Boiler service/ gas safe course

[Rich719]

Hello,
I am looking for an honest opinion please, with my current employment I get a lot of time off, I am considering completing a gas safe course with the view to use my spare time to potter about doing boiler services and that only, am I naive to think it’s that simple?
Thanks

 

[Nwalky]

I think it depends n how much time you have off. Unfortunately you are looking to pursue a completely different profession and it takes a lot of time to obviously work on these skills, the coarse will only take you so far, teaching you the regulations and how to carry out gas work safely but it will not go into the specifics of boiler diagnosis and servicing requirements.

Each boiler will probably have its own specification for servicing and sometimes things don't always go to plan so you need to be prepared to resolve any issues that you may come across when working on it. These are all things that you can learn but having the added pressure of knowing that that you have other job commitments might be difficult. I know someone that went into it later in life and has become a very good gas engineer but it took him working long hours alongside someone to gain the necessary experience. If you are willing to put in the time then you could probably do it, you just need to dig deep and sometimes stay late to get the experience.

 

[Brambles]

If you decide to proceed on a Gas Safe Course, be sure that you have a suitable Gas Safe Engineer as a mentor to ensure you can complete the portfolio aspect of the course. In reality, that mentor would also be able to advise you if what you are considering is viable.

To run even a very small business centred solely on servicing gas fired boilers would require a large Customer base to feed you with sufficient work to cover your training and set up costs. The money (if we exclude boiler and full system installations) is generally in heating system / boiler repairs, not servicing.

 

[Ben-gee]

If you would be happy as a “shove in the analyser, squirt the air duster around and go” type service engineer- then no problem.
If you wish to do it properly you will definitely need an experienced mentor and a bit more patience.
Good luck with it, I like people with initiative.

 

[Rich719]

Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated!