Plastic pipe in basement; what is it?

[Chris eagle]

Hi

I’m not a diyer or tradesperson. I’m a shopowner and the picture attached is of (what I understand to be) a rubber gas pipe.

it is located in the basement of the building, which is not in use - apart from the purposes of storage and checking meter reads. I believe it supplies the flats above the shop.

the ceiling is damp so there’s a concern it could collapse and tug the pipe with it. Worse case scenario this could rupture the pipe and lead to a gas leak.

the fire service visited the premises and inspected the basement, they requested additional fire boarding which has been completed but did not mention the gas pipe.

my main concern is the safety, this seems unsafe. If so, what should be done? My secondary concern is legality, is this legal?

I rent not own the building, so it’s something I will need to ask the landlord about.

Tia
Chris

 

[denso13]

That's a water pipe.

 

[Chris eagle]

That's a water pipe.

Ah silly me, so nothing at all to worry about?

 

[oldbuffer]

1. As denso13 says, its a water pipe.
2. It has what looks like a pressure reducing valve on it. (Last photo, next to brown pipe).
3. If it is a pressure reducing valve, the pipe is likely to be the incoming cold water main.
4. If it gets broken, it is likely to flood the basement.

 

[Gasguru]

Water and soil pipework is a lashup...don't store anything you aren't prepared to loose down there.

 

[Chris eagle]

Thanks a lot for the advice.

The basement has nothing of any value to me, it's mainly just full of the landlord's old crap. It's too dusty/mouldy for me to want anything of my own down there. Worse case scenario and the pipe does burst, could it fill the basement completely and come up into the the shop above or would it drain out quicker than it could get up there? It's approx 400 square foot and fairly standard height.

There are electric meters down there and the circuit breaker - is this a real fire risk or would it trip out if in contact with water?