This was a relatively small project. I’d left it on the back burner for a while, but since I was waiting for some (more!) deliveries to move forward with the stair railing project, I decided to knock this one out. Back when we had temporarily (several years) had the washer and dryer on the first floor, we ran a gas line up to it, using the segment that was future-intended for the stove. This meant I had an existing hole in the floor to run through up into the wet wall. The nice thing about the wet wall is that there’s room inside to work.

I bought a recessed box for the gas valve a while back, partially since it looks cleaner, but mostly since it would allow me to cut a big hole in the wall to handle the pipe connections. When I cut an exploratory hole to dial in the position, I discovered there was a stud a bit closer than I’d hoped, and the pipe came up in the middle of the wet wall, so it was about six inches back. I also realized that the electrician had run a conduit just above the sill plate horizontally, which meant I couldn’t have the box configured vertically as I expected.

New branch with sediment trap.

I made the hole the correct size horizontally, and with it enlarged, started reaching in with pre-doped fittings and putting things together. I worked out that the vertical pipe could first elbow toward the wall, then turn again into the box. II hadn’t bought all of the required fittings, of course, so I did have to run back to the store to pick up more.

Fun times with a pipe wrench and my arms inside the wall.

With parts in hand, I got everything put together and tightened down. I ran everything in 3/4″ since it’s a big stove and I’d rather have more than I need than not enough. I put in the appropriate sediment trap in the mechanical room below the branch, since there wasn’t room for it higher up. The last step was to fit the box onto the pipe, add the valve itself, and then secure the box to the wall.

Recessed valve installed

I had the benefit of being able to get into the wet wall on the other side of the wall from the radiant access panel, which will also give me a way to test everything with the gas sniffer before I turn the branch up. We have shut off valves on each branch, so we can easily shut off just that section if there are any leaks, but I was pretty liberal with the pipe thread sealant, so I’m fairly confident this time around.