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This document provides free sample draft home inspection report language for reporting defects in oil and gas piping at residential properties. Here we provide descriptions and photographs of unsafe gas piping, indications of unsafe or improperly operating gas appliances, gas meters, and other gas installation defects are provided.

General safety warning: improper installation and even improper inspection and testing methods involving natural or "LP" gas can involve dangerous conditions and risk fire or explosion. If you smell gas you should leave the building immediately and should do so without doing anything that could create a spark such as operating a light switch or telephone. From a safe location, call your gas company's emergency line and/or your fire department. The text provided here is a working draft and may be incomplete or inaccurate.

Contact us to suggest text changes and additions and, if you wish, to receive online listing and credit for that contribution. Also see How to Report Defects in Oil Piping. NOTICE: while example report language is provided here, reproduction of this or any of our web pages or their contents at other websites or in printed documents for sale is prohibited. © Copyright 2009 Daniel Friedman, All Rights Reserved. Information Accuracy & Un-Biased Reporting are Assured for this website - see pledge link at below-left.

How to inspect, report, & correct antique or old gas lighting piping & fixtures

Evaluating old gas lighting and other gas fixtures and fittings in older homes. It may be possible to make safe use of gas lighting in homes, both indoors and out, provided that the piping and fixtures have been installed according to contemporary building codes and that the piping and fixtures are in good condition. But here we address the discovery of antique gas lights and piping in homes. Generally such fixtures and pipes should be considered a safety hazard, unless the system has been thoroughly inspected and brought to modern safety standards.

The photograph at the top of this page shows our discovery of an antique indoor gas lighting fixture which was being used as a towel rack. The building owner had always assumed the gas piping was inactive. The photographs shown just above are a reminder that a building owner or her home inspector should never assume that old gas lines in a building are no longer connected to a gas source.

While the gas piping routes in some older Victorian homes have often been converted to use for electrical wiring, often we've been surprised to find that supposedly long-abandoned gas fixtures, pipes, and fittings, are actually still active, and potentially dangerous. These photographs show still-active gas-lighting piping in homes built around 1900, with the gas fittings still active nearly 100 years later! A child pulling on the towel on that funny "towel rack" could have resulted in a catastrophe.

*** Safety:We recommend that unused gas equipment be removed and that you have the unused section of gas line properly sealed by a qualified plumber or by your gas supplier. Leaky old appliances or gas lines are dangerous.

Immediate LP or natural gas safety hazards: if there is evidence of an LP or natural gas leak at a building, gas odors, for example, you should:

• Do not do anything that is likely to cause a gas explosion, such as lighting a match, operating an electrical switch, or even using a telephone in the building
• Leave the building immediately
• Notify other building occupants of the safety concern
• Contact the local gas company and/or fire department

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Use links just below or at the left of each page to navigate this document or to view other topics at this website. Green links show where you are in our document or website.

GAS PIPING, VALVES, CONTROLS
  Gas BTUH & Cubic Feet
  Gas Conversion LP Natural Gas
  Gas Flame & Noise Defects
  Gas Leak Detection
  Gas Lighting Pipes & Fixtures
  Gas Meters
  Gas Piping Defects
  Gas Regulators for Appliances
  Gas Regulators for LP Tanks
  Gas Shutoff Valves
  LP Gas Tanks
  LP & Natural Gas Safety Hazards
  Natural Gas Combustion Products
  Types of Fuel Gas Source

• U.S. Energy Information Administration - eia.doe.gov/
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency - epa.gov/solar/energy-and-you/affect/natural-gas.html
• At Natural Gas.Org www.naturalgas.org/environment/naturalgas.asp#emission you’ll find a table of combustion products
• At geocities.com/rainforest/6847/report1.html is an interesting and detailed though not “neutral” report on the components and contaminants in the combustion of natural gas. You’ll see a long long list of emissions products, but look again – most of the contaminant levels listed are in the picograms.
• apvgn.pt/documentacao/iangv_rep_part1.pdf lists the components in natural gas exhaust from vehicles
• The Need Project, Manassas, VA: need.org/needpdf/infobook_activities/SecInfo/NGasS.pdf
• Kroschwitz, Jacqueline I., and Mary Howe-Grant (eds.). "Gas, Natural." In Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology. 4th ed., vol. 12. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc., 1993.
• Tussing, Arlon R., & Bob Tippee. The Natural Gas Industry: Evolution, Structure, and Economics. 2nd ed. Tulsa, OK: PennWell Publishing, 1995.

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