Capping a buried gas stub

[metlc]

I'm in the process of running a new 1" water main in a trench abutting the slab. It would help a lot if I could remove an old vertical gas stub that's in the way. I dug out the stub down to the tee in the gas line. However, it's so old and rusted that if I torque it from aboveground it may rupture down at the tee instead of unscrewing.

A wiser man than I might just leave it alone and work around it somehow. But I wonder if, in the event that it would rupture, could I successfully cap it off at the ruptured stub with an oversize pipe cap attached with some Simpson EP-22 epoxy?

 

[Gary Swart]

If that is a natural gas pipe and it is rusted to the that point, it should be replaced! In reply to you question about epoxy gluing an oversized cap, don't do it. Call you gas company to examine it and advise you. A leaking water pipe is a PITA, but a leaking gas pipe is potentially lethal.

 

[Sponsor]

 

[hj]

gas pipe

Whose gas pipe is it? If it is yours and that badly rusted, it was never installed properly and you should find the spot where it goes into the ground and cap it before the pipe goes underground. If it is the gas company's pipe, which is not too likely, call them because their pressure in the pipe is much greater and therefore a broken or rusted pipe can be an immensely greater hazard. Whatever you do, don't start cobbling together a cap with epoxy cement. More than one house has been blown up due to someone making a "just good enough" repair.