If you have to wheel out your BBQ grill every time you use it, it won't get used. That was the lesson we learned just after moving into this house, when I stored our brand-new natural-gas grill out in the (detached) garage next to Squeeky's car.

First, I'd have to move the car. Then tug the grill out and roll it on its hard, plastic wheels up the driveway, through the gate, and across the patio to the house, where the gas-line fitting was.

That lasted about six dinners.

Then I just started leaving it next to the house, where it got in the way of everything, especially rain. Not eager to see $400 rust out onto the patio, I poked around the Web for an extension of the rubber gas line, so I could move the unit to a protected spot under the eaves. Such hoses start about $100 for 12 feet, including adapters. Nuts.

So I studied the gas-line tee I'd installed just after move-in for some way of extending it into the ground, then a couple of feet south, 10 feet west, then up a foot. This would take all the spatial thinking Rittenhouse could muster, plus about $40 in pipe and fittings.

Housketeers will already know I am fearless when it comes to gas and electricity. Noobs, take note: Try this at home and you'll probably get killed.

the quirky thing about running gas pipe is, you have to start at the source (in this case, the L where the line rose from the ground to the house), then work your way out to the appliance. You can't start the other way, and you can't start at both ends and meet in the middle. The simple reason is, the fittings only tighten clockwise. If you build toward the main line, you'll end up undoing all you've done because the last right-hand turn unscrews the previous one. Then you have to start all over.

Also, pipes only bend 90 degrees. There are 45-degree couplings, but I don't swing that way.
Perhaps this is better illustrated than written about.

The first consideration, as always, is safety. I stationed Wolf Dog behind me to keep predators at bay.

Here's the gray plastic gas line coming out of the ground at a crazy angle I can't change. The rusty thing is a tee. The main branch enters the house at the yellow foam blob next to the garden hoses. The shiny silver hex-nut-looking thing in the foreground is a step-down adapter. I would have to get creative with adapters and angles to go from about a 1-inch to a ½-inch line heading the opposite direction.

Here's how that worked out (right). I switched to black iron pipe entering the soil because somebody told me that was better than regular zinc.

I wanted to use Teflon tape on all the connections, because—inexplicably—I have about 26 rolls of it, but couldn't find a recommendation. The white stuff here is pipe goop.

I pickaxed a trench through ground that some previous owner had bricked over. At right, here's where the black pipe angles west 90 degrees (orange cap where an L would later go), then upward to a zinc fitting for another 90-degree bend. We're almost to the homestretch.

Looking north again, up there's the zinc pipe where it takes over from the black pipe, continuing west behind the concrete steps leading to the back door. This part would remain exposed; there was no way around that without a jackhammer and two more Saturdays.

The tricky part was driving the pipe through the narrow gap between stoop and foundation without damaging its threads. The protective plastic cover barely made it through in one piece. (Note green kneeling pad for knees that have lost their ability to recover from abuse.)

The pipe emerges safely, awaiting final adaptor, at left.

At right, the quick-connect fitting is from the Marshall Company in Detroit. During its first winter here, I had been taking the rubber cap on and off so frequently that it cracked. I called their office and was greeted by a friendly secretary, who promptly mailed me a replacement cap free, no questions asked. I liked them so much I forgot to ask if they knew Marshall Mathers.

Here's the final, blurry shot of the bricking after I restored its original lustre. Pipe buried and extended, permit not sought, inspection not bothered with, and—surprise—no leaks!

Don't let anyone scare you that gas lines are something complicated. If you can think geometrically and own two pipe wrenches, you can build stuff with pipe. Just don't tell anyone you learned how from some communications major on the Internets.

Posted by: Michael Rittenhouse at 07:35 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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