Kenneth J. Nowicki on sun 9 dec 01
Been reading this thread and thought I'd offer my experience here in Los
Angeles County. When I was installing my 20 cu ft counter-balance raku kiln
in my yard in Lancaster (in the Mojave desert)... the local city code allowed
the use of plastic pipe for gas installations.
I'm not sure of the proper name of it, but it looks an awful lot like PVC,
except it's a light yellow color. In my case, because I was running gas to a
site where I was using a 330,000 Btu power burner, and also was planning for
future gas needs... I ran a 2" line from the meter to my kiln site.
My cousin who is a plumber helped me with the project, and the city required
us to add these "transitional" fittings at each end of the run... expensive
little buggers... cost us like $75 bucks a piece from Familian (plumbing
supply). But running the gas lines was much cheaper than it would have been
had we had to run steel. The fittings (elbows, 90s, etc.) were just glued
together with a type of PVC cement similar to what's used in sprinkler lines.
We added a "tracer" wire taped to the top of the pipe the length of the run
so it could be easily found if needed in the future (I think it was just
copper wire of some kind). Of course all of this was laid in a 24" deep
trench with a small bed of gravel underneath it, then backfilled after a
pressurized test was run successfully.
Gas company installed a larger "commercial" sized meter and unfortunately
began charging me commercial prices too.
Now out here in our lovely over regulated Southern California... they are
requiring that homeowners install a "earthquake safety shutoff valve" that
basically automatically cuts off your gas supply should your device sense a
trembler over like... 5.6 or something on the Richter scale. "Certified"
plumbers are charging homeowners around $300 bucks to install one of these
things. I say I can turn off my own damn gas line with a crescent wrench
should we have an earthquake "thank you very little"... but what do I know?
Everyone's got their hand out trying to get in your pocket it seems.
I just discovered a new law while trying to sell my house. Since 1999 there's
a new water conservation law on the books (thanks to the Los Angeles Dept. of
Water & Power) that requires homeowners replace any toilets in their homes
with ultra low flow toilets that use only 1.6 gallons of water. These toilets
must be in place (as well as low flow shower heads) and certified by a
licensed "retrofitter" (another $50) before the closing of the sale of the
home. Do you know how small of a toilet that is? Just try finding one that
covers up the base of the floor of your elongated toilet when you remove it
to comply with this order. It's a joke. Looks like hell. Pretty soon they'll
be asking us to flush our waste with a shotglass of water... idiots.
Ken
In Encino, CA (soon to be Port Washington, NY)
"Only 9 days left before I say 'good riddance' to California and their
overregulated ways and drive my 3 yr old son and I in my new Ford Expedition
across our beautiful country along the I-40 corridor and then on up to New
York... arriving at our new home in Port Washington just a day or two before
Christmas!"
| |
|
