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I am currently renovating my house and have just had the kitchen plastered. After removing the cabinets I found this under one and am looking for any advice as to what it may be and options in regard to removal etc.

I'm assuming it's gas so haven't touched it / tried to open as it's quite stiff and don't want to find it won't close if it is.

Edit The house is in the UK, a 1950s 2 bedroom semi detached ex-council house. It is build on a solid concrete foundation so I'm assuming this pipework is an original but have no idea what it is from.

front view showing some kind of valve connection?

it has a tap on the back too which is pretty stiff

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  • What part of the world? Urban, suburban, rural? – Jimmy Fix-it Nov 3 '17 at 16:03
  • @JimmyFix-it suburban, in the United Kingdom in a 1950's ex council house, will update the main post with this. – Michael Fleming Nov 3 '17 at 16:09
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    Obviously you'll need to locate the source to verify safety. Then hack it off and forget it. – isherwood Nov 3 '17 at 16:35
  • is there other in-use gas service in the house? – agentp Nov 3 '17 at 17:23
  • The other end of this gas line should be accessible near your gas service entrance/main gas shut off inside your home or at a gas manifold possibly near a gas furnace or gas water heater. Worst case is you open this valve, it leaks gas, then you are unable to close it. If that happens, then just shut off your main gas shutoff valve in the house. If that doesn't work then shut it off at your gas meter long enough to get the valve closed or call a gas man. I don't recognize the valve, any chance it's for an old fuel oil burner? – Dotes Nov 3 '17 at 20:07
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Looking at that, and given the age of the house, I would say it's a bayonet type connector for an old laundry copper.

The 'thumbscrew' on the back is the on/off for the gas supply.

I would strongly suggest getting a Gas Safe engineer in to check if it is still 'live'. If it is, and you are planning to put a unit back over where it is, you could probably get him to cap it a bit lower for you. If you are wanting to reposition your kitchen units completely and this is sticking up in what will be open floor, then you definitely need to get an engineer in. If it's no longer 'live', the engineer can advise whether or not you can just cut it off below the planned finished floor level.

Don't second guess gas - recipe for disaster!

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  • This was my resolution in the end, a gas safe engineer came and took a look, turns out it was an old gas pipe running through the concrete base of the house, this was replaced with a newly run pipe to supply the appliances needed in the kitchen and the old pipework removed as far as possible. – Michael Fleming Feb 14 '18 at 16:56

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