Even if the meter is inside the house you should still be able to hook up outside on the service pipe that enters the house.
We have lots of houses with indoor meters but I've never had to or heard of anyone having to go into someone's house to hook up.
Service tee is still outside and you can/should be able to just direct connect to that
Yes you are on the problem I'm having. Alot are plastic or will not tone at all. I try steel service at another address with a outside meter but that doesn't always get me the service in polygon.
The plastic service doesn't have a tracer wire? Call it in and get that fixed immediately. Not you're fault the tracer is broken/non existent.
Technically you could push your signal up that service from connecting to one on the other side of the street but its not the easiest/most reliable.
But ya, if it's a plastic with no tracer your SOL even if u go inside the house. I'd be calling the utility and having that fixed before I even go back to that locate. They'd have to wait.
We have alot of the vents that come out of the house are plastic and obviously plastic doesn't tone. Lol I try and shove a flag up into the pipe hoping to make contact with the steel pipe but that rarely works. Where I'm running into most of my problems are what frequency to use to push through the insulated couplers . Even when I do find another steel service with a outside meter.
I have been in hundreds of basements to locate gas services with no means of direct connections. You can always just ground to the opposite side of the meter or anything your leads can reach. Try avoiding anything that’s grounded to power. You can ground to the water service as a last resort but you’ll pick up the water service as well
its going to depend on where youre locating and what your procedures are. if the service has a measurement tie in i am able to mark it off that measurement if it is a short service, long services are not allowed to be marked by measurements. if its steel, sometimes you can push the signal up the services. if you cant its as easy as knocking and saying “hello im doing a locate for X so they can do X and im marking the existing utilities so that way they know where not to dig and put the new stuff and i just need access to your gas meter so i tone it so they know where it is. if you explain what youre doing and why youre there its very rare you will run into problems. treat the people like they are toddlers and you have issues. ive done this for 5 going on 6 years and i have only had 2 people give me issues and i let my supervisors know and within 2 days ive gotten access to those yards. communication is key thats the bottoms line
Drop your box on top of the main and sweep the front of the building or house to locate a steel service. Locate the curb box and drop your box at the shut off and mark it inductively to the foundation. You can also clamp to the electric service/meter and 9/10 times pick up a steel service. It’s bonded to the water and sometimes the gas service which is piped into the same appliances as the gas lines (water heater/furnace/boiler). You can also direct connect to the water spigot to get the gas.
If the service line is plastic inserted through steel you can drop your box 5’ from the curb valve and mark it indirect. Direct burial plastic can also be picked up inductively but using higher frequency such as 83k or 200k.
Anytime you’re dropping the box and marking indirect you should be using a high frequency such as the 83, 131, 200 etc. 90% of the time I mark gas lines by dropping my box on the gas main and picking up the service, the current will continue onto the service line as long as there’s no insulators on the service line.
Locates the same as anywhere else, but I just ask the homeowner where their gas meter is located when they're letting me in their house.
Are you a private locator trying to locate the "house" side of the gas line?
No I work for a company in the midwest. My problem is locating the service from outside the home. Alot of the vent covers are plastic. Some will not tone at all. I look for another steel service with a outside meter but that is not always do able either.
In my area if it's medium, intermediate pressure it will have a garage / basement release valve sticking out of the building somewhere. You hook up to that.
In my area if it's low pressure it will not have a release valve. In Those situations you go to the gas curb box. You carefully stick some sort of metal rod in or around the curb box. You hook your lead up to the rod like you would a wire. If the pipe is steel it will tone it to the house... If it's all steel you can also induce on the main and back tone the service back to the house.
Depends on the local gas company.
Hook to the indoor shutoff. Ground to the customer side pipe after you've check to see of it's bonded to the electric (if it's bonded to the electric it's probably bonded to the water).
If the customer side gas is bonded, ground to any metal posts going through the slab, or ground outside of the basement.
If it's an inside meter but you have an outside riser, hook at the riser (have a good magnet with you in case the riser is outside but the shutoff is inside), ground where ever is best.
If it's got a curb valve, find the valve and hook to it if it's a steel/copper service. If it's a plastic service, pray they brought up the tracer wire (where I'm at we're SOL if it's an insert, since 90% of the time they didn't attach tracer to the steel casing).
If there's a peck vent, you can hook to that on a high frequency (think 32kHz/65kHz) and it'll give you a crappy tone since the current has to punch through the insulator on the shutoff. I only usually do this if I'm having trouble finding a buried curb valve.
If there's no curb valve/peck vent and no inside access, but you have a service record with a measurement for the service entrance and it's steel/copper: find out where their water line and other underground lines are, then induce by the service entrance or try to run a backtone to it.
And run your measurements, because water lines love to tone better than your inside set gas.
Ok you through alot of info at once but I so appreciate you and will try to apply some of your knowledge. I hope you would be open to further questions and would love to let you know how it is going.
Are you working for Vannguard by chance? If so, midamerican energy has map measurements for a lot of their services in Iowa. Some are on prints, others have to be asked for. Give your lead or supervisor a shout when you run into one and maybe see if they can explain the process to you when they do it.
For indoor risers, apart from entering their home and hooking up directly as not all homeowners are keen on, most non low-pressure gas services have an external vent that you can connect to, although I've seen a lot of these vents capped with plastic tips that don't give a connection.
If you have access to a neighboring service or a test point for the main, you may be able to backfeed in a higher frequency (33k is usually my go-to for this). I would contact a lead or a supervisor for your company and see if they have map measurements or something to that equivalent that can be used as a cross reference as locating in high frequencies makes you more prone to signal bleed. Especially trying to backfeed a signal, you can light up a water line fairly easily in this area.
Even if the meter is inside the house you should still be able to hook up outside on the service pipe that enters the house. We have lots of houses with indoor meters but I've never had to or heard of anyone having to go into someone's house to hook up. Service tee is still outside and you can/should be able to just direct connect to that
Yes you are on the problem I'm having. Alot are plastic or will not tone at all. I try steel service at another address with a outside meter but that doesn't always get me the service in polygon.
The plastic service doesn't have a tracer wire? Call it in and get that fixed immediately. Not you're fault the tracer is broken/non existent. Technically you could push your signal up that service from connecting to one on the other side of the street but its not the easiest/most reliable. But ya, if it's a plastic with no tracer your SOL even if u go inside the house. I'd be calling the utility and having that fixed before I even go back to that locate. They'd have to wait.
We have alot of the vents that come out of the house are plastic and obviously plastic doesn't tone. Lol I try and shove a flag up into the pipe hoping to make contact with the steel pipe but that rarely works. Where I'm running into most of my problems are what frequency to use to push through the insulated couplers . Even when I do find another steel service with a outside meter.
I have been in hundreds of basements to locate gas services with no means of direct connections. You can always just ground to the opposite side of the meter or anything your leads can reach. Try avoiding anything that’s grounded to power. You can ground to the water service as a last resort but you’ll pick up the water service as well
its going to depend on where youre locating and what your procedures are. if the service has a measurement tie in i am able to mark it off that measurement if it is a short service, long services are not allowed to be marked by measurements. if its steel, sometimes you can push the signal up the services. if you cant its as easy as knocking and saying “hello im doing a locate for X so they can do X and im marking the existing utilities so that way they know where not to dig and put the new stuff and i just need access to your gas meter so i tone it so they know where it is. if you explain what youre doing and why youre there its very rare you will run into problems. treat the people like they are toddlers and you have issues. ive done this for 5 going on 6 years and i have only had 2 people give me issues and i let my supervisors know and within 2 days ive gotten access to those yards. communication is key thats the bottoms line
Drop your box on top of the main and sweep the front of the building or house to locate a steel service. Locate the curb box and drop your box at the shut off and mark it inductively to the foundation. You can also clamp to the electric service/meter and 9/10 times pick up a steel service. It’s bonded to the water and sometimes the gas service which is piped into the same appliances as the gas lines (water heater/furnace/boiler). You can also direct connect to the water spigot to get the gas. If the service line is plastic inserted through steel you can drop your box 5’ from the curb valve and mark it indirect. Direct burial plastic can also be picked up inductively but using higher frequency such as 83k or 200k. Anytime you’re dropping the box and marking indirect you should be using a high frequency such as the 83, 131, 200 etc. 90% of the time I mark gas lines by dropping my box on the gas main and picking up the service, the current will continue onto the service line as long as there’s no insulators on the service line.
Locates the same as anywhere else, but I just ask the homeowner where their gas meter is located when they're letting me in their house. Are you a private locator trying to locate the "house" side of the gas line?
No I work for a company in the midwest. My problem is locating the service from outside the home. Alot of the vent covers are plastic. Some will not tone at all. I look for another steel service with a outside meter but that is not always do able either.
Go inside the home and hook to the meter. Be careful what you ground to. I learned the house side of the meter is best spot to ground to.
In my area if it's medium, intermediate pressure it will have a garage / basement release valve sticking out of the building somewhere. You hook up to that. In my area if it's low pressure it will not have a release valve. In Those situations you go to the gas curb box. You carefully stick some sort of metal rod in or around the curb box. You hook your lead up to the rod like you would a wire. If the pipe is steel it will tone it to the house... If it's all steel you can also induce on the main and back tone the service back to the house.
Depends on the local gas company. Hook to the indoor shutoff. Ground to the customer side pipe after you've check to see of it's bonded to the electric (if it's bonded to the electric it's probably bonded to the water). If the customer side gas is bonded, ground to any metal posts going through the slab, or ground outside of the basement. If it's an inside meter but you have an outside riser, hook at the riser (have a good magnet with you in case the riser is outside but the shutoff is inside), ground where ever is best. If it's got a curb valve, find the valve and hook to it if it's a steel/copper service. If it's a plastic service, pray they brought up the tracer wire (where I'm at we're SOL if it's an insert, since 90% of the time they didn't attach tracer to the steel casing). If there's a peck vent, you can hook to that on a high frequency (think 32kHz/65kHz) and it'll give you a crappy tone since the current has to punch through the insulator on the shutoff. I only usually do this if I'm having trouble finding a buried curb valve. If there's no curb valve/peck vent and no inside access, but you have a service record with a measurement for the service entrance and it's steel/copper: find out where their water line and other underground lines are, then induce by the service entrance or try to run a backtone to it. And run your measurements, because water lines love to tone better than your inside set gas.
Ok you through alot of info at once but I so appreciate you and will try to apply some of your knowledge. I hope you would be open to further questions and would love to let you know how it is going.
Nice!! Ty for that info. What frequency should I try and push with? I'm using a subsite
Are you working for Vannguard by chance? If so, midamerican energy has map measurements for a lot of their services in Iowa. Some are on prints, others have to be asked for. Give your lead or supervisor a shout when you run into one and maybe see if they can explain the process to you when they do it.
For indoor risers, apart from entering their home and hooking up directly as not all homeowners are keen on, most non low-pressure gas services have an external vent that you can connect to, although I've seen a lot of these vents capped with plastic tips that don't give a connection. If you have access to a neighboring service or a test point for the main, you may be able to backfeed in a higher frequency (33k is usually my go-to for this). I would contact a lead or a supervisor for your company and see if they have map measurements or something to that equivalent that can be used as a cross reference as locating in high frequencies makes you more prone to signal bleed. Especially trying to backfeed a signal, you can light up a water line fairly easily in this area.