Gas or Water Pipe? Look to find cause of damp in wall.

[Mondamoser]

Hi all,

First time post so please be gentle.

Trying to ascertain if damp wall in our kitchen is being causes by rising damp or by a seeping pipe.

The pipe in the image attached disappears off under our solid kitchen floor (back addition of a 1890's Victorian terrace). The other end disappears underneath the floor in the other direction, BUT I can't find it reappearing anywhere else in our accessable crawl space and it doesn't appear to be linked to our current mains water or gas system (as far as I can tell, but it's a real maze under there). I also can't find any appearance of the end that goes off under the kitchen floor (as pictured).

Therefore I'm wondering if this pipe is now redundant as part of a previous system that got updated at some point which would lead me to think that it might not filled with anything.

I've tried turning on mains water and it doesn't seem to be flowing in that pipe, but there might be a very slight vibration in there when mains water turned on (if I'm not imagining it), which makes me wonder if it might still be filled with water but just capped off somewhere under the kitchen floor (and maybe seeping, causing the damp problem).

However, my main question is... Does this pipe look like it is a Water pipe or Gas pipe?

Many thanks in advance for any help!

 

[oz-plumber]

If it were me, I would undo that union coupling a little ( little by little ) and see what comes out.
Do not undo it completely - make sure the nut is in contact with the thread.
You may have to move the pipe slightly to release the olive connection.

If water comes out, depending on how much, you may be able to ascertain whether it is live or not.

Gas on the other hand, cover the fitting with soapy water, and if bubbles form when you're undoing the thread tighten it up immediately and re-check with soapy water.

In reality, if you don't have experience with these things, you could get yourself into almighty troubles.

You may stuff the fitting connection up, being either water or gas and end up having a major issue

 

[Lloyd999]

Make sure there is a means of isolating the gas and water main before you attempt to loosen the joint, better to s
be safe than sorry