If your home has gas this fault could leave you at serious risk

Many Australian homes are at risk of improperly installed multi-layer gas pipes according to experts.

Homes or units, mostly within New South Wales and Victoria and were built within the past 10 to 15 years are the ones at risk. Russell Kirkwood, who is a Forensic plumber, told the ABC, “This issue is a ticking time bomb”. He added, “It will eventually effect thousands and thousands of people’s houses all across Australia.”

The gas pipes that are yellow are coated in a plastic covered that degrades over time due to exposure to the sun. The pipes were deemed safe at the time of installation, but the fault has since been discovered. Mr Kirkwood continued, “If there’s then a gas leak and it’s not detected … there would be a risk of a gas fire and in a worst case scenario potentially an explosion”. The gas could also leak into the home and make the occupants very sick.

Mr Kirkwood also had some condemning words for the regulatory bodies saying, “The regulators have really been asleep in relation to this. They’ve known about this issue for a long time but they haven’t been policing it.”

Those main regulatory bodies being Victorian Building Association and Fair Trading NSW told the ABC that they don’t think that the problem poses too high of a risk because they don’t believe the faulty piping is “widespread”.

This is something that Mr Kirkwood rebuts saying, “If I go to any new housing estate and walk down through the streets of any new housing estate, I’m going to literally count hundreds of houses with the yellow gas pipe clearly visible”.

If you believe that your home has these pipes then it’s important to have an audit done of your property to ensure that everything is safe and in working order.