Would you say a natural gas line is combustible???

[Bruce A. King]

I think the intent of Joes orig question was to find which inspectors thought the issue should be reported based on the 1 inch clearance code.

I think we all agree that it should be reported.

Even if it is not the cause of a future fire and the house has an unrelated fire you can bet the fire investigator will report the issue as "one of the fire hazards present" to the local news.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

[quote=rcooke]Question is ( A natural Gas line Combustible .
The answer is no .
Put a light a match and you can not get it to burn.
Is it proper for the gas line to be touching the chimney again no.
Gas flue open in to attic .
I would write it up as gas flue open into attic requires immediate repair by qualified person.
I see 81 people have looked and said nothing.
Roy Cooke

Sort of strange so much was made of my saying no it would not burn .
As I said in line three above it should not be touching the chimney.
No one said any thing on the Gas flue discharging into the attic and I feel this was more serious then the line touching the B Vent.
Also 81 looked and said nothing until I remarked on this .
Saturday evening and we can have a little fun playing what if.
Got to love NACHI and all of us we sure do enjoy life to its fullest.
Sorry have to go to bed .
Stay around Nick could soon give out a prize.

Roy Cooke

[Dale Duffy]

If I seen a gas line next to the vent I'd push it to the side and move on.

Not that I really think it would be a problem anyway.

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

*** an added thought have you ever seen how they hook up a gas line to the home
They take a coupling and weld it to the high pressure line that runs down you street with the line under full pressure and no fire . They then screw in a valve into the coupling and have a special drill that punches a hole in the High pressure line . They then run the line to you home pressure reducing regulator open the valve that was installed in the coupling allowing gas to your home . and no fire was seen by me on all of these i have seen done .
The ark welder is in the region of 3,000± degrees when the weld to the high pressure line . Yes I have worked on gas line stations 24 inch high pressure . I am an electrician and put in controls .
Roy Cooke

[Joe Funderburk, CMI]

Originally Posted by dduffy

If I seen a gas line next to the vent I'd push it to the side and move on.

Normally I would too. I try to avoid writing stuff up if it's an easy fix. But this line could not be moved > 1" away without strapping it. I tried.

[dhelm]

Originally Posted by rcooke

Sorry Joe but I have to disagree, the plastic if you are able to get it to burn will not get the steel hot enought to melt so back to square one The question was will the gas line burn. I said No
Will the plastic cover burn I do not think it by itself would burn but if the house was on fire I would expect you ,I and every one else would be far away watching.
Roy Cooke

I believe that flexible gas line (plastic coated) has an interior core of aluminum, not steel, hence the flexibility. If that is indeed the case, the temperature could get high enough to melt it. BOOM!

[Vern Mitchinson, CMI]

Originally Posted by rcooke

*** an added thought have you ever seen how they hook up a gas line to the home
They take a coupling and weld it to the high pressure line that runs down you street with the line under full pressure and no fire . They then screw in a valve into the coupling and have a special drill that punches a hole in the High pressure line . They then run the line to you home pressure reducing regulator open the valve that was installed in the coupling allowing gas to your home . and no fire was seen by me on all of these i have seen done .
The ark welder is in the region of 3,000± degrees when the weld to the high pressure line . Yes I have worked on gas line stations 24 inch high pressure . I am an electrician and put in controls .
Roy Cooke

I spent 5 years inspecting water main and water service construction. We called it a "hot tap". Once in a great while something goes wrong and all hell breaks loose.

[Vern Mitchinson, CMI]

Iron, Aluminium and Plastic will burn If it's iron it's called rust, it's all oxidation.
Natural gas is a gas at normal temperatures.
It can be and is forced into a liquid under pressure. Hence LPG otherwise known as Liquefied Petroleum Gas.

[ezietlow]

Do not know if gas pipe is combustible, but when I installed my furnace I strapped the gas supply up tight to give it 1 inch cleaance from my type b vent just to be safe, assumed it was considered combustible, but I guess if i really think about it is not, was easy enough to get 1 inch clearance so I didn't worry about it.

[Robert J. OConnor]

That looks like CSST gas pipe (e.g. TracPipe or Gastite) that consists of stainless steel corrugated tubing with a polyethylene outer jacket. That type of outer jacket has a ASTM-E84 flame spread rating of around 10 to 15, which is not very combustible, but it would still not meet typical model code requirements for a "non-combustible" material under ASTM-E136.

Accordingly typical clearances to "combustible" materials (defined by model codes like the IRC as anything that does not meet the ASTM-E136 requirements for a "non-combustible" material) would need to be provided.

JMO & 2-nickels ...

[Peter W. Bennett]

2000 IRC SECTION R202 DEFINITIONS

COMBUSTIBLE MATERIAL.

Any material not defined as
noncombustible.

NONCOMBUSTIBLEMATERIAL.

Materials that pass the
test procedure for defining noncombustibility of elementary
materials set forth in ASTM E 136.

I am checking into the yellow jacket material, and its ASTM standard.

[Jae Williams]

Me?? Well, I'm not so very bright, you see. So I wouldn't be able to concern myself with all the technical applications discussed in this thread.

Had it been I that found that CSST against the B-vent, I would have pushed it away from the contact and went on about my business.


Sometimes I think we get so wrapped up in "reporting" and "calling out" that we make out the insignificant stuff to be somewhat earth-shattering....

[Richard L. Bennett]

Everything will burn - the big question is there a problem in the pix

Answer -- No -- would all feel better if there was additional spacing _ YES

How one reports it is a matter of personal judgement - remember we can't use code as our logic.

Non standard workmanship is always a good way to state an issue



rlb

[Richard L. Bennett]

Wiring inside a fuel tank in an airplane can cause a problem that will cause the airplane to shorted its flight plan

The close prox of the gas line and the vent is really not the issue -- It probably will not even become an issue if some chain of event were to cause a gas line leak

BUT would all feel better in YOUR judgment if the line was moved a little

Your client is paying for your OPINION give it

rlb