I have been trying to get a local contractor (I've tried several, not just one) to install a natural gas unit heater in my two-car, attached garage in Minnesota for almost three months, and all I get is empty promises. I have spent more hours dealing with this than it would have taken me to do this myself. I've heard contractors don't like to take on small jobs like this, at least in this area, so maybe that's it. And so today I looked at the existing gas work in my mechanical room. The gas comes into the house, goes to a main shutoff valve and a single regulator before teeing off rigid pipe a couple times to serve a forced air furnace, a water heater, and a fireplace. The only copper / flexible pipe in here is the main line and the line that goes from the water heater to its tee. I have not studied anything plumbing or gas, but at first glance, it appears I could simply tee off somewhere and run black pipe. Is this correct? Below is a photo of the existing gas work:



The heater that I will be installing is a 45,000 BTU natural gas unit heater. I have not decided on the specific heater yet, but the back of the two-car, attached garage is up one level and directly on the other side of the wall depicted in the below photo, with the back corner where the heater will be placed is essentially ten feet up in the left side of the photo and on the other side of the 2x6 wall. Again, I am not very far in this thought process yet, but it looks to me like I can tee off existing gas work and run black iron gas pipe up and along the fireplace pipe, then angle off to go towards wall, then go up into wall (currently open for this and then electrical, which has been waiting on this for 2 - 3 months) before angling out to terminate outside the wall adjacent to the heater.




To say I have not thought about this is a lie. But enough is enough...I am just sick of trying to get somebody to do this for me, and at this point I am not paying the $3,500 to $5,000 price I get from people who claim to be reliable, etc.

Thoughts? Is this something I can tackle myself? I've had a half-done electrical install sitting since September because of this, and my permit expires in three weeks. I need to get this done. All of it. I did already speak with my local inspector, though more because a particular contract told me to call him if I had questions because the contractor apparently couldn't help me himself. This has been a completely ridiculous process, but at least my local municipality is friendly to folks wanting to do their own work, as they are with electrical work as well.

Onward forward! Where do I start?

 

The first question is does your inspections department allow you to work on your own home? Most do but it's worth checking into.

It's a relatively simple job to run the needed piping. I like CSST but you can use black iron or copper. Copper and CSST I find easier to work with but being flexible it needs more protection against bumps than rigid steel piping.

Before starting any work I would look at the btu of each gas appliance in your home including the new heater. There are charts and calculator online that will help with sizing the gas line. You also need to verify that your meter and regulator can supply enough gas/btu to meet your house's needs including the new heater. Your meter and regulator should be able to supply more gas/btu than all of your gas appliances can consume. Even though everything might not be on at the same time you have to size the system (meter, regulator, piping) so it can.

 

What I find strange is 1/2" copper from the meter to a regulator there. That is not a typical installation.

 

I did speak with my local mechanical inspector, and he said that I am allowed to do my own gas and mechanical work for this so long as I permit it and have it inspected so it's safe and legal. He added that while he can't advise on system design, he is there to answer any questions I may have along the way.

I am a bit concerned about doing copper inside the wall in case it were to ever be struck. I had never heard of CSST prior to now. It sounds like it's a bit more fragile than iron? I am reading things about lighting strikes affecting it. If I were to do CSST or copper, would that be for the utility room work up to the wall, then iron in the wall with a 90* at the top (and maybe bottom) for durability? Or would the whole thing be CSST or copper? I found out that Home Depot both sells common lengths of cut and threaded black iron pipe as well as offers cutting and threading services onsite for free.

My gas company confirmed that I have 300,000 BTU available to me with my service and meter. Right now the only things on natural gas are a newer, non-HE Lennox furnace, an older water heater, and a newer fireplace. The natural gas unit heater for the garage will be 45,000 input BTU. I will see if I can find BTU information on the other things tomorrow. The range and the clothes dryer are both electric, though that may change someday. I will take this into consideration in my research tomorrow.

The home was built in 1984, and this gas line traverses most of the house -- about 30 feet -- before landing here. Is it still unusual given the age of the structure? The place I rented before buying this house a year ago also had flexible copper in the same manner.

Where would you tee this off? Is there a best practice? Can I remove the water heater offshoot from its tee, add a new tee and valve there for the garage heater, and reconnect the water heater valve? Would it be silly to add in tees and valves for potential future gas clothes dryer and a range, or should that be addressed if/when needed as needed? I don't intend to switch either anytime soon.

When this work is done, will I have the gas company shut off service to the house, or do I just shut off the main valve? What do I do with the mechanicals that use natural gas...do they just run dry? Do I cut power?

I think that's all I've got for now. Thank you for both for your replies today! I look forward to embarking on this and hopefully learning something new!

 

I'd agree with Dane, I do most gas work in CSST these days, it's just not worth the extra hassle to use steel pipe in most cases. CSST does require your gas piping to be bonded (grounded) to your electrical ground system with a copper wire back to your main panel. Some areas require this already, but all CSST installations require it as it supposedly resolves the lightning issue that you may have read about.

The hard part I see is that there's no easy location to disconnect and tee off. I'd probably disconnect the copper main before the regulator, unscrew the regulator, and add a new tee to the left of the regulator. Add a valve (optional) and CSST to your heater.

I unfortunately don't have much experience with the regulator side of NG designs, it's obviously high pressure coming from your meter and the regulator brings it down to an appropriate level for your appliances. I just don't know how to confirm what the BTU capacity after the regulator is.

 

Confirm that you have no pilot light on any of them, most likely the only one would be the older H20 heater depending upon age. Shut off those that have pilots. You can turn the gas off at your meter. After the pipes are run, you turn on the meter and light any pilots. In my location you don't need Gas Co to shut off gas. They prefer to be there when it is turned on, but just as a safety precaution (pilots, etc). I'm comfortable doing it myself.

To future proof your installation, wherever you make the connection install a union after the connection. This will allow you to tap into that line easily if you ever need to (you would be able to attach future pipe from wherever and build back towards the union. Installing another valve there allows you to add piping without shutting down anything upstream of the valve (but comes at the cost of the valve, and another leakpoint).

Post a pic of where your H20 copper line (?) connects into the main gas line, looks like a 'T' might be there. If so, that might be a good place to get your gas. i.e. DC the H20 line, add in an additional T, reconnect your H20 line, run your new line from the 'T'.

I'm not a pro, but in the back of my mind I thought there is also calculations you need to make for how many T's, 90's etc you install for delivering the appropriate amount of gas to each appliance.

I would cut power to the appliances. Mine all have sensors that shut off if low gas pressure, non lighting however error codes can be generated requiring resets. Shutting off power would probably prevent any error codes from being generated

 

I have a somewhat similar (unusual) situation with my house. I'm on propane and because of the long distances and flow volume I needed gas is brought from the tank via a small line under high pressure. Then there is a regulator right where it enters the house that drops it to 2 psi. I then a low pressure regulator near each appliance in the home to make the drop to final pressure. This allowed me to run smaller gas lines and still be able to deliver the needed btu's.

Yes, after I think 2006 CSST piping must be bonded. It should be bonded close to where your CSST connects to the gas company supply so in your case I would assume you'd bond the CSST where it's closest to your gas supply. Do not bond the gas companies line.