What is this weird pipe?

[lydiawainwright]

We have this pipe in our house, open at one end with thread, goes up the wall and along the ceilings of the living room and dining room, disappearing off above the kitchen ceiling. It seems to branch off up into the ceilings. Any ideas are welcome! We have had various professionals shrug, but would love to remove it if it is safe! I think it is made of steel.

 

[LadyArowana]

If it’s open at one end then that section at least must surely be redundant? Unless you come to a shut off valve then I would hazard a guess all of it is unused, gas or water would have escaped! There was some ancient wiring in our building which iirc was in a pipe insulated with mica, that was still in use in a few places, but it connected to things, wasn’t open like this.

 

[lydiawainwright]

That's helpful thanks... yes I don't want to cut into electrics!

 

[Gothichome]

it’s a black iron pipe, but I don’t see any branches or tee’s I would think plumbing for water rather than gas. Maybe remains of a water heating system? But I would not rule out an electrical run. Just a guess.

 

[Stevers]

Looks like an old cold water feed. If a soft water area there's likely to be corrosion inside, and if hard water area, corrosion and/or scale. Do you know where the current pipe runs are to bathroom/kitchen/outside tap?

 

[paulc]

Pipe for gas lighting ?

 

[Flyfisher]

What's the diameter of the pipe?
The first photo looks like electrical conduit but without a scale it's difficult to determine.
A common electrical conduit size is 20mm.

 

[lydiawainwright]

What's the diameter of the pipe?
The first photo looks like electrical conduit but without a scale it's difficult to determine.
A common electrical conduit size is 20mm.

Ah yes well it is 20 mm... we held a current detector up to it and couldn't detect anything, but it is pretty thick steel... it does branch off upstairs where there is both a plug socket and a radiator... confounding!

 

[lydiawainwright]

Looks like an old cold water feed. If a soft water area there's likely to be corrosion inside, and if hard water area, corrosion and/or scale. Do you know where the current pipe runs are to bathroom/kitchen/outside tap?

Good point - no corrosion or scale... signs might be pointing to electrical! Eek

 

[Stevers]

Good point - no corrosion or scale... signs might be pointing to electrical! Eek

Could have been a gas feed to an Ascot water heater for a bathroom - if heading in that sort of direction. Gas water heating was still a thing once electric light was common.

Your pipe is only there because it was considered to be too difficult (as in too disruptive) to remove. My Dad would have boxed it in, to make it an even bigger, but easier to clean feature!

Edit - just noticed the 20mm size comment. That's small for a water feed, but wouldn't rule out it being gas.

 

[Zebra]

Do a close up of the saddle/clip and the elbow and we'll be able to tell if it's plumbing or electrical.
Edit: preferably chip the paint off first.

 

[Gothichome]

Just a random thought, if it does shoot off to a bathroom and it turns out to be a gas line, maybe at one point in time your home had a gas heated bathtub and a gas room heater.

 

[Zebra]

Been waiting with uncontainable excitement for an update on this, and lacking one, I have had a closer look at the pictures. I reckon it's electrical conduit, but it doesn't look like it's in use. It'd be easy enough to simply start at the exposed end, grab it with a pair of grips, and unscrew it piece by piece, working your way back. If you come across some cabling in it you can check with a voltage detector that it's not live. When you get to the T piece you'd have to find another end, obviously, because you can't unscrew in two directions at one - which might mean accessing some floor voids.

 

[a twig]

Angle grinders make unscrewing a lot quicker obviously ensuring there are no live cables first

 

[lydiawainwright]

Been waiting with uncontainable excitement for an update on this, and lacking one, I have had a closer look at the pictures. I reckon it's electrical conduit, but it doesn't look like it's in use. It'd be easy enough to simply start at the exposed end, grab it with a pair of grips, and unscrew it piece by piece, working your way back. If you come across some cabling in it you can check with a voltage detector that it's not live. When you get to the T piece you'd have to find another end, obviously, because you can't unscrew in two directions at one - which might mean accessing some floor voids.

Yes!!! Understandable!! I must apologise - it has been a busy few weeks. The end of the story is that the various men in my life decided the best way to proceed was (after waving a current detector at it, arguably not diagnostic as the iron pipe was thick enough to shield any AC from being detected) to angle-grind it off the wall, ask questions later. Thankfully the house didn't flood, or explode, and they weren't electrocuted. There were no wires in the pipe, but I suppose they could have been taken out, but the working hypothesis was that the pipe was too thick to be electrical (walls maybe 4mm iron, 20mm lumen), and came out of a similar area to the current gas meter, so was probably for gas. It sprouted off to where a radiator currently is. Another commenter higher up here pointed out that steel might be an odd choice for water, but it was galvanised. Anyway - the boys chopped the pipe up and left it on the driveway long enough that a neighbourhood chancer took it to the scrap yard for some ££ (without asking, but in fairness actually quite helpful of him), so I can't now take the photos of joints etc requested. TLDR: most likely a gas pipe, but we'll never know for certain.

 

[lydiawainwright]

Thank you everyone for your help with this!