Gas Fitter Merivale

Merivale cottages and infill sections: where the bottles can go

Merivale's mix is the challenge. Restored cottages from the suburb's early decades still line some narrow streets and lanes, while the subdivision rush of the 1990s squeezed infill houses and townhouses onto the back of many sections. A gas job off Rossall Street or Papanui Road often comes down to space: there may be a shared driveway, a fence a metre from the side wall, and a neighbour's bedroom window close by.

LPG bottles have to keep set distances from openings, drains and anything that could ignite a leak, so on a tight infill lot we sometimes position them at the front or along the driveway, where the delivery driver can swap them without crossing a neighbour's land. Where the driveway is jointly owned, we talk to you about whether the bottle stand or pipe will sit on common property before anything is fixed down.

Inside an old cottage the work is different again. Many sit on timber floors with a crawl space, which lets us run copper beneath the house to a new hob or fire. We also look for pipe left from Christchurch's coal gas days, which ended in the early 1980s, and make sure any we find is dead and capped. Isolation valves go in a spot you can reach from the kitchen, not hidden behind a fixed cabinet. The townhouses built on infill sites usually have slab floors, so their runs go through the walls instead.

Local tip: On a shared Merivale driveway, agree the bottle position with your neighbour early, because the delivery driver will need clear access every time the bottles are changed.