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As a DIY homeowner I am willing to mess around with almost anything in my house. Anything I screw up can be fixed with enough time, money, professional help and embarrassment. However, I will absolutely not mess with the natural gas stuff. I hired a plumber and he pulled the permit and I did not even care about the cost. I can sleep at night not wondering if i did something right or wrong.
As a DIY homeowner I am willing to mess around with almost anything in my house. Anything I screw up can be fixed with enough time, money, professional help and embarrassment. However, I will absolutely not mess with the natural gas stuff. I hired a plumber and he pulled the permit and I did not even care about the cost. I can sleep at night not wondering if i did something right or wrong.
I guess you wouldn't be comfortable with the way we used unvented gas space heaters when I was a kid, then. Of course, we did use caution to avoid blowing ourselves up or gassing ourselves. Never had a lick of trouble, nor did anyone else in the neighborhood most of whom were using the same kind of heaters. By the way, back in the day, space heaters didn't have safety shutoff valves, either.
As a DIY homeowner I am willing to mess around with almost anything in my house. Anything I screw up can be fixed with enough time, money, professional help and embarrassment. However, I will absolutely not mess with the natural gas stuff. I hired a plumber and he pulled the permit and I did not even care about the cost. I can sleep at night not wondering if i did something right or wrong.
Natural gas /should/ be one of the least "scary" projects you'll ever encounter. Just about every DIY car mechanic will learn about & repair their own brakes & 99.962% of them won't later die in a fiery crash. Yes, gas will go "boom", but it's under a very /small/ amount of pressure after the gas meter, and leaks are easy to detect both by the stank added to the natural gas by the gas company, inexpensive "sniffers" & even just a solution of dish-soap & a paint brush. If you take the time to read up on how gas is /supposed/ to be run, not only will you be able to safely extend or re-route a line properly, you'll have the knowledge necessary to spot unsafe, kludged repairs & additions by previous homeowners and "professionals" alike - scary/crappy/unsafe gas pipe work isn't only in the realm of DIY - many "pros" are also hacks - paying a lot of money doesn't immunize you from unsafe & unworkmanlike kludges.
And I'm not saying you shouldn't pull permits to do the work- quite the contrary - pull a permit, do the work properly & take credit for adding value when you sell. Gas is cheap, efficient & handy in many parts of the country, no reason not to use the heck out of it if it's available to you.
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