Underground Gas Pipes

[Nish]

The town we moved to has inground Natural Gas pipes to the house. This is new to me, and apparently the pipe from the main pipe to our responsibility. A company is trying to sell additional insurance for that pipe to the tune of about $6 a month. Anyone else have this and insure the pipe or is it a racket?

[punkncat]

I have lived in two homes that had the gas run this way and never had issue out of either one. I wouldn't pay $6 a month for "piece of mind" over something like that unless your home is very old or there is a high risk of earthquake/etc. that could damage it.
It is typically a run of steel pipe, so not much that can happen to it outside of corrosion.

[Cdn_Cuda]

Rarely hear of any issue with the gas pipes. Usually the issue you'll have is the sewer pipes.

[Grendel]

Weird, have owned multiple homes with NG and this has never come up. In my experience you do own and are responsible for everything after the meter which is normally mounted at you home's foundation. In every case my NG has been piped to the house underground and either is routed through the crawl space or basement this is where you "need" a plumber to ensure properly installed. I've done all my own work then had a plumber sign off on it for inspections. To me this sounds like a scam.

[Siress]

Seconded - on every point. I'd be shocked if this is not included in a typical home owners insurance policy to begin with.

[Agglet]

I have my gas ticket and have never heard of a problem with an underground gas line. I've never heard of being responsible for anything before the meter either. I can't see how it would be your responsibility I bet if you tried to dig it up on your own the local utility would be there in minutes to stop you.

[Magmoormaster]

Wait, so you lived somewhere that had above-ground gas pipes to the house?!? That's wild!! I've never heard of that.

[flyweightnate]

Dallas recently had some major issues with the supply; all the gas lines from before 1950 had to get pulled up after an explosion killed a small girl and destroyed her family's house.

We have highly mobile soil and the lines were brittle and started cracking.

If you're on stable soil and have steel lines instead of cast iron, I wouldn't worry. But it can be a risk in very specific situations. And it's very, very low pressure (less than 1psi often) so I'm sure if you can fix old brass, you can fix a line in a pinch.

[Tarsun2]

our electric meter is the same way.
power company wants us to buy insurance for the meter.

we passed on it.

[lhamilton1807]

Really? They own the meter. It’s crazy to ask the customer to insure it.

[lhamilton1807]

Never heard of or seen above-ground ng lines, and I’ve never been offered insurance. We disconnected our gas line last summer and replaced the gas furnace with a heat pump. Called the utility company and they just capped it off before the meter and cancelled service, but they asked if we wanted it cut back and capped closer to the main line. No discussion about who owned what but I assumed they owned everything to the meter.

[Seajay]

Unless there is actual failure it is incredibly rare for gas lines to have problems. What I mean is... there isn't any preventative maintenance that leads to failure. Additional insurance for this is not worth the money. Most Gas issues are at the regulator going into the house, which is the responsibility of the gas company (that you already give money too).

[Nish]

Thanks guys.
this is the first time we have lived any place with gas lines at all. In VT we had tanks rented from the supplier and they trucked the gas in.

[DPrekel]

Check with the gas company on what you are responsible for. We are responsible from the meter in, our gas company gets the rest. We have steel pipe which we know is in good shape thanks to the guys who fixed our sewer line found it with the backhoe.

[lhamilton1807]

They didn’t get the lines located before digging? It’s the law to get lines located and marked before excavation in every place I’ve lived.

[DPrekel]

They dig. flags were up. I would love to know how much he paid for the 8 guys from the gas company to fix the line

[jokers]

I may be wrong but isn't there a national standard that says all natural gas pipes need to be something like 7 foot down, sewer 5, electric 3-4, comms 3-4? If that is how far down the pipe is which i know it is in Oregon, then the insurance is ridiculous as the only people who are going to be working on that are NG techs and the the only way it will be hurt is a major event that you might not be there after for.

[jokers]

I was wrong the standards are:
Electrical: Minimum of 24 inches deep.
Gas: Minimum of 24 inches deep.
Water: At least 12 inches deep, but may also be another 12 inches below the frost line.
Cable: 12 inches deep.
Phone: 12 inches deep.
Low-Voltage Landscape Lights: 1 to 3 inches deep.

[maninblack2k]

Never heard of this. It is common from a water aspect if you have city water that your responsibility is the pipe from the street to your house. I could see someone maybe selling insurance on that as that replacement can be expensive.

[Siress]

This is a question for your home owner's insurance company representative. Ask them what your liability is for the same item. Everyone here is just speculating.