Jan
DANGER OF THE WEEK AWARD |
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Bad Relatives Who Think They’re Gas Fitters
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Regulations broken: The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 : PART B Gas Fittings – General Provisions(Qualification and supervision, Materials and workmanship, General safety precautions, Protection against damage, Existing gas fittings)/PART D Installation Pipework (Safe use of pipes, Enclosed pipes, Testing and purging of pipes)/PART E Gas Appliances (Gas appliances – safety precautions, Testing of appliances) |
We received a call this week and asked for a price to replace a gas fire with a ‘like-for-like’ unit. Our response is always the same. We must always view the existing current gas fire and the unit intended to take it’s place before making further comment. When we viewed the existing fire the next day our immediate response was to disconnect it due to safety issues. The gas fire was spilling. In lay terms that means that the products of combustion are ’spilling’ into the room. To further aggravate the issue the fire surround was covered with some sort of stick on vinyl product which had over the years also melted!
So as seen from the pictures above the black stains that are emanating from the top of this fire are sure signs of spillage. Further to that issue we were also informed that the fire had recently been serviced and the ‘man’ who serviced it told her she should only use the fire for short periods of time. WHAT!?!? As I asked more questions I was informed that the fire had originally been installed by a relative who was not a gas fitter. I slid the fire forward to look into the catchment space behind the fire and found that it was full of soot and had not been cleaned out in a long while. Also, and only another gas fitter would probably notice this; there were no signs that a flue flow test had been carried out recently. In other words there is usually signs of spent smoke pellets or that the soot has been disturbed if someone had actually been servicing the fire properly.
So on to the gas pipe which rises out of the crazy paving style hearth. It is a chrome gas tube and in most instances would not be an issue. In this case however the question that begs to be asked is where is the other end of the tube hooked up? As you can’t solder chrome pipe the assumption being made right now is that it has been fed into an old gas restrictor which is dangling under the floorboards or that it has been compression fitted to the old gas pipe work. Either way it is likely wrong, unsafe making it prone to leakage. There is also no isolation valve or any other way to turn this fire off in case of emergency or gas leak.
So we have a long list of safety issues to sort out. To start with the fire has been made unusable until we can remove it and install the new one. Of course we won’t install the new one until such time as all of the other issues we’ve found have been dealt with.
The building regulations are not a list of items put in place to complicate peoples lives and make life miserable. The rules are put in place to keep the general public safe. Please remember that the general public also includes your children, your mother your sisters and brothers. No one wants to see someone killed due to faulty equipment or faulty installation. As I have pointed out to many unqualified gas fitters who install gas appliances over the years. How do you check to see if the appliance is working correctly? With no test equipment and no training you better hope the appliance was not manufactured on a Monday or Friday! I’ve had brand new appliances that have to be sent back or have parts replaced due to safety issues.
The gas fire shown here is being used by an infirmed elderly lady. She has no other source of heat except this fire in the rear lounge and another gas fire in the front lounge. Both fires are well over twenty five years and full of soot, hair and dust. She’s been told that they are safe and believes the person who told her this. We’ve told her the truth. This fire is not safe! It is disconnected.
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We had a new gas fire fitted in May 2009 and all was ok until we called out an engineer from the fire manufacturer (valor)about bubbling paintwork on part of it.The engineer replaced the part and carried out the tests again and it failed on spillage. We got the original gas fire installer back and he agreed and said we needed a flue to improve the draw. He also said he could fit one at a cost of £350.00 for parts and £250.00 labour and it would take a full day.
He removed the old grey asbestos flue in the attic and fitted a twinpipe stainless steel flue which protrudes about 1 1/2 mtrs through the roof tiles with a wind rotated cap. In the high winds in December , the flue bent and is now an eyesore also. We have complained to him and he has asked us what we want him to do . Can you advise please ? Regards , Steve Heathcote
Hi Steve,
I’ve just read your e-mail regarding the Valor gas fire you had installed in May of last year. Gas fires and flues are not something to be guesses at and it is near impossile to give you a safe answer without looking for myself. So that being said I have a couple of suggestion that should help you get your fire sorted out.
First things first is DO NOT light your fire again until it has been checked by a competant gas fitter. Another pair of trained eyes it what is needed so secondly I suggest contact Gas Safe Register (or click here to register a complaint online) and have an inspector out to take a look at the work. They will inspect the job and make recommendations based on what they find. Gas Safe Register (GSR) is the governing body that we gas fitters work through. CORGI used to run the scheme but GSR now runs the sceheme. I know a few of the inspectors there and have a lot of respect for these guys. They’ve been in the game for a lot of years and know there stuff. It will pay to have a set of trained eyes on the job.
You will be required to give GSR the details about the job. That should be easy as your installer should have registered this job when it was completed and you should have received an installation certificate from GSR a few weeks after the job was complete. All gas work is notifiable and a gas fire is no exception. If you didn’t get a certificate then there may be other issues and GSR should also be able to help you out. You also mention that changes were mae to the flueand that work too should have been notified as well as a CHIMNEY/HEARTH COMPLIANCE PLATE should have been fitted near the chimney as part of the building regulation – Document-J 2002.
Please call Gas Safe Register on +44 (0)800 408 5500 or contact them through the link I gave you above. I think you have a safety issue that needs to be looked at. Please let us know how it works out for you.
Thanks.