Safely(ish) removing unknown buried pipes (Renovation Part 10)
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- čas přidán 19. 02. 2021
- Renovations can be full of problem solving. One of the most recent issues I’ve encountered is a mystery pipe exactly where I want to run the new water supply. In this video I’ll talk you through my process for identifying the pipe and safely(ish) removing it. Remember, no method is 100% safe so there’s always an element of risk to something like this. If you don’t need to remove it, leave it alone if it’s not causing any problems! This is a last resort situation. So what do you think this old pipe was? Post down in the comments!
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• 1920's SEMI RENOVATION
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#Property #Renovation #Pipes - Jak na to + styl
1920s build. A lot of people were still using gas lamps in the 1920s, so that pipe being chased into the wall could have led to a manifold that fed gas lamps in all parts of the property. There's been previous work done in the house, as evidenced by the kitchen units, so any manifold would have been removed when the house was finally wired up for electricity supply the first time.
2 years since the last comment, but I only just found your excellent and highly informative channel. I'm learning a lot from it. Thank you.
Nice work. You and Peter Millard are the only two UK DIY channels I regularly watch these days because you’re the only two that don’t seem like a tool promo. You show the job not the tool and that’s really refreshing. Others that started simple now feel like marketing channels almost every week introducing some new expensive toy. Makes me wonder if they have a proper job or if actually they’re just paid full time to showcase new stuff. Keep it real, keep it honest and keep it up 👍🏻
Yes Millard absolutely never mentioning he uses Festool or like Parkside for cheapies =).
You should watch Nick Morris.
Oh the gems you are uncovering. I know nothing about any of this, but I still find it all very interesting.
Cheers! We're finding all sorts! 👍😁
"Earth" is the general mass of the planet, which is more conductive than you might think. A buried pipe is going to make a pretty good connection to it (that's what an "earth rod" is, after all). So it's not surprising that there's continuity between your mystery pipe and your main earth terminal - they are both connected via the mass of the planet. No direct electrical connection is needed for this continuity.
coated in bitumen tho
@@jonesconrad1 That is why you need to study electric theory, what is a conductor? what is an insulator?
An old town coal gas supply for a cooker I would have said.
Remember houses which have earth rods they are usually only ~3ft long to get a nice low reading. looking at how wet it had been in the under stairs room, it's likely got good continuity.
its a good guess since it still should be earthed to the mains and modern suppliers wont have records of local town coke/gas supply runs
Yeah but it's bitumen coated so how's it getting such good conductivity to earth?? Would agree... but I'd need to dig up the floor to answer this I fear. 🤣
When you removed the length of pipe in the garden, were there any joints? Surely there wouldn't be just one long length of pipe supplied, but multiple shorter lengths? If it was shorter lengths, what had they used for joining them? Any threaded joints for gas would surely need a sealant whereas electrical joints wouldn't to provide better continuity.
@@Taylor_26GE93 even if its local town supply gas id assume it must have a valve/stockcock somewhere on an easily accessible place
@@girlsdrinkfeck Quite often Towns Gas didn't have a valve on the supply other than the one in the street, also it's likely threaded steel with no jointing compound as the bitumen coating was used as a sealant. Sadly it was all down to where you lived in the country to what measures were taken with safety/installation practices.
I dug up my parent's drive in the late 80s to allow the waterboard to replace the old lead pipes. 1907 house in Wrekenton. I found a pipe just like that and dug down the drive trying not to disturb it. Well, guess what, I hit it with a pick axe by accident, and the hissing of escaping gas was like I'd woken up a serpent from Middle Earth. That was when I used to smoke, as well.
A year or two later we found that the house had no earth to the electrical supply, as it was bonded to that pipe and probably the water too. Which we'd just replaced with a plastic one. We found out when we started getting electric shocks off the taps. Glad to hear you drilled a pilot hole before attacking with it a sparking angle grinder! Gan canny!
We moved into the garden flat of a Victorian townhouse in 2019. Just before we moved in, we were told that they had to take off the tiles in the bathroom and uncover and long forgotten hatch to access the mains electric- as residents in the above flats were getting electric shocks from the taps, when installing new light fixtures, in the bath etc. It transpired the building was essentially ‘live’ and not earthed. I wonder if what you have described could explain what had to be resolved in our building? Very strange!
i'm learning so many new phrases. "in the road"= in the way "go a journey(sp?)"=be thrown away. good stuff, enjoying these videos!
Such a good investigation! When I was late teens working on a construction site, my boss told me to 'cleanup' this certain floor of temp wiring. He said "everything" is disconnected just rip-it-out. So up I go to do the job, first line running across the floor is a tripper so I wanted that gone to move along faster... took my linesman pliers out to cut the line... BLAM... it was still live. knocked me back a few feet, welded my pliers. Hard lesson to never trust anyone especially with a 220 line. That was nearly 45 years ago! Haha 99% sure are worse odds.
The Goesforth Pipe Wizard wins again! Well done sir.
Cheers Tom! 👍😁
The safest way to cut into an unknown pipe is to, with a big smile, hand the grinder to the wife "There you are dear, you have a go"
She was quite close by at the time too! 😉🤣
And she would saw off your third leg
@@rattylol That would be a sticky wicket for sure.
Classic engineering principles - "I need to tentatively cut into this pipe" - give me the angle grinder 😂
Exactly. 🤣
Engineering?
Great job and awesome vlog, great you can move on with renovations. glad the weather has held out too for you not like wet windy Saltburn.
Oh, we've been battling with the weather! That trench filled up with about 100 gallons of water. 👍😁
@@GosforthHandyman I bought my new home Sept and can honestly say its water proof, looking forwards to the summer to enjoy my conservatorys
Hi Andy congratulations on getting to 146,000 subscribers and well done for all your hard work
Cheers Ben! 👍
Really sensible advice, I have come across live cables shoved down old steel pipes by Mr DIY man usually to his garage, shed, man cave! Gas companies also put plastic pipe in the old galv pipes which look redundant. We have one in our house!
Yup, can never be too careful. Even after doing all my homework I was still a bit nervous. 😁
50 years ago I was in Scarborough and they where digging up steel pipes that that had cables inside
I had a redundant gas pipe just like that at this property when I first moved in. It's nowt to worry about, but it's always best to tread careful when dealing with stuff like this.
At least the weather is improving, Andy. That was an electrifying episode 🌞 Stay safe.
Cheers Ray! So glad it's warming up a bit. Haven't had a cold snap like that for a while! 👍
I have an identical pipe coming in to my house right next to the old lead water supply. It was crimped off where it exited the ground. Had to do a similar thing to you and ended up just hoping that my checks were right and cut it off at ground level. It is certainly a twitchy moment no matter how confident you are!!
And it was definitely not a gas supply of any kind as it was the wrong side of the house for the kitchen and I removed all the original plaster and no gas lighting present.
I found a mystery pipe in my garden while digging a hole for a rain water tank (of course well in the way). I found another end (cut off) after some digging inside (which I had to do anyway) so I could safely cut it off where it was in my way; I didn’t go looking for it further into the garden though.
As far as the electrical connection of the pipe goes, here in Belgium it has been mandatory for quite some years now to connect metal gas and water pipes to electrical earth. In earlier days though, people didn’t put in earth rods (not sure if that’s the correct term) and used the metal pipes to earth the electrics. This could be different in the UK though...
Think it must be bonded under the floor... possibly. 👍
We ground our metal water pipes typically near the main panel, so that may be why you're getting the continuity from that ground wire. Just a thought.
Here across the pond electric is grounded outside by a bare copper wire (usually #6) from the electric panel outside to a galvanized rod driven 8' into the ground.
The panel is also grounded from the ground bar in the panel to the water pipe system inside the house and the hot and cold water pipes bonded together at the water heater so that when the water heater is removed for replacement, the hot and cold water pipes remain grounded.
It may seem like a lot but the last thing you want is energized pipes with no place for the electric to go except through you.
Hi Andy, I've no idea what the pipe is, but found it all very engrossing anyway.... and I love the music selections... More please!
I live in a similar age property in Manchester. My gas supply pipe is just like that in heavy steel, just like yours, and of a similar diameter and has been in forever but now converts to copper inside the property at the stop tap in the kitchen. It used to feed a very large floor standing gas boiler and needed a large diameter input. You are lucky it was not still connected like mine when you took a grinder to it. The gas pipes inside the house were only recently changed from lead in places to copper.
Great work and thanks for sharing this with us stay safe and take care
No worries and cheers! 👍
@@GosforthHandyman 👍🍻
Towns gas was "around" until the late 60s. We, in the South East. started conversion to Natural Gas in 1969. Other Regions started it earlier but only by a couple of years. At that time we were still using bitumen coated mild steel tube for "buried" pipework.
Hi Andy another brilliant video as always and hope you are staying safe and well and then news on the planning permission yet then and I think I might be an old drain pipe
Have a look in the houses main earthing terminal that should be in that cupboard. Maybe there's a cpc wire going to one of the terminal points. Or it could be linked to your water supply in your house. See if there's a continuity between your water pipes and the mystery pipe.
The continuity could be caused by a hidden earthing rod that connects to the metal pipe under the old kitchen floor, if it is a gas pipe (and given it's location I would guess so), they did used to earth these near where they terminate. I would guess that if you dug down a few inches around the pipe you may find the earthing brazed to it. (purley speculation though)
Good video, thanks
Wow that was cool, the lengths you have to go to to get a new water supply,
It's most likely covered in denso tape, absolutely lovely stuff to work with 🤣
A guy near to me had a similar pipe - he piped a washing machine in his garage to it and it was used for years with no problems at all.
Hi, In some areas of the uk at one time it was practice to earth anything metal in a house . i.e. gas pipes, water pipes, cast iron baths, steel sinks and some cases the old steel metal windows, so its likely the the earth is still connected to the pipe somewhere, obviously this practice is no longer carried out.
Sure glad there was not an explosion, would have made an interesting video, again glad you are safe with no missing parts.
Cheers! Yeah, bit disappointed it wasn't more exciting. 👍🤣
Sounds like either the electrician bonded to this old section of pipe when doing the new install OR there is sufficient moisture in the earth that you are getting continuity between this old section of cast pipe and the neutral bonding rod in the new service connection.
It think it can only be the former. Can't see the resistance being so low for connectivity through the actual earth... but would need to dig a hole to find out. 👍😁
@@GosforthHandyman that’s an interesting thought. A good way to test that would be to get incandescent bulb if you can find one and stick it in a lamp socket connect one end up to a pipe and the other end carefully to the supply with a switch. If it’s a low resistance connection you’ll get a full brightness if it’s high resistance you’ll get a dim light. Course I don’t know how that would work with RCDs as this would essentially be a ground fault. There are better newer ways to check for that but require expensive tools. The principle is the same you want some thing that drives a little bit of a current. Of course this comes into the territory of an electrician as it could be a redundant path and the only way to check that is to disconnect the CPC ground connection in the electrical system to determine which way it’s connected. Whether it’s with a ground bond, water bond, electrical service bond or maybe tied into the old ground rod bond.
judging by the old bonding cable running down the architrave I would guess at an old town gas supply.
That bonding cable went to the water pipes 👍
we used to use conjuit to run cables in the old days
It looks more like a redundant gas pipe, especially as it came up in the kitchen
and gas pipes have to be grounded to the electrical mains right ? earthed
Would tend to agree... but where is it grounded and why did they bother to ground the new electric supply to an old redundant gas pipe?? 🤔😁
@@GosforthHandyman could have earthed the new electric to an old earth rod that the pipe was already grounded too, although I'd think that's unlikely
@@olivermansfield8341 Likely would have been used as the main earth conductor for the property given the age (also looking at the age of the main supply cable with incorrect earthing connection), so any new work would have continued to connect to it to maintain continuity rather than risk throwing up a fault/safety issue.
@@GosforthHandyman if the old gas pipe was grounded to the old electrical circuit somewhere in the system, when the new electrical supply was installed, it would provide ground for the gas pipe without knowing abou it . If the power ever came in over telegraph posts, chances are there would be a ground spike somewhere too ?
I believe by law gas & water pipes have got to be connected to earth if they are metallic, hence why you are getting continuity. My bet would be old gas supply. Keep the updates coming!
Where is it getting the bonding though? I feel the need to dig up the floor. 🤣
Hi Andy, Please don't rely on utility company drawings! There is a significant junction of drains below a manhole in our neighbours garden but according to the utility drawing it is under our property! We have been trying to point out the error since we had a drain survey done when we moved in 25 years ago! When we had an extension built a few years ago I pointed out the error to our architect and provided photos and measurements of the precise layout as part of the planning submission. Because of the position of the drains and the proximity of the neighbours garage our extension is sat on foundations 5 feet deep on one corner! Regarding the mysterious continuity reading I think the dead pipe is acting as an earth conductor and all you are doing is measuring continuity between the new earth arrangement and the old one. Best of luck with the project, the videos are brilliant.
Cheers! It's bitumen coated though - don't think it would get such low resistance to the electric supply earth unless it's physically bonded somewhere. 🤔
My kid's primary school was installing three new kindergarten classrooms, and when they were doing the ground works they discovered very large diameter water pipes that weren't on any plans they could find. This resulted in the three new classes being placed elsewhere, and the Four existing kindy/preprimary classrooms being demolished and replaced after being there for 30+ years.
Apparently you're not allowed to build above these pipes. Amazing what you find. Even the water corporation didn't know they were there
I just paused the video at 1:02 to tell you that damn, that's a smooth edit going from inside to outside! As an audio engineer I've edited a lot of dialog and getting it to not sound like a broken sentence can be hard, kudos.
Now, on to the rest of the video!
Cheers bud! 👍
I toatly agree I wouldn't attempt to cut through a bandad pipe unless I do my research properly.
We have a few of these type of pipes in our house and they’re old oil pipes as our house used to have oil heating at some point before the town had gas installed.
Interesting! 👍
@@GosforthHandyman oil/kerosene pipes are much smaller, less than 10mm and usually copper. Yes there were community heating schemes for oil a long time ago, one big tank down the road that many houses would share. I think it is pointing towards gas or it is possible an electric cable conduit, not so difficult to pull an old cable out. Main thing is you can now move on.
Well that’s yet a different Utility I never thought of.
Try disconnecting the water bond (if there is one) and test continuity again. my guess is the as the old water supply and that pipe (because of the damp from that leaking drain) is giving you a good continuity reading. I know the pipe has that coating but you don't know that its coated where you cant see it.
All the water bonds are gone. Only a single earth to the CU now and everything else is stripped out.👍
The location in the kitchen, the material and the condition the internal pipe is in all suggests old gas pipe. Also the low continuity in clay soil isn't unusual at all, also consider that if the pipe was bonded it would have been within 600mm of where it enters the property. Just because you cut it out in the garden doesn't mean you've 1: removed it from the mass of earth or 2: removed the connection to the internal bond of the property.
Yes but the pipe was bitumen coated. I could be wrong but I don't think it would get such good connectivity to the electric supply earth without metallic bonding. 🤔
@@GosforthHandyman You'd be surprised by how little resistance a mass of wet clay between exposed metallic parts. It's more likely that under the house the coating was removed as it was likely the original main earthing conductor for the property. Remember an earth rod is only 3ft of copper staked into the ground and that pipe is likely a good 15ft of a bigger CSA.
Almost certainly an old gas pipe. Had a similar one in my 1930 bungalow (along with a new MDPE gas pipe). I thought it was dead and so did the gas board when they came to check it out. The gas man almost had a heart attack when he managed to open it up and gas started spewing out. He had no idea where it was coming from so sealed it off at the boundary.
Wow - interesting! 👍
Yes definitely recommend capping the outside just in case. You never know what might get reconnected when.
That sounds like FREE GAS to me 🤣
I had similar for an old steel pipe that no-one knew anything about - but I suspected it might have been an old water pipe. I drilled a small pilot hole in the very top so I'd have a fair chance of sealing it back up quickly just incase something did start escaping under pressure.
I'd have also thought electric is unlikely, and old gas more likely - electric cables don't need protecting by ducts that thick or strong. That pipe is sized to contain a fluid (water or gas) under pressure. And sleeving services to protect them (or allow easier installation/replacement) is only a relatively recent phenomenon.
Bick in the day, gass and water pipes were use like an earth rod is used now . THhs is why you got continuity from the wiring as it was probably linked.
It looks like an old steel water supply, they used to coat them in zinc to prevent rusting etc. The joint in the kitchen is very similar to the joint they used to have on the steel supplys
The pipe might be T'd under the floor which goes to another position in the house meaning more places for it to be bonded.
A gas fire and a cooker point would be a fair guess.
It's usual to cross-bond metal pipes to the electrical earth. You will probably find an earth clamp under the floor. I worked for what was called the Electricity Board for 40 years and the old power cables were lead sheathed and covered in bitumen and cloth. It is most likely a town gas supply that was upgraded to North Sea Gas in the 1970s.
The continuity reading maybe the resistance of the general mass of earth, with the pipe being conductive and buried. Depends on what your reading was really
It was the same reading as joining the probes directly together - also bear in mind the pipe was bitumen coated. 🤔
@@GosforthHandyman if its owt like the bitumen thats part of the old PILC electricity supply cables then if its been damaged in the past, the pipe could’ve rusted out? When you consider the gas and water services are metallic and probably are for the majority of the street and on a maintained electrical install these should be bonded back to the installations earth terminal, then if you imagine every connection as a path to you electrical earth terminal, in parallel. This can give good low readings.
Its basically what an electrician would be looking for o an install that uses ‘TT earthing arrangement’ a nice low earth impedance.
Also if it used to be and electrical conduit, that would be the first for me, never seen it before, a rare beast👍🏻
@@GosforthHandyman With the meter that you were using it would indeed have the same apparent reading. With a meter designed to read low resistances you would have seen a significant difference.
Could be gas.. I'll use the angle grinder 🤣. Enjoy your channel Thanks for vids.
Would it have been useful to leave the pipe and capped two ends? Imagine if you wanted to run some sort of cable through it in the future?
I’m amazed you haven’t had that kitchen floor up yet 😉 😆
Lol I know! I'm hoping I don't have to as that means yet another skip. 🤣
Use any broken up concrete and other rubble for base hardcore where needed, and the subsoil could easily be lost in that massive back garden.
I enjoy watching your progress!
Keep 'em coming m8!
All metall pipes in a house have to be grounded... at least here in Germany
Diameter is a bit small for a mains and for gas or water. It could as well be a conduit for a cable-tv line from back in the 90s, which split of and went upstairs.
The old houses usually got their electricity over tzhe roof back in the days. I think from previous videos, the conection point is in the upper left corner of the house when watched from the street.
Hi Andy, I live down the road or up I can never remember, anyway my house has gas and the radiators electric earth and partial every pipe in here is connected to the gas pipe in many different places. I had a new gas meter put in and the person doing it was worried because he remover the main earth connection from the electric supply and still got a continuity check, three days later after consulting with everyone and their dog they decided that what I had been telling them all the time must be weird but true, the only thing to do then was to get someone either dumb enough or expandable to connect the earth, they must have not been able to find anyone because they left the cable unattached with a label on it saying the installation had not passed inspection due to an continuity test. I asked if it was safe and the only answer I could get and that was only verbally was to do so at my own discretion.
Defo an old gas pipe. I've got one capped off in the understair cupboard as have many of the houses in the street. The old pipe is commonly used to get the new pastic pipe from the street to the property so they don't have to dig up the garden.
Had pipe bonded to CPC. You are mistaking earth for CPC
Final check with the neon pen.. if it can read through the casing. Then apply safety squints and go for it! Did you do it in the garden rather than the annex so it would be a softer landing?
There will an earth clamp under the floor connecting to the main earthing terminal at the supply head or consumer unit. That will be why there is continuity between the pipe and the cpc of the cable.
Nice
Lovely 👍
Should wait till the end of video before jumping in 😉
Maybe the electrical supply is an old one with metal shielding, and then a bitumen coating round the shielding, possibly it's rubbed over the years and come in to contact with the pipe.
That's certainly a possibility! 👍
perhaps when installing a new electric supply they were still using the old supply so they had to ground both together ?
Can only think so! Can't think of any other reason why it would have such a good bond to electric earth. 👍
Hi Andy, it would be a pain to do but, would it be possible to get hold of the original architectural plans? they might still be on record somewhere? that might show what it is, perhaps there is a T junction in the pipe that would give the house builders options on where the metre was to go that is still connected to the earth ??? got me curious now......
It's on my to-do list. I've heard rumours that they're archived somewhere. Going to look in to this! 👍👍
My mum’s house was built in 1919 definitely had old pipes running up the walls for gas lights it would be town gas in those days
Is it being used as a ground some where? In the wall? My home is two hundred years old it was grounded all over the place to the pipes when I replaced all the wiring, your situation is very unusual for sure.
The changeover to North Sea Gas (in East Yorkshire) was in the early 70s so that pipe could have been in use later than the dates you mentioned. Coming out of the kitchen floor and heading up the wall like that screams gas oven supply to me.
Or an old back boiler and fire
Should i drill pilot holes on mdf wood speaker box
No gas in my house, however before I signed the purchase agreement, the main gas supply to local town was replaced along some field boundaries. White markers etc visible at exit and entrance to my fields. Water main for said town runs in road side verge. 2017, hot dry summer gave the opportunity to put in land drains to reduce bog in a field. 1 JCB digging down 4 to 5 foot CLANG. Heart attacks all round, its the the town's gas supply! 6 inch steel pipe!
They replaced the pipe by digging a new path for their new pipe and renewed the markers, leaving the old pipe undisturbed, in the middle of a field! 🥵 Keep safe.
When checking for suspected electricity it must be reassuring to have a deep puddle of water next to the power tool :) I would be wearing two sets of fishing waders.
Lol I was thinking that. 🤣
Because you survived to post this video, I knew the pipe was dead because you were not. ;-). Not knowing anything about UK utilities, my suspicion would be an old town gas supply that ran to a cooker in the kitchen as Andrew Wright has suggested. The present gas company would have no record of it.
Yup think so! Still confused why it has such a good connection to earth. 👍😁
@@GosforthHandyman One of your electrician fans here will probably explain it.
When you were measuring continuity between the pipe and the earth cable in the T&E you were holding both probes in your fingers. You were probably measuring continuity across your on body.
LOL don't think so
Yeah, even with wet fingers the resistance wouldn't be that low.
Two things:
1: Deffo old gas pipe.
2. Clarty not Claggy.
3. Claggy is what happens to boiled sweets in a paper bag that have been in your shorts pocket all day. Then when you go to pick one out they are all ‘glagged’ together with bits of the paper bag stuck on them as well.🤣
isn't that what he was trying to say? That's chunks of soil stuck together as it's clay soil.
Definitely claggy
That's 3 things.
@@Napoleon-Blownapart Buy 2 get one free.
I would say the first 2 foot was clarty... then the last foot was claggy. The kind of clay where every spadefull has to be scraped off 'cause it's so sticky. 🤣
Brave man going in with a 240v angle grinder, I’d have used a 4mm bit with a battery drill 💦
Hi Andy, my guess is old gas pipe, i would have drilled a small hole in that pipe to see what was inside, and had a self tapping screw handy incase it was gas or water, if neither apeared, next step put non metal probe into hole to see if there was something inside, just my take on this, and I'm not advising anyone to do this either, play safe people get the professionals in , thanks for the video Andy, lookin forward to the next one, stay safe mate, best wishe's to you and your's, Stuart.uk.
Good tips! 👍
Self tapping screw great idea. Maybe a little plumbers putty to make it better seal.
Is it possible the mystery pipe in the kitchen is grounded to the electrical supply? My stove’s gas supply line has a ground connected directly to the power panel’s ground. This is done for safety.
It's the sort of thing that someone could have thought was "a good idea at the time." While this house is too new, the first houses to get electricity often had the wires run through the gas pipes!!!
It must be... but where!? Can only be in that short section that's left under the floor. Very odd. 😁👍
@@GosforthHandyman Time for more demolition? 🙂
@@GosforthHandyman it is a bit odd, I am not an electrician or an expert for that matter, but the sort of reading you got on your meter could only have come from a direct connection, ie an electrical bond. That might be below the floor, I doubt if is just where the pipe appears to cross the in-coming electrical supply. From what I understand, all gas and water pipes were, and sometimes still are "earth bonded" where they enter the property, irrespective of the material of the supply pipe which is normally plastic. This is an electrical safety requirement. The electrical "Earth" for the house is different and depends on the nature of the supply, but in some cases could be a metal supply pipe. To be sure, it needs to be tested by an electrician with the correct test kit.
In the old days in the uk didn’t they bind the ground(earth) to the water supply pipe. I don’t remember earth rods when I lived in Durham.
good video by the looks of it a old gas pipe give the old pipe you cut out a bit of a clean up se if anything on it its strange there is no joints
Phew! I was more worried about gas with those sparks. Perhaps it was an old water supply to the shed.
Any chance the housing development was offered a central steam service that didn't last very long and therefore does not appear on any utility maps?
Oh yeah good point forgot about steam, some areas even have hot water. Probably not there though. It’s amazing what other services there are other than water, electric, gas and sewer.
Earth cable is now known as the circuit protective conductor. It is connected to the general mass of earth so anything in the earth will give a reading to earth.
I think for the resistance to be that low there would have to be metallic bonding somewhere. 👍
I know in Ontario Canada any metal gas pipe has to be grounded or earthed, its a building code requirement. They do that way if the metal gas line becomes live electrically it would pop the circuit breaker at the panel immediately. The gas line in your kitchen could have been bonded to the earth of the current electrical supply. Although I'm know nothing about British electrical and gas codes.
I reckon gas, if it had had cable inside it you'd have found evidence of it I think, I can't image someone would have pulled all the cable? I wonder if the pipe tees off anywhere and rises and there is an earth bond somewhere?
Been a while, did you ever find out about the earthing for that pipe?
Have you checked your earth into the property since cutting off the pipe?? It was common to use pipe work for earth (in stead of earth rods) or as well as earth rods! However most supplies are now TN-C-S it may be ok but worth checking?? Hope this helps
The FACT that you Posted this video rather Spoilt it for ALL of us 'Rubber-Necker-Car-Crash-Watchers' who were looking for a Bloke getting thrown 50 Feet in the air when he HIT a Live Mains cable with his angle-grinder ..... DANG!! ;-)
Town Gas... It was 1967 when NG started to be rolled out.
I still think it was for town gas lights when the house was built as you said you can see the mark up the wall and it would’ve been lit by gas I’m sure
Given the age of the house and the cut end of the pipe coming up in the kitchen it's probs the old town gas supply that I believe was phased out in the 60's/70's.
The joys of old houses pipes and cables all over the place with no clue what they were for or why they were left in situ 🤔
Was there ever radiator heating in the house? Could it be a steam line? A steam line might come up from the floor just like that.
Nope, never radiators in the house!
Check what was the local electric supply pre the establishment of the National Grid, may not have been 240v 50Hz AC
The house was built just around the time the national grid was 'invented' 👍
That’s a good point might’ve been a previous generation system prior to standardization.
Old houses can throw up many surprises,good & bad, cut through a live electric cable years ago running under floor house,despite DNO saying no cables present.
I still have gas arriving into my house via a steel pipe and it runs to the meter, to which there is then an offshoot to the meter, However, the iron pipe runs up to the bathroom where I'm told if fed the geyser for the early gas water heater. The fact there is a millican cock suggest its case as they were used on gas fittings.
Both your pipe and the ground rod(earth) for the electricity are both contacting your high water table?
There's no earth rod and nowhere near the water table. 👍🤔
I was going to say an earth bond, had there been a gas supply, it would be more likely as it could be bonded to the gas pipes. But I think bonding to gas pipes is a moderately modern thing. I would think it was not ever for electricity, other wise the wires would still be inside, would they go to the hassle of pulling them out? Old gas supply is my guess....
I think wires would have been sold for scrap - easy enough to pull them out. 👍
When checking for continuity try not to have your fingers touching the end of the testers or the pipe/cable that you are testing, this can sometimes cause it to read through yourself
All conductive protrusions into a property (water, gas, coal gas, whatever) must be bonded to the main protective conductor (earth) of the house to ensure that a potential voltage cannot be present between the electricity earth and the service pipe earth. If they didn't do this then you could, in some circumstances, get an electric shock when touching say a tap and the metal faceplate of a plug socket at the same time. This will be why there is continuity between the pipe and the electricity earth. Additionally, if the electrical system's earth arrangement is either TN-S or TN-C-S your meter may detect continuity between the steel pipe and the neutral wire. This is nothing to worry about and is in fact a sign of the electrics being installed correctly.
bitchamin is to seal from water so could be old electrics what does it connect to in the road?
If it was an electric duct surely the wires would still be in the garden section?
You wouldn't need much of a break in the bitumen for a good connection to that damp soil, just a mm or two, so I'd be confident that it's 'earthed' simply by being buried in the earth. And yes, you'd find gas pipes chased into the wall in old houses; my grandparent's house had it.
Yeah but the only section left is inside the property - the ground shouldn't be that damp to offer such little resistance. 👍
@@GosforthHandyman I bet the ground is soaking wet 2 ft down. Try sticking that wander lead into the ground outside, somewhere deep-ish, and I bet you get the same reading. Or dig up the old kitchen floor and put us all out of our misery lol
I'm saying g old gas pipe wrapped to prevent corrosion and a metre would of once been on the end in your house somewhere along the line things got updated. That many years ago all pen and paper not surprised gas board don't know probably lost no end of info like this.
Cheers would tend to agree! 👍