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Antique or abandoned gas piping & fixtures: this article describes how to recognize & evaluate the safety of antique gas fixtures and piping that may be found in historic homes or other older buildings. Gas piping in older buildings may have been cut-off from its source, re-used for electical wiring, or, surprise, antique gas piping is sometimes found still connected and "live"!.

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.This document series on inspecting gas piping in buildings also provides free sample draft home inspection report language for reporting defects in oil and gas piping at residential properties. For more about lighting in buildings see LIGHTING, INTERIOR GUIDE.

Watch out: 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.

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.

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

Gas Fixtures & Piping in Historic & other Older Homes

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. Our photo (left) and the next wall-mounted antique gas-light shown below illustrates an intact wall lighting sconce located in the Samuel Morse Home in Poughkeepsie, NY. The photographs of various antique and even historic gas lights as well as remains of wall-mounted gas lights in other older buildings found in this article 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.

Watch out: don't assume that all "old or antique gas pipes" in a building have been actually disconneted from the gas supply. 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 photo at left shows another type of wall mounted gas light, also in the Samuel Morse historic homestead in Poughkeepsie, NY. 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.

Old or Abandoned Gas Piping & Fixtures: safety warnings

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 and keep a safe distance away - 100 feet or more.
• Notify other building occupants of the safety concern
• Contact the local gas company and/or fire department
  

Heating equipment which the inspector (or building occupant or manager) judges to be an immediate life safety hazard should be shut down and appropriate emergency services called.

See Gas Leak Detection for leak detection procedures and alternatives.

Other LP & Natural Gas Home Safety recommendations

• Gas piping support: check that gas lines are adequately supported - this will help avoid leaks.
• Abandoned gas piping in buildings: 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.

Questions & Answers regarding this article

Questions & answers about gas piping in antique or other old buildings: gas piping, gas lighting & other gas fixtures in historic homes.

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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 Igniter Defects, Repairs
  Gas Leak Detection
  Gas Lighting Pipes & Fixtures
  Gas Meters
  Gas Piping Defects
  Gas Regulators for Appliances
  Gas Regulators for LP Tanks
  Gas Regulators, Two Stage
  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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• Our recommended books about building & mechanical systems design, inspection, problem diagnosis, and repair, and about indoor environment and IAQ testing, diagnosis, and cleanup are at the InspectAPedia Bookstore. Also see our Book Reviews - InspectAPedia.

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