Leaving the gaslight era behind

Q: I have an old house in Berkeley, Calif. It used to have gaslights. The pipes are still visible in the rooms, sticking out 2 1/2 inches from the walls and capped.

I know that there is no gas in these lines, so I would like to remove them and patch the holes. I tried a pipe wrench, but wasn't able to budge them. I could cut them flush with a Sawzall, but I'd like to get them deeper in order to do a better patch. Any suggestions?

A: Kevin ran into the same thing when he refurbished his 1879 Second Empire Victorian in nearby Alameda. The old pipes were still in the walls -- old gas lines, old water lines, and old lead drains and vents.

Kevin did a lot more than you propose. He opened up the walls to the studs, exposing everything. What a 100-year-old rat's nest! But you don't have to do that.

We remember when Kevin took ownership in 1982. The walls were in pretty crummy condition after years as a rental, and the color scheme was electric blue and purple, a suitable home for a rock band and just as rough. So rather than try to save some of the walls, he decided to demo them all, to the tune of a 14-yard garbage bin full of lath and plaster.

The result was that Kevin could insulate the exterior walls, add some electrical outlets and lights, and make the walls smooth. A second-order effect is that he got a real good look at the pipes. We're not surprised that you can't budge your gas lines with a pipe wrench. You can crank on that sucker till the cows come home and you won't be able to move them because there probably isn't a joint to unscrew. In the old days, the fittings that are commonplace today were used as sparingly as possible -- we suppose out of fear of leaks and potential explosion.

The weakest link in a gas line is at the joints of the fitting. To install a wall sconce, the plumber would bend the pipe 90 degrees rather than run two straight pieces of pipe connected by an elbow as we would today. We think this is the situation you're looking at.

In principle, your idea of cutting the pipe off a little below the surface with a reciprocating saw, also known as a Sawzall, is OK, but we see a couple of problems that might develop. Getting at the pipe at a proper depth will be a challenge. You risk destroying the plaster if you try to be too fine with the cut. If you cut the pipe too close to the surface, you risk the patch cracking in the future. ...CONTINUED

All rights reserved. This article may not be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever, in part or in whole, without written permission of Inman News. Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright law.