Gas Line Installation Explained: For BBQs, Fireplaces and More!
Hey everybody, thanks for joining us on Waterman Mechanical’s YouTube channel. I’m here again with Scott Smolski, the owner and operator of Waterman Mechanical. How many years have you been in business in the Edmonton area?
“We’ve been in business about 11 years, Trevor.”
Eleven years—and you do all sorts of things. So, you do plumbing?
“Yes, we do.”
And you do stuff for new construction?
“We do.”
You do repair work?
“We do.”
And today we’re going to be talking about gas lines.
“Fantastic.”
Barbecues, Fire Tables and Outdoor Heaters
That is something that, you know, a lot of people love to have because they like their gas barbecue, fire tables, those gas radiant heaters and other things—especially for wintertime. Wintertime is fast approaching, even though we’re just in the middle of summer, but it is coming and people want to keep their garages warm. Have you ever wanted to add a gas fireplace or a barbecue? Waterman Mechanical has the pros and the know‑how to get the job done for you. So, Scott, I’ve got ten questions here. Hopefully, you know all the answers to them.
“I’m sure you do.”
“Okay, let’s try.”
Number one: what first signals you to whether a home can support a new gas appliance—like distance from the meter, existing load, or house layout?
“So, all those things actually come into account. The existing load is a big one, because obviously your meter has to be able to supply all the u—the gas appliances in your home. We don’t often run into that issue where the gas meter isn’t sized properly, but there are a lot of larger homes in the area nowadays. ATCO’s pretty good at getting their gas meters sized accordingly. But, yeah, basically we go in, we check the size of the gas line that’s existing, the length of the longest run, and how much gas that appliance—or the appliances on that line—are actually using. Then we can figure out what type of line you need.”
How Do You Get Permits for Gas Lines
Nice. So, Edmonton’s code requires that all small extensions of the gas line require permits. How do you guys deal with the permitting process for homeowners?
“So, with gas lines, we always like to pull a permit, Trevor—whether we’re just relocating that gas line or if we’re adding a gas line. You know, gas isn’t something we like to mess around with.”
Yeah. So tell me why you specifically like to do that for the homeowner, and why should a homeowner be wary of a plumbing company that won’t pull a gas permit?
“Well, I mean, for us it’s just a level of safety, a level of professionalism. You know, I think a lot of people—the minute they smell gas—they think that their house is going to explode, and that isn’t the case. It takes—you’d be seeing the gas floating in the air by the time your house would explode. And then, obviously, a multitude of things have to go incorrectly for something like that, for a cat‑catastrophic event like that.”
For a movie‑style event.
“Yeah, exactly, exactly. But, no, honestly, we just like to do it for peace of mind and a level of professionalism when we run a gas line.”
Okay, that’s fantastic. Now, can you walk us through a typical new gas line installation from start to finish? What steps do you take?
Gas Line Installation Step One
“Sure, sure. So, we’d send somebody out to go look at—like we talked about earlier—we’d send somebody out to look at your gas appliances in the home and your current gas line. You know, what size is it—one inch, inch‑and‑a‑quarter, maybe it’s even smaller in some of the new homes. Basically, we go in, we do a calculation based off of that, and then we take the gas line either from your meter, if the line can’t handle the new load, or we run it from your mechanical room. Ideally, if we can go even further and run it from a gas appliance that’s even closer, or if we’re just extending the line, then we can—based off those calculations. Basically, we add the line in, we air‑test it—which means you pump it up with a compressor up to a certain PSI. We like to go to about 40 PSI. The city requires 15 PSI for 15 minutes; that’s the plumbing and gas code requirement—but we like to pump it up to 40 PSI, and then we leave it until the inspector comes, takes a look. The inspector will come, he’ll give it the green sticker, which gives it the go‑ahead, and then we tie it into the existing gas line. Then you have gas, connect your appliance, and you’re ready to go.”
What materials do you prefer to use—black iron, copper, or CSST—and why? What are the pros and cons?
“So, yeah, we use black iron pipe; we use CSST. Not many people use copper tubing anymore for gas lines—that was used for a period of time—but the alternative to that is CSST, which is corrugated stainless‑steel tubing. It’s very flexible: you can run it through a finished home quite easily, you know, with a few spots opened up or with a drop ceiling in the basement—something like that. Black iron we use more often in new‑home construction.”
Okay.
“When there’s a nice long run and you can get that pipe up into the joist space or into the rafters nice and easily.”
Okay, and CSST—that’s pretty flexible. How strong is that stuff? How durable is it?
How Durable Are Gas Lines Outside?
“I mean, it’s durable. We’re not supposed to—it’s actually not approved—to go outside. UV can damage the housing on it. I mean, obviously, if you hit it really hard with something, it can damage it as well—like, you know, if you dropped a hammer on it or if you kick it, yeah, you can definitely bend it. So, we like to put it in protected areas only. If it does have to go through a stud space or a joist, we do put what’s called a protection plate on it, so that way when the drywall is going on they won’t screw it with a screw or something like that.”
Fingers crossed—hopefully they won’t go through it.
“Exactly. I mean, the protection plates do help, though.”
That’s good.
“Drywallers probably hate them, but they’re necessary for the gas install.”
For sure—yeah, you don’t want a slow leak in your gas line.
“Exactly.”
Nice. And the black pipe—black pipe, you have to use that outside. So, let’s say you’re doing an installation for a garage, right? They want to do garage heat and get that black pipe in there. Do you use that underground or just outside on the house? How does that go when you’re wanting to, let’s say, install a heater in a garage?
“Yeah, sure. So, for installing a heater in a garage, if your gas meter’s close by, we run black iron from the gas meter over, drill a hole, push it through the garage, and then up to your garage heater. Obviously, we come back and paint the gas line as well. The inspector likes to see it painted just so it doesn’t rust on the outside. Black iron is very durable; you can’t impinge on that—even a screw would take a lot of force to go through that.”
Yeah.
Shut Off Valves Are Important
“And now let’s talk about shut‑off valves.”
So, where do you install shut‑off valves and why is that important for the homeowner to know?
“So, shut‑off valves—we like to install them at the start of each gas line, whether it’s in your mechanical room or your gas meter. That way you can always shut it off there. And if we can’t do that, like in some of the new‑home construction where we branch off the main gas line, you’re obviously not going to put a shut‑off in a ceiling space or an enclosed space, so we always put a shut‑off right behind the appliance that’s serving.”
Okay, nice. And then it’s easier for someone to either connect or disconnect their appliance and move from there.
“That’s right.”
Nice. Now, what common code or inspection red flags do you look for regarding clearance, backfill, bonding, venting—that kind of stuff?
“Sure. So, obviously, you know, every appliance can be different with their requirements for clearances and venting, so we just have to follow the manufacturer’s description—or manufacturer’s instructions—for venting and clearances on each different appliance. Most appliances, you know, they need maybe two feet in front for servicing and a few inches above and a couple inches on the side—something like that—from combustibles. Venting, obviously, totally different—can be all different ranges due to appliance specs. And red flags, Trevor—I think just one of the biggest ones is undersizing gas lines. I think a lot of people out there don’t know how to size a gas line properly, and so we do run into that a little bit.”
Professionals Will Ensure The Right Size Gas Line
And why is that?
“I don’t know. I was talking to a couple other plumbers the other day about that, and they were chatting about how they size gas lines, and most of us agreed on the proper way to size a gas line, but I know there was one of them that—he was kind of unsure. The other thing we also do is whenever we’re running a new gas line, we always like to make sure that there’s a little bit extra size available, just in case somebody wants to put in a bigger barbecue or a larger heater or a larger fireplace or fire table. You never want to run the exact minimum. I know it can save a little bit of cost up front, but if you ever want to change that appliance, then you’re going to run into a lot more cost in the future.”
Perfect. Now, can you describe a time when your planning or your line layout prevented a future issue—like avoiding future renovations or frost shifting?
“Yeah, great question. So, preventing future issues for renovations—stuff like that—we always like to size our gas lines with a little bit of space on the high end. So, if the appliance calls for 100,000 BTUs, we like to run a gas line that can supply maybe 120 or 140 thousand BTUs. It all just depends on that size and that length of run, but we like to keep our minimums and maximums within a nice variance, just to give that homeowner—or the client—some wiggle room, I guess you could call it, just in case they want to upsize the gas appliance in the future.”
Right—maybe you’ll have a barbecue on the deck, but then you want to put one of those heaters.
“Yeah, exactly. And barbecues get big, heaters get big, fire tables all come in lots of different sizes.”
Frost Protection is Vital in Edmonton, Alberta
And you’d asked about frost protection.
“So, frost protection is really only when you’re going from underground gas lines to inside a building. Basically, what that means is we just put on a swing joint: it’s a couple of 90s that allow for some swing or some play in the gas pipe, so that way if the frost does heave that gas line from underground, it’s not going to snap the pipe or cause any breaks.”
Okay, so that’s how you protect against any of our weather that we have here.
“That’s it.”
Now, there’s a question for homeowners who are upgrading at a later date—say they’re adding a garage heater or an outdoor fire pit. What should they consider upfront in the initial gas‑line installation?
“I would just consider what type of appliance you’re putting in, and I would also look at a different range of appliances, because a lot of appliances—you know, you can get a fire table with 70,000 BTUs, which is a pretty common, pretty standard‑size fire table, but then I know we do a lot of work with one landscape contractor who puts in a lot of fire tables that have almost 300,000 BTUs.”
So, that’s about four times the firepower.
“So, you need a substantially larger gas line. I would just look at the range of appliances you’re looking to purchase, and that way we can get a better idea of what size of gas line to put in.”
Right. And should they try and do the trenching and running the gas line themselves, or should they just wait for a plumber to come out to do that rough‑in for them, so that when it comes time to do that install they know it’s right and it’s up to code and all that?
Do Not Install A Gas Line Without Professional Help
“Yeah, good question. I would say that I would not be installing a gas line without a professional. Again, you know, leaks are never fun. I mean, it is—I believe it’s illegal. I don’t think that a plumbing wholesaler will even sell a homeowner gas piping and gas equipment. Obviously, you can go to Home Depot, but they don’t sell all of it either, so I don’t know if you could do a complete installation based off of that. Before you trench or before you dig, you should always phone Alberta One Call as well; I know that’s something we and our contractors always do.”
So, yeah—never dig in your backyard without calling Alberta One Call.
“Or your front yard.”
Yeah, oh yeah, that’s right—your front yard.
“Your front yard or your backyard, because you don’t know where the utilities lie.”
That’s right.
“And you don’t know the depths that they’re at and how your final grading is and all of that.”
Awesome. Thanks so much for sharing with us today on gas‑line installation. So, if you guys are needing a new gas line for any new appliance, call Waterman Mechanical. Scott would be happy to come out and help you out. Thanks so much again, and we’ll see you next time.