Did you know that every weekend, the big box home improvement stores host home owners who are building on additions to their homes, expanding man caves, or adding a gas grill in the backyard, and these people are walking away from these bog box stores more annoyed than ever?
You see, the big box stores offer gas pipe threading… this important and detailed work is often done at the big box store by an employee who is simply following written instructions on the threading. That’s a mistake. You see, what most people don’t know is this threading is incredibly important to having gas pipes that work correctly and safely. At Rocket Plumbing, we take it SO seriously, we make sure every Rocket Plumber on a residential gas pipe project in and around Los Angeles has access to our pipe threading tool.
That’s it right there, the Rigid (it’s a beauty, cost us over $6k).
So why are these home owners getting frustrated by the big box stores on their threading? We hear about it all the time. “I had to wait all saturday morning and afternoon, they had only one person on staff who knew how to do it.” “I get home and the threading wasn’t done right. Wasted my whole afternoon, and had to buy new pipes anyway.” “The measurements were all wrong, wasted all that material.” “Wasn’t done correctly, found out at the worst time, couldn’t get it done in time for my party at my home.”
According to Chris Mills of Rocket Plumbing:
Most homes have leaks and don’t even know it, most don’t rise to the level of a major a concern. Usually they are only found when someone wants to sell a home, when the home inspection is done. Most state regulations pertaining to require an inspection, and gas leaks are a must on these inspections. Usually, home inspectors will mark these problem areas with colored tape.
Most gas leaks have to rise to 5% to 15% ratio of gas to air, combustion to happen. A lot of leaks are small, and undetectable. Most aren’t harmful, but some can be. They should be fixed over time. We call that repiping, in order to ensure the leak is fixed. Most homes have a leak, however small, as that is the nature and physics of pipe fittings. Almost all of these leaks are so small, there is very little chance of real harm. But there are enough out there, just from the normal wear and tear from every day use and physics, that the small leak can and do become problem leaks.
City does not fix leaks as they are so prevalent, so plumbers are needed. Additions like gas grills in the back yard, adding heater to the man cave, or garage. The DIYer often tries to do these, without realizing that gas pipes are a different animal than water pipes. For one thing, they need to be threaded, threaded to the right standards. Yes, the DIYer can go to Home Depot to have this done. Unlike pvc and such, the pipes for Gas must be threaded. Unfortunately, the big box stores cannot handle pipe threading correctly and in the amount often for additions
We get many customers for gas pipe repairs or installation because they do not get correct pipe rethreading from the big box stores. Many of our customers who have tried that route complain about long wait times at the store, the pipe thread is done by someone who is unaware of the correct details to watch, and often create pipes that are unusable. Note: A pipe threader costs $6k. We use and recommend the Rigid Pipe Threader.
Gas meters are exposed and sometimes need to be upgraded when additions to homes are made, in order to handle the new needed bandwidth or pipe to handle the new greater volume coming thru the gas pipes.
Let Rocket Plumbing handle your Residential Gas Piping for your next addition to your home.