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turbogus

Existing porch conv. spare room buried gas line

Turbogus
11 years ago

Greetings everyone from Oregon, a nice place to visit, 200 billion slugs can't be wrong.

My wife and I just bought our first home built back in '68. Like many in this neighborhood, it has/had a large back concrete porch. Ours at some point was converted into a spare room. Now the previous owner had died, leading to the family selling this home. So not only did no one had any knowledge of this improvement, no permits were found in the disclosure process.

Looking to plant a couple of trees or building a fence for more privacy, we called 811 to arrange for the 'call before you dig' procedure. It was found that the gas feed line to the meter was underneath the slab. It took some doing to convince the Gas Co. that we did not build this patio conversion to spare room. Speaking with them on the phone the tell me they've planned to move the meter. Trouble is they may be thinking of moving it further away to the opposite corner of the home from our only gas driven device~the gfa heater. In our prior residence in the next town we never used the heat as the home was heated by means of ceiling heat which in effect not only failed to heat the rooms but ran up our electric bills initially before we gave up on it. So we're accustomed to cold temps in our homes despite having then to contend with the infamous Oregon mold. Excavation that I did last weekend showed the gas line disappearing under the concrete slab, but it seems to be in a dirt channel rather than encased in concrete, is this my saving grace? What options have I? These may be simplistic questions but being a 1st time homeowner I'm a little lost.

Thanks and a lift of the lynch lid for any responses.

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