DIY Gas Line

[nj888]

I'm looking(hoping) to add a gas heater to my pool.

I'm in middle NJ and I've been getting quotes to do this and the prices are astronomical. The quotes I'm getting is between 6k and 9.5k to hook to the meter and heater, materials, and run the line. This does not include hooking up the lines from the heater to the pool equipment.

So at this point I was thinking of digging the trench myself and buying the materials to run the line and risers and have a plumber come in to do the hookups. However the plumbers Ive talked to have a problem with this and still want to charge me a premium. (4-6k)

So I thought I come here to see if anyone got any suggestions.

Thank you!

 

[dfwnoob]

Yeah, it's annoying. I originally thought I had an undersized gas line (before I used my two remaining brain cells and dug down enough to inspect the actual line not the riser) and I was considering buying polyethylene pipe and putting it in the ground myself and calling a plumber to do the final hookups. I ran into the exact same problem you did: plumbers did not want to connect anything/sign off on someone else's work and the ones that did wanted to charge me $Texas to do it.

You're stuck either paying someone to do it end-to-end or become good friends with a plumber.

 

[Stump]

If you live in a city or town that has a code some will allow homeowner to perform their own work and other only allow licensed qualified professionals. If you live in rural area, you can basically do any work you want.

 

[Bperry]

I paid a plumber $400 to run a gas line under my house 15 years ago. Seems like digging a trench and having them run and hook up the line should be similar. There are so many places overworked they tend to only do jobs where they can be sure of a decent wage for it.

 

[Foxer]

I ran my own gas line with poly pipe, which the city then had to inspect. Final piece is to schedule with the gas company and plumber to hook it up. Luckily I've got a plumber I've used before that will come do it. I rented a trencher, but other than that it was fairly straight forward to run it and connect it up. It's shocking how much people are charging for it.

 

[nj888]

I paid a plumber $400 to run a gas line under my house 15 years ago. Seems like digging a trench and having them run and hook up the line should be similar. There are so many places overworked they tend to only do jobs where they can be sure of a decent wage for it.

I agree. I'm willing to pay for the service but from a few to several thousands for labor alone hurts.

 

[Steve-D]

We just put in a new pool with a heater but had to arrange for the gas (propane) connection separately. For us that meant either digging the trench ourselves (which I did) or paying someone to do that as the gas company wouldn't touch the trench work. Either way laying the actual gas line had to be left to the plumber. In our old house we needed a trench for the electrical for an above ground pool...,and again, we could either pay to have it done or do it ourselves but the electrical line itself had to be laid by a licensed electrician. The quote where the electrician dealt with the trench was outrageous so we did that ourselves as well.

Depending on how long a trench you need and how deep it has to be (here in MA for the gas/propane line it had to be 24 inches) and depending on how rocky is your soil...it can be a LOT of work. It would be up to the plumber to decide if he would work with materials you bought for the project but unless you have wholesale access to the parts they need it may not save you much $$ to buy them yourself.

 

[newdude]

I'd dig the trench and then get quotes. As much as they all want bigger jobs, they also need smaller ones to have a nice Friday afternoon. When I was an electrician, the boss kept easier jobs near home for the end of the week so we didn't get stuck on bigger jobs or in traffic on the way home before the weekend.

You might get someone to bite with a fair price while saving yourself from paying master plumber rates for his time doing manual labor.

The parts markup isn't terrible and is a part of their regular business model.

 

[jgofnj]

I feel for you. I also live in Central NJ. I tried to hire someone from my facilities department at work. He said he knew what he was doing, turned out he didn't understand the code so it never passed inspection. Ended up re-doing everything and costing me more than if I just went with a professional right from the start. This was 15 years ago and back then I think toe gas line work ended up costing me about $1,500.

 

[Bperry]

I'd dig the trench and then get quotes. As much as they all want bigger jobs, they also need smaller ones to have a nice Friday afternoon. When I was an electrician, the boss kept easier jobs near home for the end of the week so we didn't get stuck on bigger jobs or in traffic on the way home before the weekend.

You might get someone to bite with a fair price while saving yourself from paying master plumber rates for his time doing manual labor.

The parts markup isn't terrible and is a part of their regular business model.

yep, having the trench dug will probably go a long way toward making it easy for someone to do a quick simple job even if you pay extra compared to 2019 it still may be less than having them do the trench.

 

[newdude]

having the trench dug will probably go a long way toward making it easy for someone to do a quick simple job even if you pay extra compared to 2019 it still may be less than having them do the trench.

Of course it would lower the labor charge. I meant it might help get a better quote in the first place.

When the pro comes out they have a price in mind and then you try to lower it. That doesn't go over so well and they come down a little, but not nearly enough with you doing all of the grunt work. Most people will just say forget it and give the pro the full job. If they come out to quote and the trench is already dug, they aren't digging it either way. *THEN* you might get a decent quote for an easy job.

 

[Toxophilite]

NG is more a utility, and the plumbers have no skin in the deal other than you have to have it. That's the real problem, not the extent of the job. Propane here is by vendor, and they love pool heaters burning their gas. You can call your vendor, and because they will be selling you the gas, you can have the line run, regulator set, plumbed to heater and test fired for the cost of copper tube and parts. I don't even think I paid $250 this year for my hookup.

 

[mcba2020]

I'm looking(hoping) to add a gas heater to my pool.

Would you consider a heat pump?

 

[jimmythegreek]

A small guy would do it reasonably if the trenching was done. Try looking on Facebook or Clist for guys advertising and first message should be are you licensed this is a permit job. There's guys out there who aren't swamped. Digging is not straightforward they are pricing for worst case scenario and usually subbing out the digging portion

 

[Bill1974]

I'm in NY and I ran into the same issue. I looked into getting a second service (much shorter run ~$10K) and tapping into the existing service (~$7k). I ended up just putting in a larger electric service since I was replacing it anyway for a heat pump. A HP is cheaper to run than NG but it is a slower to heat (i'm guessing your electric and gas rates are not that different than mine).

Most areas require that "all" NG work be done by a licensed professional. You can try contacting your building inspector to see if you could do the line install and have then inspect that then have a license professional do the final connections to the meter and heater. You may also need to have your meter changed to a larger one. Also sizing the gas line might surprise you depending on how far you need to go and what size heater you were planning on. You may need to run higher pressure to your pool heater and have it stepped down there or run a 2" line to get flow.

Is solar not in consideration? I was not up for a new roof and putting holes in it to mount panels plus the pool equipment is about 100 ft away.

 

[Asherk74]

check out my thread, I am in the process of this now.

Case study to determine root cause of Pentair mastertemp 400 not igniting

The history: -Last summer, we bought house and upgraded to new pool heater, Pentair Mastertemp 400 -after installation, we cannot get ignition; Pentair rep comes out, says not enough gas flow -Gas company comes out, upgrades meter to 400k btu (max), 'listens' to amount of gas flow at heater...

www.troublefreepool.com

 

[Asherk74]

how far is you gas source (NG or LNP?) from your proposed heater location?

 

[nj888]

how far is you gas source (NG or LNP?) from your proposed heater location?

The line will be about 200-210 feet from the meter to the pool equipment pad.

 

[nj888]

I'm in NY and I ran into the same issue. I looked into getting a second service (much shorter run ~$10K) and tapping into the existing service (~$7k). I ended up just putting in a larger electric service since I was replacing it anyway for a heat pump. A HP is cheaper to run than NG but it is a slower to heat (i'm guessing your electric and gas rates are not that different than mine).

Most areas require that "all" NG work be done by a licensed professional. You can try contacting your building inspector to see if you could do the line install and have then inspect that then have a license professional do the final connections to the meter and heater. You may also need to have your meter changed to a larger one. Also sizing the gas line might surprise you depending on how far you need to go and what size heater you were planning on. You may need to run higher pressure to your pool heater and have it stepped down there or run a 2" line to get flow.

Is solar not in consideration? I was not up for a new roof and putting holes in it to mount panels plus the pool equipment is about 100 ft away.

Not considering solar at this time. Thanks for the info.

 

[nj888]

A small guy would do it reasonably if the trenching was done. Try looking on Facebook or Clist for guys advertising and first message should be are you licensed this is a permit job. There's guys out there who aren't swamped. Digging is not straightforward they are pricing for worst case scenario and usually subbing out the digging portion

Yes. I need to look for some smaller plumbing businesses.