DIY gas work is illegal in the UK (with a very few exceptions) and anyone working on a gas pipe or a gas appliance (such as a boiler or fire) MUST be on the Gas Safe Register (with a few exceptions – I’ll get on to those).
A quick web search will uncover many pages saying DIY gas work is legal – these pages are misleading and wrong. Or they are writing about the law in a different country.
The Gas Safety Installation & Use Regulations 1998, (Gas Regs 1998) is the relevant law for the UK, you read the full document if you want, I have.
Gas Regs 1998 apply to everyone – including people at work, landlords, people in their own homes.
Note: I have seen it written in forums that the Gas Regs are part of Health and Safety so only apply to employees at work – this is not true. The Gas Regs are enforced by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) and most of the HSE work is concerned with workplaces and most of the Health & Safety legislation is about work places – BUT NOT TOTALLY.
The HSE produce a guide book to the Gas Regs 1998, its catchy title is The Approved Code of Practice (ACOP). Don’t be put off by the title the latest draft version (L56, edition 4, May 2013) is very readable and even in the introduction it clearly explains who it applies to.
http://consultations.hse.gov.uk/consult.ti/CD252/consultationHome
The law says anyone doing gas work and being paid for it (self employed or as an employee) must be approved – i.e. on the Gas Safe Register (GSR).
You do not have to be GSR to do gas work if you are not being paid e.g. in your own home (on a DIY basis though) you just need to be competent.
There are just over 100,000 people on the GSR. Of the 50,000,000 or so adults in the UK only perhaps 0.1% or less who are not on the GSR and are competent to do DIY. I think it is fair to say DIY gas work is illegal because for 99% of the population it is.
Competent in this context is not the same compos mentis *of sound mind” and it is not the same as being a good jack of all trades. I know some people who are great at DIY but they do not qualify as competent to do gas work.
To be competent to do gas work if you are not actually gas safe registered you must have completed and passed the same training course as those who are GSR. So the very few exceptional people who actually could legally do DIY gas are those who could apply tomorrow to be GSR if they want to: they would be people who were registered but didn’t renew their registration in April because they retired or changed career; they will be employees of a GSR company who do not have GSR in their own right.
You may ask where I got this definition from. Conveniently is is in the new draft ACOP, click on the link to the HSE consultation and you can download it. The same definition has been around for a long time but written in difficult language and buried in other HSE documents.
Who is Competent To Do DIY gas work?
To make it easier for you to check I am right I have copied and pasted the section here from the ACOP:
- 57 Anyone who works on a gas fitting…. Therefore, do-it-yourself gas engineers and those performing favours for friends and relatives all need to have the required competence.
- 58 Competence is a combination of practical skill, training, knowledge, experience to carry out the job in hand safely, and ensuring the installation is left in a safe condition for use. Knowledge must be kept up-to-date with changes in the law, technology and safe working practice.
- 60 Gas work should not be undertaken except:
- a) by a person who has successfully completed an industry recognised training course followed by assessment of competence. Training that leads to assessment of competence in safe gas work must be recognised by the industry’s Standards Setting Authority. or
- b) in the case of a previously Registered person, they have proved competence through a Certification Scheme. or
- c) for those working at premises that fall outside the scope of the Regulations (see regulation 2(4) and associated guidance), by a person who has successfully completed an industry recognised training course followed by assessment of competence.
- 61 Training should be of a standard to enable a gas engineer to achieve competence in the safe installation, purging, commissioning, testing, servicing, maintenance, repair, disconnection, modification and dismantling, of the gas systems, fittings and appliances with which they are working. This should include an adequate knowledge of associated services, such as water and electricity, of the dangers they may give rise to and the precautions to take.
What is Gas Work?
You should be asking at this point. It is also defined in the Gas Regs: installing, disconnecting, servicing, repairing of gas pipes and gas appliances are all activities described as gas work.
What Will Happen If a Home-owner Does Illegal DIY?
There is a sliding scale of possible outcomes from good to very bad.
At the good end the DIY work will be safe and sound, no-one will know, end of story.
At the very bad end house explodes and people die
Or also very bad – with less of a visual impact – people become ill from Carbon Monoxide poisoning, they might die, they might suffer irreversible long-term health problems.
In between the extremes you might have to pay someone to put the work right or make it legit. You might be prosecuted and you could face a prison sentence.
Why is Mrs Tara Plumbing correct and when miscellaneous websites say something else?
When you look at any thing on the inter-web you should think about who has written it and are their references. The pages that tell you it is easy to install your cooker, disconnect your gas fire, etc are written by anon and without references that you can check.
Mrs Tara Plumbing – I am not anon – You can contact me through my business.
I have an established back ground in the gas installation industry and as the author of factual articles and books. You can check up on what I have written – I have provided the references.
Mrs Tara Plumbing 
It’s always good to see Thanet Bloggers showing that they can do their homework. Also I totally enjoyed reading that despite having never really thought about DIY gas work before and still having zero interest in doing anything like that. The closest I get to thoughts of that nature is to wonder what a fully qualified engineer might make of the work some of the local authority’s folk make of some gas safety inspections.
I am happy to read your blog. Indeed, the DIY gas work should be banned everywhere. Gas work is not easy and it needs proper experience and expertise in a specific field. A little mistake can create big problem for you and you’re surrounding also. It may be a reason of big disaster, therefore we always should be careful to become safe from this.
There is a very good reason why the law cannot be explicit and say that if you have been trained you can do gas work but if you have not been trained then you cannot. The word “competent” is used because there is no guarantee that someone that has attended industry recognised training course followed by assessment of competence is actually “competent” at all – in fact I have seen work carried out buy Corgie/GasSafe registered engineers that should be condemned on more occasions that should have been. I am neither trained or certified and I have always done my own gas work (in my own property of course) because a) I am competent to do so and b) I know that I will do it right whereas I cannot be 100% someone else will…of course I accept that I am probably an average JOAT but none the less the point is still valid.
I think the word “competent” is used for a number of reasons:
1) exactly as you describe, someone may be qualified on paper but not competent.
2) laws are often written in such a way so that the details can be changed without rewriting the actual law and putting it through parliament.
For example it didn’t take a law to change the official body that working gas engineers must sign up to from Corgi to Gas Safe. The actual body is not defined in the law. But it is clear who that body is.
Similarly definition of “competent” is left outside the legislation so that it can be changed or redefined as required.
The ACOP is like the highway code, it doesn’t make the law it explains it and if you stick to it you should be OK. I think the ACOP is clear that if you haven’t had all that training then you are working outside the law.
In practice, I would be willing to gamble that you would never be prosecuted unless something unsafe was found. Even then you might not be prosecuted unless there was a dangerous incident resulting in harm to people or property. Anyone who has read through the Gas related prosecutions on the HSE website would know this.
So I am half in agreement with you and half not!
I must tell you though why I know you are wrong on the point you make about KNOWING that you will do it right.
Rules, standards, best practice relating to gas work and other related construction work changes frequently – new information comes to light, new equipment is used. Those in the industry working daily have a hard time keeping up with it and some of the detail is complicated which is why mistakes are made. Only yesterday I was discussing with gas engineers a job that involved the prosecution of gas engineers for manslaughter and yet they appeared to follow the rules at the time and it was actions by others later that made the situation dangerous and resulted in a death. Many engineers do not feel those guys should have been prosecuted, the installation was safe at the time.
We get regular notices through our membership of Gas Safe Register – explaining these finer points….. I will stop going on but my point should be obvious.
A DIYer who doesn’t get regular info intended for gas engineers is not going to know all the wider implications or up to date information. A DIYer is not going to be better qualified than a real qualified gas engineer.
Of course thats absolutely right, I would not be exposed to the regular changes in the regulations but I would say this. The first part of being competent is having a thorough understanding of the chemistry involved with both the gas and its additives and the effects on the materials used for pipes and fittings like copper, brass and plastics, and understanding the corrosive effects of water mixed with other building material compounds like cement – all of which falls into the realms of common sense once you have a basic A level grounding in chemistry. Next is having a solid appreciation of the physics involved, everything from gas pressure to physical pipework and the physical construction of the building around the pipework, understanding where there is potential movements in the buildings construction is, or where potential risk of pipe crush or other physical damage and of course having enough experience to know how/what to do to prevent/avoid such things from happening. Another area is understanding and asking yourself the “what if” questions, what if the flu had a leak, or where would the gas settle if there was a leak here etc, then picking sensible locations to fit the boiler/appliance. In my experience its just as important to consider the other builders working on the site as well as the occupants and the potential damage they can cause after you have left – basically you don’t leave any of this to chance. Also as a DIYer, if you are going to do this sort of thing then you need the right tools and you need to know how to use them, for example I have a digital manometer, I very rarely use it, but I will check for leaks ones every couple of years or so in my own home with it.
I can assure you I have come across gas fitters who do not appreciate some of the above (based on observing their actions or finished work) and will choose the “best site” for the boiler to get the job done as quickly as possible – for example siting a boiler in a bedroom when there is a safer place to install it – but with more work involved. I have never known any customer who given the choice would not be happy to pay more to end up with a safer home but often the incremental cash for the time involved is not as attractive as getting to the next job (my cynical me…)
The other important element for a DIYer to ensure you are “competent” at the time you need to carry out any work is (as I do) to actually read up or even better ask and expert or practicing gas fitter advice on current regulations. Not practicing every day means I must gen up before I start any work – I have generally found experienced people to be happy to offer advice if you ask them sensible and not obviously stupid questions, or even pay someone for an hour of their time to walk through an installation before you undertake it – so long as you find the ones that do not think you are trying to encroach on their livelihood – Generally adhering to the important elements of current regulations is easy like this.
I guess the point I am making is, while I appreciate that most registered gas fitters will most likely have a good knowledge of the regulations, that does not always translate into them doing the right job. I make sure I do the right job for myself by doing what I need to ensure that I am being “competent” with regards to regulations, all the rest of it I am comfortable with so its instinctive and common sense.
The industry feels like a closed club where a key part is having to pay your dues which is what ultimately lead to the shutdown of Corgi and the introduction of what is now the improved GSR – I have spoken to so many gas fitters who are completely convinced that DIY gas work by someone who is not trained or certified is actually against the law – which of course is totally incorrect. As far as I understand it, its against the law to sell your services to undertake gas work that you charge for without being registered with the GSR and the primary reason for this is to ensure that there is some traceability and something insurance companies can interface with. By definition, the test of competency as you have already stated is not a certificate, its only actually tested in law should your incompetence lead to property destruction or harm to people or creating a clear situation for the potential of the same.
Anyway, I have gone on enough. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that everyone should do their own DIY gas work, far from it, as a proportion there will be a greater proportion of competent registered gas fitters than there will be competent DIYers in the population and people should stay well away from it unless they are truly “competent”. but I do think it important that for those who are competent that they should be frightened into thinking they will end up in jail if they install their own boiler.
Nice article by the way.
You are correct Gerry, you certainly should be certified.
Mrs Tara Plumbing
Your assertion that DIY gas work illegal in the UK is incorrect, I will try to explain.
The requirement for competence and employees to be a “member of a class of persons approved for the time being by the Health and Safety Executive”( ie GasSafe) is made clear in the Gas Safety Installation & Use Regulations 1998.
The ACOP (L56) goes on to describe how the law can be complied with however it also make clear that if a prosecution were to be brought and the ACOP had not been complied with it would be necessary to show that you have complied with the law in some other way, see page 2 of L56.
This leaves the DIYer in a position that he or she can;t be employed in any way to do the work, needs to be competent and needs to comply with the other detailed provisions of the Gas Regs 1998, reg 5 onward.
My view is that is is unlikely the question of demonstrating competence by a DIYer will ever be resolved. The opportunity to demonstrate competence would require a prosecution to be brought over an adequate installation that a DIyer had undertaken. I don’t think such a prosecution would be in the public interest. A prosecution over an inadequate DIY installation would clearly show the DIY was not competent and be successful, thus leaving the question of whether a DIYer can demonstrate competence unanswered.
I entirely agree with your last paragraph and therefore am in agreement with you in that that is how our law works in practice. I don’t think that makes my previous comments wrong.
I think the point may be that DIYers will probably get away with it most of the time.
Even poor installations simply get rectified without ever being reported and prosecuted.
I suppose we can think of it like littering – no one takes it seriously and people don’t get prosecuted for it.
Competent does not mean a piece of paper issued by an institution, it is what you do – THE RESULT. I know many incompetent people who have bits of paper with flash badges on the heading.
Primarily you need to be Competent. That is if you are doing work for yourself (no payment) or doing it for gain (payment). Further to being Competent:
1. You need a Gas Safe ticket if you are doing any gas work for gain (payment).
2. You can do gas work for yourself or when you do not receive payment.
It is that simple. THAT IS THE LAW
No 2. above was included in the law to enable retired people to work at home and do voluntary work.
End of matter.
Do not do it if you are not qualified, pls
It is also defined in the Gas Regs: installing, disconnecting, servicing, repairing of gas pipes and gas appliances are all activities described as gas work.
Although I agree with the majority of comments concerning competent persons I would like to point out I constantly see botched installations by gas safe registered plumbers, these comprise of boilers mounted UN-level, flues installed incorrectly, flues not bricked or sealed back in correctly, flues not trimmed to length for no apparent reason, Condensate pipes run outside in 3/4 pipe , Condensate pipes run outside to no means of drain, expansion pipes just sticking out in to a public area, the list goes on!! and the reason for this is simple, they sign off there own work! the system is flawed, you can still be gas safe registered and botch a job!
What should be happening is this, ALL gas work should be inspected by an independent council based team, where a reasonable small non profit making charge is made,
unfortunately safety is also profit, GS fitters have to pay, and be trained,
but that does not mean they are gods!! and what they do is not some kind of black art, I’m sick of seeing GS fitters on forums using the words BOOM and telling people they are breaking the law, when basically all these people are doing is asking questions about problems they are having,
on another point, and as an engineer, if we all took the view of some GS fitters, why is it I constantly see these guys fumbling around in a boiler with a meter, following a fault finding flow chart when they only have a basic understanding of electrical work, dare I use the word BOOM!!! on one occasion I was unfortunate to have the biggest asshole come to do warranty work on my own boiler (actually from ravenheat, what a bag of crap that boiler was!) he gave me a lecture on why HE had to come and fit a new time clock (instead of them sending one) because only corgi registered where allowed to work on a boiler, in the next instance he managed to stick his screwdriver across the main board and blow it to pieces, not impressed, and didn’t mince my words!!
Time things changed, stop the cowboys I agree, but also stop the idiots hiding behind a law and using it to promote fear.
WELL SAID, / ]better to help and advise than mock, at the end of the day if they are going to do it let it be with some good advise.
Would this be the best place to ask if I can legally fit my own cooker with bayoneted end myself…looks like a lightbulb fitting so I feel confident to do it…but am I allowed or do I have to pay the extortionate fee for someone corgi registered?
Thanks in advance for your answer.
I do feel for you on this one, I would expect to pay between £70 to £100 to have someone do this, so yes a lot of money.
The bayonet fitting means you can remove the cooker temporarily for cleaning.
If you buy a new cooker you should pay a gas safe registered engineer (not Corgi)to fit it), in fact new cookers do not come with the bayonet fitting attached.
If you move in to a new home and take your old cooker with you, again you should pay a GSR engineer to ft it.
It may seem like you are paying a load of £ for someone to screw in a light bulb and you could easily do it yourself, in fact the engineer is required to do a load of checks that will make sure the whole set up is safe.
If you are paying a removal company or a general builder it is illegal for anyone to remove a gas cooker during the course of their work even if it is only connected with a gas bayonet fitting – unless they are supervised by a GSR engineer. Worth remembering when choosing between different kitchen fitters, some have gas expertise in house and some do not (and are often chancers).
My answer is based on the Gas Safety Approved Code of Practise and the relevant Technical Bulletin of the GSR.
It is also worth noting there are thousands of dangerous cookers that have not been accounted for, are on a recall list and are associated with numerous deaths. So it is never “just” a cooker.
So is it illegal for me to open my boiler furnace section and clean the burners with a brush and vacuum cleaner? My boiler in my own home owned by me, not mortgaged.
YOu mention furnace, so perhaps you are not in the UK, I do not know what laws apply where you live.
In the UK it is irrelevant whether the boiler is owned by you or whether there is a mortgage.
The issue is whether you break into the boiler access those parts that only a qualified engineer should access. I am not a boiler expert but you could ask on http://www.ukplumbersforums.co.uk/ giving the exact make and model of your boiler. There is also a link to that form on the right hand of this page.
It is a Worcester 28SI and I am in the UK. I mention no mortgage as technically you don’t own your home until it is paid off. I call it a furnace as it is the part of the boiler with the gas burners below the heat exchanger surrounded by flame proof box (So it looks like a furnace). I have opened this up a few times over the years to clean the burners with my vacuum when the boiler hasn’t been lighting reliably and going into “ignition lockout”.
At the moment the its going into ignition lockout due to the flame not spreading completely across the burners to the end where the flame detector is. If cleaning them doesn’t work I am considering turning up the min pressure on the gas valve with a 3mm allan key to see if that fixes it.
I am not breaking any seals on any gas pipes, just opening the covers. I also consider myself to be fully competent I’ve been an electro-mechanical engineer for the last 30 years.working with electrical,electronics, hydraulics and pneumatics.
I can understand that someone needs to be Gas-safe if they are taking money for a job, But to open my own boiler in my own house should be up to me and not something that people are saying is illegal. Looks like jobs for the plumber boys to me!…what next only a time served mechanic can change the wheel of your car incase you don’t tighten the bolts correctly.
It’s not illegal to DIY provided you comply with the relevant regulations. Briefly this means you should not be doing the work for payment, you must be competent and follow some specific requirement of the Gas Safety Regulations (see ACOP I56 on the HSE web site).
However it would be foolish to work on a gas appliance unless you are absolutely confident in your competence and knowledge of the requirements.
The consequence of getting it wrong are potentially fatal for you. your family and neighbours.
Good luck
Thank you Martin. So basically it is not “Illegal” to remove the covers and do repairs/maintenance on your own boiler. Despite the numerous web site claims that it is. So I am not about to get fined or go to jail.
I suppose asking advice on how to get the burners to light completely on my boiler is not going to get met with much success on this site?
Rabbie, I don’t think you are going to get advice here, sorry. You do need to question your competence if you need advice.
The way I dealt with this business when installing my own gas central heating, including a new combi boiler, was to physically install the boiler myself EXCEPT for connecting the gas pipe. I ran copper gas pipe in the sizes specified in the boiler installation instructions to within 150mm of the main gas outlet from the meter and connected it to the inlet to the boiler. I then commissioned a qualified Gas Safe engineer to connect it to the mains, pressure test the connection, inspect my installation, commission the boiler and test the exhaust gases etc. This was in 2002, and I was assured by the engineer this was legal under the 1998 Act. I then registered the boiler for its guarantee with the credential of the engineer who checked and commissioned it and the gas safety certificate he provided. That all cost £40.
As I did not connect the gas myself I was not doing “gas work” and it was therefore both legal and safe. I’m not a complete DIYer, I am a qualified Mech. Eng Technician, but not Gas Safe registered. As it is the commissioning engineer who is liable in the case of fault, I used someone appropriately qualified to actually connect the gas and commission the boiler.
I intend to do this again in a newly acquired house so, if the regulations have changed, I’d be very interested to find out beforehand. I will be installing a new boiler in a different location to the old one and intend to use a qualified engineer to disconnect the gas supply from the old one and connect it to the new one. Your views would be very welcome.
Rabbie, adjusting the gas valve on that boiler will mean you adjust the CO2 content within the flue gases, unless you have a CPA1 certificate and an analyser I suggest you leave well alone. You could potentially adjust to incomplete combustion to a fatal level, especially if you do not know how to test for flue integrity. It’s not worth it!!
Hi
can a DIY person install a gas boiler (and not switch it on ) then have a registered gas engineer commission the boiler (ie switch it on and test it) ?
This question has been well answered in so many places I suspect you already know the answer.
Really – NO.
You can’t connect it to the gas.
Theoretically, if you do everything that is not gas work and do not touch the gas you could do some of the work.
BUT how can a qualified engineer then verify that it is all done correctly, safely and to the standards?
S/he would have to undo all your work and redo it, so you would save yourself no money. You’d be best just leaving it to the person who has the correct qualification.
That gas installer has trained for years to be qualified and has to retrain and resit exams with every 5 year period to stay qualified.
In other aspects of plumbing and construction DIYers make so so so many mistakes that need to be corrected
if they make those same mistakes when partially fitting the boiler
then it could actually cost more money to get it re-fitted correctly.
I know there are some very good DIYers out there. Also on some jobs the uality of the workman ship os not so important.
BUT
gas installation – leave it to the experts.
I don’t as a rule comment on gas related issue but the ‘who can, who can’t work on gas’ subject seems to confuse some people.
The Gas Safety Regulations clearly state
“(1) No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so.
(c) for those working at premises that fall outside the scope of the Regulations (see regulation 2(4) and associated guidance), by a person who has successfully completed an appropriate full training course followed by assessment of competence.” This point applies to people carrying out DIY work
The guidance states (84) ” Competence is a combination of practical skill, training, knowledge and experience”.
So in simple terms you need to hold a certificate of competency for the area of gas you wish to work in but you do not have to be gas safe registered, but to work on gas you need to have successfully completed the full training course.
So favours for friends can be done if you are competent but not for gain.
This means you the DIYer CANNOT work on gas!
It is illegal for a Gas Safe Registered Engineer to commission an appliance he/she has not fitted. In point of law you cannot even connect the flow return pipes!
CORGI was introduced following the Ronan Point incident, which in turn was to provide protection against the risk of explosion and CO poisoning.
If you think about it, all those ‘DIYers’ or mechanics or whoever else thinks they know about gas, what about the risk these people are taking.
Potential for explosion involving neighbouring lives and properties.
It’s all very well boasting your an engineer of some kind, I once was questioned by a nuclear physicist who thought he knew all about gas work and in fact once I had explained what is involved in commissioning a boiler he didn’t question me again.
Every job has it’s own degree of skill so leave to the engineer of the particular trade/profession to do his/her job in the knowledge you are in safe hands.
Relevant point, commissioning a boiler. Have you got the right equipment to test for gas leaks prior to commissioning? Test for gas inlet pressure, burner pressure (where applicable) heat input, gas rate, flue gas analysis
where required and able to understand the results, converting gross CVs to Net CVs and vice versa, complicated ventilation requirements which
are essential to life-yes essential to life! And that is just a very small percentage of what we have to know as Gas installers.
There are doctors, pilots and next Gas Engineers. We have to know a lot about everything as do doctors and pilots.
Doctors and pilots have books, internet access for information about their profession in times of need as do gas engineers.
So if a gas engineer has to familiarise him/herself with a particular item
of his work, then this no different to a doctor or pilot!
Thats my rant over, thanks for your patience.
AW
Money making bollocks just like sparks ( my trade)guff and shite from so called experts competent my arse ask several experts in any trade and theyve all got a different take on any aspect that isnt black and white
Leave it to the experts!
Experts have checklists which they fill in as part of the job. Only a more recent addition to the Corgi/Gas Safe requirements.
Experts have people to check the work after them to make sure they have not made a mistake!
Experts have pressure tests done on their pipework to make sure it does not leak, they also use certified piping and fittings. Generally they will use a calibrated pressure gauge but for low pressures could use a water gauge.
Experts keep up to date with the latest regulations! So if it is done to the old regulations is it no longer safe! SO do they go back and change all of their old work??
Experts will tell you that you should not do it yourself, but call in an expert!
I am not a low pressure gas expert ie normal UK household pressure is 20-28mıilibar or 0.4 lbs per sq inch YES I said ZERO point 4. Most of us could blow harder than that!
So to test the joınts on low pressure system you would expect to do a test for at least 30 minute with a water gauge to ensure no leaks. If your gas system is leak free then there should be no movement in the water level in your water gauge unless temperature changes greatly ie you leave the water gauge ın the sun.
You should also do a similar check on your heating pipes and joints but I would go for 5 BAR or more on that. Most combi boilers operate at minimum 1 bar and can produce up to 3 bar before shutting down due to overpressure.
Some will say reading this that I am not competent.
Note I have worked in the high pressure gas industry for many years, we regulalry deal with transmission line gas pressures of 800psi that is 55 BAR or 55000millibar. I have dealt with pressures on well site piping of 6000psi +. BUT I am not an expert in low pressures.
Incidentally we test pressure test everything to 1.25 or 1.5 x maximum operating pressure. 1.25 for cross coutry and 1.5 for reas which may be manned.
BEWARE THE EXPERTS.
Hi,
I have a chinese burner/ 7 stoves.
2 of the safety spindle caps have broken. I know how to install a new one but am I okay to do that by myself or does this have to be done by a gas safe engineer?
This has nothing to do with installing gas as it is already installed, just removing the old broken Spindle caps on the burner to replace new ones?
Any answers welcome thanks.
THNANKYOU!
I have to replace my boiler and was qouted £2,000 but after they had seen my work in the airing cupboard (replaced some pipes, the circ pump, 3 way valve and rewired) They suggested I install the boiler and have them certify the work. I’ve never worked on gas or replaced a boiler before! After reading this I’m going to find a different installer.
Thanks for some other informative site. The place else could I get that kind
of info written in such a perfect way? I have a project that I’m just now
running on, and I have been at the look out for such info.
Mrs T, if your (horrible) neighbour installs a boiler with the carbon monoxide pipe right outside your kitchen door, can the HSE help as a gas engineer saenit and told.me it was illegal.
I can’t get him to move it (“not my problem mate”) and I can’t get it adapted as no no one will touch it…
Do i have to do a plumbing course first
I would like to do a sutable course so i can do my own work on my property
Training is quiet expencive
Were can l train live in northampton at a reasonable cost
I have had quaified people
But they over charge wast time
Personally I wouldn’t go through all the training required if you’re not going to use it as a business. There is a lot to learn, lots of regulations to
adhere to-ever changing-re-assessment every 5 years, periodical checks by Gas Safe Register (if you choose to become registered).
You mention over charging-how do you define ‘overcharging’? I charge more for gas work due to the extra responsibility. Would you argue with a solicitors fee? or a garage perhaps? No of course not.
Lets put this into perspective. I have saved lives by preventing explosions and carbon monoxide poisoning. Does a Gas Safe Registered business
not warrant being paid more-for-responsibilty all things considered?
Rant over, back to your post, it is expensive to train and to achieve gas installer status, weighing up costs v training and (if you don’t engage in the gas industry as a registered installer) I personally would employ someone-preferably recommended!
It’s very tempting to carry out DIY gas work and I admire you for wanting to go down the legal route, but please, and this goes for anyone wanting to carry out DIY gas work-don’t do it.
It really isn’t a matter of just turning the gas off at the meter and carrying out the necessary work. There really is a comprehensive amount of checks and tests to ensure safety and compliance.
That said good luck.
ALW
I think, in fact much of DIY gas work, done by amateurs who “know what they are doing”, may well be fine, but once you say “yes, OK” to one DIYer, everyone else thinks its ok for them as well. Which it definitely isn`t,.
Hi
I am hoping that someone can please help me as I’m looking for some advice. My fiancé is a qualified gas engineer and has been for a number of years and is competent, he works for a company and isn’t personally gas safe registered. I purchased a gas hob and my partner fitted the hob and one of the burners is faulty, the company whom I purchased has said that they are not willing to repair the hob unless they have a gas safe certification of the hob being fitted by a gas safe registered engineer and won’t accept me returning the hob. They advised it is a legal requirement for this certification even though the hob being faulty is nothing to do with this.
I contacted gas safe register to request information about my fiancé fitting my hob and the legal requirements and regulations and this is what they have replied to me:
Good morning
Thank you for your email
As your partner is only registered with a company and doesn’t have his own registration he wouldn’t legally be able to connect the gas hob as you have stated
Please find attached some information regarding DIY with gas
I hope this is of some help to you
Kind Regards
Hayley Wiggins
Customer Service Advisor
Gas Safe Register
Can someone please help as they are saying my fiancé fitting gas hob is not legal and the attached information thy ant seem to be more in regard to someone who isn’t a qualified gas engineer
Kind regards
Thanks for the insight. What do you think of this scenario? A home owner removes the case of their own combi boiler to find a leak in the cold water supply which turned out to be a broken plastic part which was easily replaced. Was that illegal. I ask because removing the case and fixing the incoming cold water plumbing does not sound like ‘gas work’, it depends how gas work is defined.
You mention over charging-how do you define ‘overcharging’? I charge more for gas work due to the extra responsibility. Would you argue with a solicitors fee? or a garage perhaps?
This is all well and good but it seems to me its being used as a blank cheque and using HSE as a way of taking as much money as they can with no recourse or choice given to the public, there are millions of DIY homeowners who are competent to look after their own property.
I understand that a very small percentage of fatalities have happened over the years but this number would not even make a percent in the larger picture as a country on the hole its HSE gone mad
On the GSR card there is a start and finish date for the register. If a gas safe registered engineer does not renew his qualification card is he then just like all of us dumb diy’ers? for the most part incompetent according to these posts!
If the register find that after checking his work he is incompetent do they go back and check all of his work since he last qualified? How much is independently assessed? Is any checked. Probably not as he is competent to do the work and check it!
If a mistake is made and it is not checked on by anyone else and people are injured or killed does he lose his registered status, probably but a little late for that!
From the posts here one has to exhibit competence if you do it yourself. You do not have to have been trained to get that competence although it helps. As I understood it a few years ago the Corgi engineer, as it was then, did not have to pressure check the gas pipe after installing it. I always thought that this was nonsense and suspect that this has now changed but , how many houses still have these unchecked piping systems? I understand that the pressure in household systems is very low but it can still leak!
Flexible hoses, Not suitable for fixed gas hobs in the uk although it is ok for a free standing cooker, however other countries use the flexible hose for fixed hobs. If the hose is not safe for a fixed hob why should it be safe for a free standing cooker?
I work on the very high pressure side of the gas industry and we check everything at least twice. Pipe is tested before it leaves the pipe factory, welds are completed to an approved procedure, which has been mechanically tested and also additional testing is completed post welding. Everything is then hydraulically tested with water in most cases and then leak tested with nitrogen before service.
I am competent to do all of this testing but not to fit my own pipe in my own house! Funny world isn’t it.
I am going for a competence certificate next week to change the wheel on my car. If it comes off when driving the idiot that put it on would be incompetent. That would probably invalidate your insurance because the idiot was not certified. If the car was brand new the manufacturer would probably ask if I had any wheels changed and were the fitters certified? if not then they would refuse to accept liability!
The world is bonkers!
I have made lots of joints in my houses both on gas and water piping and never had a leak, however that cannot be said for a few of the GSR fitters I know. Heck I recently moved into a new house and had one leak on the water piping for the radiators and one on the joints above the boiler had not been tightened properly resulting in the loss of water on to the top of the boiler. Competent! he was GSR.
If you fit your own boiler would you expect it to work out of the factory packing or is there some special person in the factory who deliberately sabotages the boiler before it leaves the factory so that it does not work and needs a GSR man to fix it after hanging it on the wall and making the connections? Oh and I had one of those and the Corgi man was unable to fix it and came up with the excuse that it was not fitted properly. So I called the manufacturer and he came out and laughed! A rubber tube between the pressure sensing switch and the burner box had a small leak in it and that was why the boiler would not start. 2 minutes to fix!
Oh and one other point the Corgi man did not know what a water gage looked like or was used for as he commented on the piece of wood with the tubing nailed to it which I had left under the boiler. However the manufacturers man knew what it was. Thereby knowing that I had checked the pressures on the gas system before start up. Unusual, was his comment!
But most of us DIY’ers are incompetent.
Next they will be training babies in the womb on how to get out but they would have to present them with the certificate after they appeared! Well if they make it through they were competent anyway!
Everyone in the world needs to be certified!! After all we have certified car drivers and they never crash! We have certified Doctors and they never make mistakes. We have certified pilots and they never crash! Anyway who certified the first pilots, clearly they were incompetent as most of them crashed!
Who was qualified to certify the first person? Someone who probably was not certified. Frightening isn’t it !!!!!!!!!
Note comment by Mrs Tara Plumbing on latest regs. All the way through it says SHOULD not shall. In my contract and specification experience SHALL is a requirement must do. SHOULD is not defined the same as SHALL. I am not encouraging anyone to go do gas work themselves, however, are registered people competent enough to be sure the pipe is sound! Or should it be tested. In my opinion any new pipe or changes to existing pipe should be pressure checked using a certified gauge or a water gauge ( if the operator is competent enough to use one) . And please remember that in my industry ( high pressure gas) all pressure gauges used for testing are certified each month. And they are not banging around in the operators bag either. They are certified against a dead weight tester, which is certified every 6 months by an approved testing house. In my end if the industry we do not have the safety net of smells put into gas for safety. If you can smell it then it is usually hydrogen sulphide and you really don’t want to be smelling that.
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Give this man a Medal for the longest rant that makes total sense!! I have commented here before- and will say again- as an electrical engineer, who normally works on industrial control systems with literally 1000s of I/O, I get sick of being told I can’t fix an electrical issue on my own boiler, something that would be done by true fault finding! rather than swapping out parts till it works!! at the cost of the customer that is!! also I have seen such bollocks wiring by “PLUMBERS ” in the past, it really makes me sick!!
Don’t want us to touch your pipes??? then keep ya hands out of our electrical concerns, OR just keep it shut!
One aspect of competence that hasn’t been touched on, except perhaps by the example of some of those posting here, is that of knowing the limits of your competence. That is, when it’s time to ask for advice, and then knowing whether or not you can follow that advice safely.