for someone to work out whether the lead pipe still does anything, or if the copper pipes have replaced them. The fact there is a copper pipe heading upwards (whereas the lead going that direction has been cut and crimped) - possibly to the boiler - might suggest someone has installed the copper to replace the lead, but didn't go as far as decommissioning the old lead pipe.

If the appliances are all supplied by the copper pipes then you'd only need the lead disconnecting (and removed*), which is a far less involved job than having to run new pipework to all the appliances.

*Bear in mind that amount of lead pipe has a reasonable scrap value - so if it does get removed you may want to keep it yourself, or else negotiate a price for the job which reflects the value of the lead the trader will be taking away with them.

Keep_pedalling

It looks like that lead pipe going under the floor might be redundant as the copper pipe is going up and under the floor 

TheProfessional

Thanks both. It sounds like it *possibly/hopefully* could be less work than I thought. First step is get a gas engineer to get into the crawl space and have a peep.

Interesting about the lead value. Wouldn't have a clue of it's worth but I remember when people were taking it off church roofs so obviously has some worth!

casper_gutman

We had a similar issue.  In our case the lead pipe under our floors had a slow leak. It was only serving a gas fire that we never used anyway, so we had it disconnected. The copper pipe that serves the boiler (our only remaining gas appliance) is now connected directly back to the meter.

FreeBear

TheProfessional said: Interesting about the lead value. Wouldn't have a clue of it's worth

Currently around £0.90 to £1.30 per kilo depending on cleanliness. If it is clean and free from paint & other metals, you'll get close to the top end price.