Underfloor gas piping to fireplace

[Jez_uk1]

Hi all

Sorry for long post.

I live in a house that's about 25 years old. There is an old gas fireplace that I having professionally removed (don't worry I'm not touching anything gas related!). It's the type of fire that stands on 4 legs and neatly sits inside the fireplace area.

At the back there is a copper pipe that rises through the concrete base, into a T-piece, and then horizontally around the back before eventually reducing into smaller diameter piping that snakes around the side to the front and into the control unit for the fire via a shutoff valve.

During my last gas safe inspection I believe they did a bit of resoldering/reflow(?) on that T-piece. Because the gas fire unit just sits on the floor, it is evident that this has probably moved or wiggled around a bit over the years and probably put a bit of stress on this T-piece. Nevertheless that was dealt with during the last inspection (I don't know if it was actually leaking, but there was a bit of soldering work done).

Anyway, that is just a bit of background. The fireplace is getting removed and the only option will be to seal off the end of the copper pipe because the other end is currently not accessible.

My concern is that if there has been some wiggle over the years, could this be transferred under-floor to a below floor joint? From a completely layman's perspective I would imagine that only pipe bending would be allowed with underfloor pipes and certainly no soldering or types of joint that can't could potentially degrade and can't be inspected? What I am trying to say is would that vertical pipe that rises up into the fireplace have a 90 degree bend to horizontal below the fireplace and not some sort of soldered in joint that could be subjected to fatigue?

Would I be correct in saying this or should I get a fiber optic inspection done below the base of the fireplace or worse still have to pull some heavy stuff up?

This is not so much in the event that there are currently no leaks. It stems from my paranoia that any underfloor pipe could need inspection...

Thanks very much and I hope this makes sense.

Jeremy

 

[king of pipes]

If your concerned get a gas safe inspection carried out a tightness test will check the soundness of the pipework .

 

[Stu-B]

Is the whole floor a concrete base? There’s many different ways of building houses and one method is wooden joists and floorboards which will mean just the area around the fireplace is concrete for fire safety. You can then lift a board and cap off the pipe away from the concrete section.

Where the house has a fully concrete floor
its unusual for the gas pipe to run a long distance in the concrete due to the way houses are built, you find the first fix of gas pipes is done after the concrete base is laid and finished.

 

[Jez_uk1]

Thanks to both for the feedback

I had an engineer in today to remove the fireplace and he has soldered on a cap. This is temporary until I have a new boiler and pipework run in. He did a full tightness test as well.

It is concrete around the fire and then wooden floor for the rest of the room. Hopefully nothing will happen to that cap! (just my paranoia!)

Thanks again

 

[Andy B]

Had this a few times- as someone said above the best way is to lift a board near the fire and get your plumber to cap it off there.

If you are having the fireplace removed there is a chance that you could damage the pipe when lifting the hearth or breaking mortar.