Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing, seen here without it outer PVC covering, is rugged, quick to install and potentially safer than black iron gas piping in earthquake-prone areas. Photo courtesy of Gastite.

The recent events in Louisiana and other areas in the South have brought natural disasters to the forefront of most everyone's minds. And, although Louisiana isn't normally within the scope of Reeves Journal's coverage, we also face our fair share of Nature's wrath out here in the Wild West. While the actual event-be it a hurricane, tornado, earthquake or landslide-will certainly do structural damage in affected areas, the one of the greatest dangers facing people in the area is fire fueled by ruptured gas lines that fed homes or businesses.

Our friends in Japan, whose country also shares our Western U.S. propensity for occasional large earthquakes, began using corrugated stainless steel tubing in quite a bit of its construction more than 20 years ago. The idea is to keep gas lines from rupturing thus preventing or at least minimizing fires in the aftermath of big seismic activity.

"In Japan, there is no land to the tendency is to build up," said Dan Roberts, Southwest regional sales manager for Titeflex Corp., the Springfield, Mass.-based manufacturer of the Gastite brand of CSST tubing and fittings. Gastite's CSST is available in a range of sized from 3/8- to 2-inch. The larger sizes have really enabled the material to start capitalizing on the commercial market, the Phoenix-based Roberts said.

"[Japan is] a nation with limited resources so it had to find an ingenious way to get gas into the high rises for cooking," Roberts said. "That reduces their dependency on hydro-electric and fossil fuel burning for power. Running gas into these buildings is one way to do that."

CSST, introduced to the U.S. in 1988, is a continuous, flexible stainless-steel pipe encased in a rugged plastic coating that typically features continuous markings to indicate length. Because it's flexible, CSST can be installed in a manner similar to that of pulling wire through a wall. The potential for leaks is minimized because it requires fewer fittings than black iron pipe in the same application.

CSST is regulated by American National Standards Institute ANSI/IAS LC 1-1997/CSA 6.26-M97 Fuel Gas Piping Systems Using Corrugated Stainless Steel Tubing (CSST). According to the Gas Research Institute, labor savings can range from 25- to 75 percent on new construction projects and almost 75 percent on remodeling projects. Although the material cost for CSST pipe and fittings is higher than conventional black iron, the labor cost savings may make up for the higher material cost.

CSST will flex and give and probably won't break or leak except in extreme circumstances. It's also been shown to be quicker to install than traditional black iron piping-since it's flexible there is no need to work with cutting and threading multiple joints to fit CSST into the application-you can pull it through a structure just like wire if need be.

"We like to say it's semi-rigid," said Bill Rich, director of codes and standards for Flex, Inc., in Exton, Penn., manufacturers of the brand of CSST marketed as TracPipe, which is available in both above- and a below-ground version featuring an integral plastic sleeve that acts as a conduit

"I'd almost prefer to say it's flexible like a wire," Rich said. "When you think of hoses, you think of garden hoses or a flex connector for an appliance. But if you say it's like wire it sort of ties in with people in construction-'Oh, yeah, you can wire your home for gas'."

Great analogy. But installing CSST isn't quite that simple even though it does go in faster than threaded black iron pipe. CSST piping is installed using specialty fittings and cutting tools and the ANSI standard that regulates CSST also requires that a contractor be certified to install the particular "flavor" of CSST they're using. Each manufacturer offers a slightly different, proprietary version.

"That's correct," Rich said. "The fitting connection to the tubing is proprietary and people must attend-typically it's at least an hour-a training course. We like that because it forces them to be in contact with our representatives and we have at least a bit of control."

Even with different classes and certification required for each different manufacturer's type of CSST, Roberts likens the different types of CSST to driving a car. You don't have to take a new driver's test every time you're going to drive a different brand of car-the controls may be located in different places on the dashboard, but they're all pretty much very similar. It's similar with the different brands of CSST.

"The basic installation principles associated with it are all the same," Roberts said. "We all comply with ANSI's LC-1 standard, which sets forth the design, performance and installation criteria for CSST. So, if we al have to comply with the same standard and that standard says we all have to make our product out of the same material components, publish installation manuals that all have to take the same look and shape and feel, what's really going to be different about the products is the way the fitting attaches to the tubing and whether there are any other accessories associated with the use of a particular brand. Otherwise the installation principles are all the same."

Another reason manufacturers require installers to be certified lies in the product warranty-the only way a manufacturer can plausibly offer a warranty is to make sure it's being installed properly. Standardization between brands isn't in the foreseeable future, either. That's an effort to prevent the product from being commonly available at home stores to DIY-ers and to prevent a market influx of knock-off fittings that may not be manufactured according to standard.

"There is a lot of liability involved here and we would prefer not to come up with some kind of standardized fitting because you'd see them in every hardware store before very long." Rich said. "We'd be left making the tubing but we'd be liable if there were a leak between the two."

Early Market Challenges

Currently, CSST is accepted in codes nationwide. And the market is growing fairly rapidly because of increased acceptance and a Southwestern construction boom. But the outlook for CSST wasn't always as bright as it is currently. Ironically, earthquake-prone California was one of the last states to specifically allow for CSST, effective with its 2000 Code. Resistance came, initially, from some labor unions that were of the opinion that CSST could cost pipe trade workers' jobs owing to its quick installation.

Titeflex's Roberts said his company was one of three major CSST manufacturers that engaged in legal and public awareness activity to keep CSST in the code.

"Our challenge at the time was convincing organized labor that this wouldn't be a threat to their jobs," he said. "Since then, a couple of things have happened. First, a new governor came in. We were well on our way to having a new plumbing code that would fully recognize CSST. The new governor brought it all back down to the beginning so we had to start over from scratch. At the time, they decided to adopt the newest edition of the Uniform Plumbing Code and that does recognize CSST for fuel gas piping. Consequently, any state agency looking to adopt and amend the UPC to become the California Plumbing Code will have to consider a code that includes CSST. I stay in fairly routine contact with the Building Standards Commission and, to date, nobody has submitted any language to the contrary to remove or restrict the use of CSST."

OmegaFlex, Inc.'s Rich said the battle was fought on two fronts: California and Massachusetts-two states with possibly the toughest plumbing codes in the country.

"Fortunately we were making the stuff back east and, because of that, we were able to get Massachusetts on board more quickly than California," Rich said. "But I would say that acceptance by the codes, especially in the Western region, has helped quite a bit to increase the market. The other thing that helps quite a lot is that there just aren't enough qualified plumbers around. One person that knows what he's doing can do three or four times more than somebody who still has to cut and thread iron pipe."

Today, Rich said, some unions are embracing CSST as a way to move fuel gas from the supply to the appliance. And some of that union acceptance is coming from somewhat unexpected quarters.

"I'm heading to Las Vegas next week to train the sheet metal workers union," Rich said. "They realize they had better catch up with the technology. Some of the unions are beginning to climb aboard. The other ones we don't consider as much as a challenge as we used to because at least it's in the code now. Governor Schwarzenegger has slowed down the adoption of the 2003 Code and CSST is fully in that code. One distinction between the 2000 and the 2003 CPC is that CSST was in the 2000 Code as a Building Standards Commission amendment."

Roberts agreed with the idea that some unions are warming up to CSST. He said manufacturers have successfully shown them that, while this product may save labor, it adds value to their jobs and their work expertise-they now have a pool of different materials to choose from.

"And, with the amount of work that's out there I don't think anyone can argue there isn't enough work to go around," Roberts said. "We've done a lot of work with industry and focused on training at the union halls and getting to the apprentice programs and adding value to their programs. They're starting to realize that now and we don't see the resistance that we once saw from the organized labor side because they're learning to see the value in having a newer gas piping product."

Originally, Roberts said, the perception may have been the idea was to replace all black iron pipes with CSST. However, Black iron and CSST coexist peacefully in hybrid systems that have become, for all intents and purposes, the order of the day.

"That's really what's taking place in Las Vegas, Southern California and now here in Arizona," Roberts said. "They're using lack iron pipe where it's cheap and easy to install. If you have an open joist area in the garage with a straight run it's very easy to install black pipe, so why not use it? They're using CSST where it saves them labor-horizontally and around things and through things. So what's happening is that the hybrid systems are really a marriage between both materials that is making the systems much more cost-effective and practical for the contractor. A good part of the market's growth is the acceptance of the hybrid gas piping system."

The Market Today

OegaFlex's brand of CSST-marketed as TracPipe-is available in an above- and a below-ground version featuring an integral plastic sleeve that acts as a conduit. Photo courtesy of OmegaFlex.

Current estimates are that upwards of 50 million linear feet of CSST is installed annually in the U.S. And the market continues to grow, owing to more widespread acceptance and a boom in new residential and commercial construction in the West, particularly in new construction in the booming Southern California and Las Vegas.

"The previous year and a half has been very good," Rich said. "Only in the last version of the California Plumbing Code [2000] did CSST appear. Prior to that it appeared in the Mechanical Code. Obviously, as you find yourself in the various codes, it's a lot more open and contractors are more likely to use it because they're getting less resistance from code officials."

Roberts said the use of CSST continues to grow at, " a phenomenal rate": "That's because of a couple of things-increased awareness and codes that have become increasingly conducive to allowing this product and the phenomenal growth taking place in the Southwest in general," he said. "Contractors just can't seem to get jobs done with rigid iron pipe and they're forced to consider a time-saving product like CSST. That fever to buy a new home or, as [Fed Chairman Alan] Greenspan called it, the 'housing froth', seemed to spread to Las Vegas. Consequently, people were seeing significant appreciation in their property and a lot of people were jumping into the market."

Looking to the Future

CSST is looking directly into a very bright future, of current market trends are anything like a reliable indicator. If, and this is a big, "if"-the Southwestern housing market continues on the pace it has been over the past few years, there is obviously going to be a continued increase in demand for a product that can simplify installation save labor costs.

But it's not a no-brainer. Manufacturers will have to continue their efforts to educate the contractor and inspector to continue to overcome the inertia of, "But we've always done it this way."

"Even in California to this day, I will meet with a plumbing contractor and I'll have to do a presentation to a builder to bring their awareness level up," Roberts said. "Building officials, to a certain degree, still have some ideas or notions or maybe even some misconceptions about the use of the material. To that end, what's going on in our industry is some form of generic installation manual that can be adopted and published by the various code bodies."

Rich agreed, saying builders today are becoming more willing to add additional options to new construction like gas lines to a barbecue in the back of a new home or additional fireplaces to entice eager new home buyers: "And, as those grow, the market size is going to grow," he said.