Old pipe in garage capped off and goes underground - is it safe to remove?

Hey @Mr R, 

I had a quick look online and from what I can see it could lead to an underground oil storage tank - https://structuretech.com/fuel-oil-tanks-2/

Do you know if the property ever had oil as a fuel before??  

Hi sorry no I don’t ? Next to the pipe we’re it goes underground there is a red box that says oil I have included a picture any idea who I should contact and can it be removed thank  you 
 

What is inside that red box?

I’d also suspecet that as said it may be an underground oli tank, and the red box may contain the filling valve for it that an oil tanker would hook up to.

However you haven’t established any connection between the yellow pipe and the red box, only that they are close together which may not mean anything.

The fact that the pipe in your garage is painted yellow could be a bit of a concern.
Yellow is usually/often an indication of a gas pipe.

Hi that’s correct there is nothing there is just a piece of glass nothing on the other side ? 

Hey @Mr R,

Thanks for @Nukecad for jumping on and sharing your thoughts. 

If the case is that we’re correct and it does relate to a underground oil storage tank you’ll find more information at https://www.gov.uk/oil-storage-regulations-and-safety/home. 

Could it be an old redundant gas pipe ? 

I’d ignore the red box then and concentrate on the fact that the pipe may in fact be a live gas pipe that has been capped off.

You are obviously concerend about what the pipe may be as you have asked this question.

What material is that cap, metal or plastic?
It looks as if it’s not meant to be easily removed.

So if you are not entirely 100% sure that it is not a ‘live’ gas pipe then your safest option would be to contact the gas network company for your area and get them to come and check if it is a gas pipe that is still connected to the mains.
They will come out and remove the cap to check if it has been disconnected at the other end (where it connects to the gas main, under the road).

If there is no ‘live’ gas supply then they will tell you that it’s safe to remove.
If there is live gas then they will cap it off again and then will have to disconnect it before you can remove it. (Which may or may not involve a cost).

If you cut into a live gas pipe then you risk a gas explosion, I’m sure you have seen on the news what that can mean.

Hi thanks for the information I will not be touching it just wondered what it was because it is not connected to anything and the gas pipes which are connected to the gas meter are well away from that pipe in question ? 

Hey both! 

I’d agree with @Nukecad that it’d be best to err on the side of caution just incase it could possibly still be a live gas pipe! You can find your local gas distributor here: https://www.energynetworks.org/customers/find-my-network-operator. It wouldn’t hurt to let them know that you have found a pipe on your property that leads underground that’s been capped off and you’re trying to establish it’s origin. You believe it to be a gas pipe based on observations of the colour but it’s also located away from your existing gas supply that you’re aware of. They could arrange to send out a certified engineer to take a look at it and give advice on whether it can be removed. 

Well without being able to check where it goes underground it’s pretty impossible to say what it is.

But as said if you think it may be gas then your gas network company can do a ‘live dead check’ which is usually free to have done.
They will normally have an online form to request a check.
You say that you do have a gas meter so your gas bill should tell you who the network company is in your area.

Thank you everyone for your help I will contact the network company anymore advice will be greatly received thanks again 

I’m not sure if there is any more advice we can give at this point.

If you do have the check done then please let us know the result.

Could we ask that you pop back with an update @Mr R if you find more information? It’d be great for us to keep an eye on your progress 😃

Thank you all very much and I will keep you all informed thanks again amazing knowledge and advice from all thanks again 

Welcome to the community 🎉 

We’ll do our best to try and help offer advice and support the best we can! 

Definitely looks like a gas pipe from the capping type. Maybe, like my property, there was a gas water heater of some sort in the garage for the washing machine. However the pipe appears to be a termination pipe and not a supply pipe. This means that the pipe after disappearing underground would have to be routed to your gas meter via a junction. And, if you still have gas in the house then this pipe is almost certainly still "live" so best not to mess with it!

If you need the pipe "gone" get a local approved Gas Safe engineer to cut and cap it to a point you can hide or bury it safely. You can probably get this done for the price of a couple pints!

Hey again @Mr R! 

Thanks for updating us and i’m glad to hear it’s safe to remove! A fine end result 😃

It’s all down to our community and members like @Nukecad and @IanFerguson coming together to offer advice to help!