Installing New Gas Lines, Part 1

December 14, 2013

Despite both of us being a little under the weather, Bob and I headed over to the house on Saturday and spent the day working on getting new gas lines set up. We had cleared everything out previously when we cleaned out the basement, and the furnace has been turned off for around two weeks now.

With the weather getting colder, we’ve had the faucets dripping and heaters set up in kitchen, as well as the two bathrooms. We’ve gotten by so far, and the pipes haven’t frozen… but the goal is to try to get the furnace back up and running, so we won’t have to worry about the weather as much.

To do that though, we’ll need to get the gas lines in.

Bob, with the “mule.” This device basically takes pipe, and rotates it. While the pipe is being rotated, you can use a pipe cutter to shorter the overall length, and also use a threader to thread each end.

A pipe vice, which holds pipe in place. The chain loops over each piece, and you tighten it down with the crank. It holds pipe remarkably well which, I guess, is to be expected… but it was super sturdy. There’s a small bit of metal that connected this to the joists above, so the entire thing wasn’t moving anywhere anytime soon.

I have to confess – I loved this guy. For a while there, I was setting up pipe and removing leftover couplings and elbows from pieces that we had uninstalled previously. I felt genuinely helpful and productive for about 20 minutes there, and it felt great.

Which is not to say I haven’t been helping, but Bob has still be doing the lion’s share of the work. He’s explained to me that we’re now getting to “the fun stuff,” and assures me that I will be able to do more and more as we continue.

Taking out some trash, I looked up to see the tenant who’s been living in our attic. For all the time we’ve spent in the basement, this guy’s been hanging out in our gutter, and (I’m guessing) in our attic as well.