Buried Gas Line-Buried Marker?

My electrician dad use to referr to backfilling berried wires with red sand. The idea being when someone digging would come up with red sand, they'd be forewarned to stop digging. How would you dye the sand? I'm about to run a propane line accross 40' of lawn and was thinking about doing something like this.

The lines are, by code, to be 18" deep. I hit two boulders with the trencher and could only grove them about 12" deep. What's the likely hood I'll get by with this - can't hit th line cause it's in the grouved rock? I'm thinking I'll have to get the backhoe out and rip up more than I'd like to. The line will end up looking like a drunk ran it!

THat's how most our rds. look up this way Vigll I believe ya can get colored sand at HD or Lowes or something like that--if it were on my property, I'd just use the lil flags sunk all the way down--who would be digging on your property other then you?

Some random future owner of this place - I'm usually guilty of overthinking this stuff, Fred!

I have a roll of yellow caution tape. I was thinking of laying that on top of 6" of sand covering the gas line. Better than nothing, but if there's another way . . .

You can get the yellow warning tape from the Big-box stores.
Bury the pipe with about 6 inches of regular coarse sand.
Put the Warning tape on top of sand. Back fill with dirt.
That meets code. Or used to.

009to090 wrote:You can get the yellow warning tape from the Big-box stores.
Bury the pipe with about 6 inches of regular coarse sand.
Put the Warning tape on top of sand. Back fill with dirt.
That meets code. Or used to.

That's what I was thinking of doing, Chris. I have the roll of yellow tape, didn't know if they had red tape?

Still wondering if I'll get away with laying the line in the groove the trencher cut in the big -a$$ rocks in my yard. I had to rent a KX040-4 (loved that thumb!) to dig the hole because of all the buried treasure on this hill. Moved some boulders too. Still, it took about 3.5 hrs to get it dug and it ended up 25% bigger than it needed to be

VigIIPeaBurner wrote:That's what I was thinking of doing, Chris. I have the roll of yellow tape, didn't know if they had red tape?
Still wondering if I'll get away with laying the line in the groove the trencher cut in the big -a$$ rocks in my yard. I had to rent a KX040-4 (loved that thumb!) to dig the hole because of all the buried treasure on this hill. Still, it took about 3.5 hrs to get it dug and it ended up 25% bigger than it needed to be

I think you still need to meet the 18" minimum depth. Get a jack hammer
Goto a Big Box store and checkout the warning tape selection... They have Electrical, gas, etc...
Different tape for different utility.

http://www.bradyid.com/bradyid/scpv/Labels-and-Ta ... -Tape.html

Concrete and masonry suppliers sell pigmented dyes to add to mixes.

And since most underground piping is now plastic (non ferrious) the marking tape needs accompanied w/ a suspended wire buried ~6" above plastic pipe...plus they make metallic foil tapes now also.

That's what I'm figuring too.

Thanks for the link. I'll check out the tape.

$166.99 per roll...how many will you take?

Sand I believe is code up here in MA. Whenever someone running equipment strikes sand, they must STOP because that usually means your about to rupture a gas line. Just plain sand up here.

McGiever wrote:$166.99 per roll...how many will you take?

One, but I'd use only 4% of the 1,000' roll. Tape doesn't have to be "metal detectable" as I'm running plastic coated copper. That pipe would get picked up at that depth I'd assume Know anything about metal detector capability?

Code official didn't say anything about inspecting the burial process, only the installation and pressure test. Did say a good installation would use sand with nothing bigger than 3/4" stone mixed in. Lots of glacial till around here so I'm on the hunt for screened bank run. Figure I need ~7-8 yards for the whole install. I'm thinking if I find gas line tape I might use that if the price is right. Otherwise, I use the yellow caution tape I have.

Jack hammer rental is the next move. I'll be talking to the fellow that dropped the six holes for the deck. They had to use a Hilti to get to three feet one a couple of them.

Always sand around pipe, especially copper. Stones have a way of drilling through stuff especially where there is traffic.

All I've seen our company do is bury the pipe, leave about 3" down then lay the yellow gas/caution tape, then cover that. Personally, I've always left the tails out tied to the pipe so should anyone go looking they'll know that there is tape layed.

cabinover wrote:All I've seen our company do is bury the pipe, leave about 3" down then lay the yellow gas/caution tape, then cover that. Personally, I've always left the tails out tied to the pipe so should anyone go looking they'll know that there is tape layed.

Thanks, I was wondering how deep the tape should be. If I can't find "Caution Gas" tape, I'm using the roll of generic "Caution" yellow tape I have . Better than nothing and anybody with half a brain should know the propane line would go between the tank and the header . . . Maybe

If you can find an industrial supply house they should have smaller rolls of "Caution" tape available.
Dan.