Why You Should Only Use Gas Safe Registered Engineers

• Only Gas Safe Registered Engineers

  If you need work carried out on a gas appliance within your property then to be safe,

  You should only use a gas safe registered engineer or company,

  But why only Gas Safe?

  

  Cowboys and Gas Don’t mix mn

  Just recently we were called out to a property in central London,

  the call was that they believed they have a gas leak.

  The customer was told to switch off the gas at the meter.

  Open any windows and not to use any electrical appliances even light switches.

  Once we arrived at the property, we carried out a couple of checks to make sure all was safe.

  Next, we asked the client what had changed within the property.

  Had they had any work carried out, the answer was yes.

  We recently had a new kitchen fitted by a company who said that they used gas safe registered engineers.

  Just by first impressions, I could see that the client had spent a lot of money on this kitchen.

  The first thing was to carry out a tightness test at the gas meter; this proved that a gas leak did exist;

  The pressure was dropping very quickly.

  Now we need to find it.

  From looking around the kitchen we noticed that a new hob had been fitted along with a flueless gas fire.

  The only other gas appliance in the property was the central heating boiler fitted the other side of the kitchen.

  On checking around the gas fire with a leak detector, two small leaks were found.

  These leaks were on compression fittings, that should not have been fitted.

  Already, I am starting to think that the engineer that had installed this kitchen was not gas safe registered.

  Another tightness test was carried out, still dropping like a sieve.

  The fire was now isolated; the supply pipe was cut and capped off, another test, still dropping.

  Ok now onto the hob.

  

  Nice new fancy hob

  The gas hob was a real nice fancy smeg model,

  I had to remove the draws underneath the hob to get to the gas pipe,

  again I saw three compression fittings within the pipework, no isolation valve installed.

  This did not look very good to me at all.

  I checked around the connection on the hob with my gas leak detector, as

  this is normally the area where a lot of gas leaks seems to be, yes it was leaking.

  The connection was removed,

  only to find that the fitting had been cross-threaded on the fitting.

  The supply was now cut and capped.

  Another tightness test proved that the leak had eased a little but a leak still existed.

  Next, we move onto the boiler,

  Again, I could see a compression fitting had been used on the gas supply.

  This was from the incoming 15m supply to convert to the boiler 22m inlet.

  Further checks proved that we still had a gas leak.

  Now all appliances had been isolated, this means the leak could be anywhere;

  All the gas pipes were under this new fancy expensive floor, which now would have to be lifted up.

  The client was not very happy with what we had found,

  I explained that the next course of action was to

  start lifting the floor to find the gas leak.

  The client agreed that whatever it took to cured this leak it had to be done.

  Now out comes the floor cutter to start lifting this expensive floor,

  A few boards are lifted then we are onto the original floor.

  Again lift a couple of boards, now I can see the gas supply.

  It’s a 15m supply, which is feeding a boiler a hob and a gas fire.

  These people were no way Gas Safe Registered Engineers.

  The gas supply pipe should have been a minimum of 22m for these three appliances.

  I started to cut up more flooring to find where the supply entered the property.

  After removing a lot more of flooring I found an half-inch barrel gas supply pipe.

  I told the client that the supply to the property

  was undersized and that it needed to be rerun.

  

  Only use registered gas company or engineers.

  The gas meter was located outside in the front garden.

  A new supply had to be run from the meter to the kitchen on the first floor.

  Once this new gas supply pipe had been installed, and all appliances reconnected,

  a tightness test was carried out, no leak, job done.

  The work took nearly two days to complete,

  and a very expensive invoice for the client.

  This was all because the person or persons who carried out the work basically, did not know what they were doing.

  Even the cabinet they fitted around the boiler had to be removed because, you could not remove the boiler front case.

  Never forget that you only get what you pay for, if you want a cheap,

  cheap price then you will only get local cowboys.

  They don’t care about you or anyone other than to take your money and run?

  If you use a Gas safe registered engineer or company,

  You have the backing of Gas Safe and the Health & Safety behind you.

  A Gas Safe registered engineer can be traced, a cowboy cannot.

  Gas Safe Registered Engineers