Black pipe or Trac pipe?

"My only mistake is that I got old. And if your lucky you'll make the same mistake." -- Andy Rooney.

We do a lot of work for a fire restoration contractor and have seen many homes where the flex was hit by lightning or a shorted wire and blew apart makes for one hell of a fire. I have never seen black iron blew apart even after lightning has hit it. Guess whats in my home.

So far the consensus is Black pipe.

Now, is it because that's what you old timers have used all your lives and don't like change?

I spoke with the guy who wrote the code for the 'new' stuff. He says it's rough and tough and you can't blow it down. But you do need to be certified to use it because if you don't know how to use the fittings you can have leaks.

There is an article in this months Journal of Light Construction about flexable ss gas pipe and fires. Talks about lightning strikes and the pipe shorting out to the nearest ground, burning a hole in the tube, igniting the gas. Kind of scary.

Just wondering how lightning could hit the csst piping. All the mfrs info i've read states it cant be run outside. Its supposed to be terminated at the pipe penetration and hard piped to the meter. Also, the gas piping is required to be bonded to the electrical system per Code.
Like anything else if its installed right in the first place per mfr's specs csst is no different than black pipe.

I work on boiler for a living and black pipe is all I use. I hve threaded by hand an with a auto pipe threader. I perfer the auto threader. Besides as on of the other gentleman stated, IT OLAIN LOOKS BETTER and more professional and after al that is what you looking for, correct?