wire at gas meter

[John Dirks Jr]

What's the purpose of the yellow insulated wire I occasionally see coming out of the ground at the gas meter?

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[Brandon Whitmore]

Tracer wire for the plastic gas line.

[Ken Meyer]

It's a locate wire. They are color coded for each utility.

[mgbinspect]

It's a locate wire. They are color coded for each utility.

What they said. I actually asked the local gas utility guy when he was turning on the gas at a home a few years back. Made sense. [:-graduat

(I suppose if you scratch around, you should find it along almost every gas line installed in the past few years.)

[John Dirks Jr]

So the utilitys can locate a burried plastic line. Ok, got it. Thanks..

[mgbinspect]

Does anyone know for sure - is it plastic gas line or is it just a jacket over something a bit tougher than plastic. Every time I've looked closely to a gas line as it comes out of the ground, I can't make heads or tails of what the material really is. It almost looks and feels a bit like lead, but I know that can't be the case. And I've also seen the surface oddly corroded. So, what is it?

[Jim Katen]

Does anyone know for sure - is it plastic gas line or is it just a jacket over something a bit tougher than plastic. Every time I've looked closely to a gas line as it comes out of the ground, I can't make heads or tails of what the material really is. It almost looks and feels a bit like lead, but I know that can't be the case. And I've also seen the surface oddly corroded. So, what is it?

What I see around here is an epoxy coated steel riser that comes out of the ground. Underground, it transitions to a flexible plastic pipe. I'm sure that there are several different versions.

[mgbinspect]

Does anyone know for sure - is it plastic gas line or is it just a jacket over something a bit tougher than plastic. Every time I've looked closely to a gas line as it comes out of the ground, I can't make heads or tails of what the material really is. It almost looks and feels a bit like lead, but I know that can't be the case. And I've also seen the surface oddly corroded. So, what is it?

What I see around here is an epoxy coated steel riser that comes out of the ground. Underground, it transitions to a flexible plastic pipe. I'm sure that there are several different versions.

That would have been one of my guesses - some form of epoxy. I never realized, though, that buried gas lines were actually plastic. I feel a lot less comfortable with the idea of plastic gas lines than plastic water lines. It sounds so fragile (hopefully they're some pretty beefy plastic lines or reinforced somehow. It just sounds so fragile...

BTW. here's an example of the odd corrosion (or deterioration may be a better word), I was bringing up:

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I saw this on an inspection last week. Strange stuff, eh? Certainly that's not rust. It's probably some other protective surface gone bad. Maybe it's just been dinged up by a weed eater. I just told them to notify the local gas company that something didn't seem right - no leaks, just a bit of concern.

[John Dirks Jr]

Does anyone know for sure - is it plastic gas line or is it just a jacket over something a bit tougher than plastic. Every time I've looked closely to a gas line as it comes out of the ground, I can't make heads or tails of what the material really is. It almost looks and feels a bit like lead, but I know that can't be the case. And I've also seen the surface oddly corroded. So, what is it?

What I see around here is an epoxy coated steel riser that comes out of the ground. Underground, it transitions to a flexible plastic pipe. I'm sure that there are several different versions.

That would have been one of my guesses - some form of epoxy. I never realized, though, that buried gas lines were actually plastic. I feel a lot less comfortable with the idea of plastic gas lines than plastic water lines. It sounds so fragile (hopefully they're some pretty beefy plastic lines or reinforced somehow. It just sounds so fragile...

BTW. here's an example of the odd corrosion (or deterioration may be a better word), I was bringing up:

Click to Enlarge

49.61 KB

I saw this on an inspection last week. Strange stuff, eh? Certainly that's not rust. It's probably some other protective surface gone bad. Maybe it's just been dinged up by a weed eater. I just told them to notify the local gas company that something didn't seem right - no leaks, just a bit of concern.

Looks like rust to me. Maybe a rusting clamp/collar or whatever its called. Look at the first pic in post #1. There's a collar of sorts where the pipe transitions into the meter base.

[Tom Raymond]

It almost looks and feels a bit like lead, but I know that can't be the case.

Why not? Lead is still as commonly used as asbestos, and in some pretty suprising places too. Got a soft sided cooler or lunch bag? The vinyl liner contains lead. Plastic mini blinds? Yup, there's lead there too. Most anything made of vinyl that is supposed to remain flexible uses lead as the primary plasticizer.