gas reg arguments in council housing

[REDSAW]

i keep coming up with this recently in nottingham.
get a call for cooker installations, when i go to view i find a particular housing association new builds have incorrect gas piping to cooker points.

i.e. low to the floor 6 inches off,
terminate in the middle of cooker opening,
terminate 1 inch bellow and in center of electric cooker conections.
no chain.
all with wall plates fitted.
every house the same really with all faults.

when i point these out to the tennants i get the same reply as;
'but its a new build, so i know it is right. i just need the cooker point un-capping and cooker conecting'.
i have only won the argument once when the building inspector came in on a new build site, i showed him the faults and the viper book. he agreed the gas points were not to standered and ordered 30 houses to be rectified. lol.

the looks i get are allways doubtful as they think i am esculating the bill. some are even refusing the work. i know the obvious is walk away but its easy work and i could do with it all the same.

any pointers as to how you handle these issues other than 'walk away' then i could try them and see if it works?.:winkiss:

 

[AWheating]

have you spoken to the housing assoc. ? its would be in there interest to get the original installer back to put them right.

i have seen cooker points left on skirting boards coming out the screeded floor, it was guys from my old company. Tell them its wrong and they could not care less because the nhbc/ clark of works has no idea what it should be like.

 

[mikegas]

For me there is only 2 ways to deal with it, walk away or rectify

 

[kirkgas]

just include the alterations and supply of the chain in your price and do the alterations "free"
if you dont mind me asking how much do you charge for connecting a cooker, and could you build the alterations in to the price without murdering it

 

[REDSAW]

have you spoken to the housing assoc. ? its would be in there interest to get the original installer back to put them right.

i have seen cooker points left on skirting boards coming out the screeded floor, it was guys from my old company. Tell them its wrong and they could not care less because the nhbc/ clark of works has no idea what it should be like.

i got the nhbc on it once as they were still there building the new estate, also lost the job as they offered the customer to do the install with the alteration!.

but it is the single properties with tennants already moved in who are the problem.

i charge £40/45 to just 'plug-in' £5 per fitting and a tenner for small pipe alterations.
my concern with this is, will a fitter of less repute just go in behind me and slap the fitting on without it meating current regs?. as i rather do what i can to complete the job without wasting my time giving the price for such a low value (they all add up).

 

[tamz]

On new build stuff any gas carcass is just run into the area. Not in any specific place or to any measurements.
What is in your remit for fitting the cookers?
Is it just to connect to the existing pipe or to a pipe within 500mm or so.

Maybe you need to talk to the people you are subbing to and make them aware that pipework alterations and chains etc are an extra.

 

[AWheating]

poor work if they cant even get a wall plate at the right height, tho i have seen some dodgy thing on new build sites.

 

[jase158]

How about explaining to any body who calls from that area, the problems before you go, just explain that they don't meet regs and as a result to connect up will cost £75 for instance, at least you save yourself the diesel if they don't agree.

 

[CMairiD]

On new build stuff any gas carcass is just run into the area. Not in any specific place or to any measurements.

I'm seeing this on a lot of our new builds. You get the 90 going to vertical then capped, but no where near the right height. The theory being that not all tenants will put in gas cookers and if they do, it's a tenant own appliance therefore they need to pay to have the cooker and its associated pipework installed.

 

[REDSAW]

yes, i can understand if its just a feed pipe that has been capped with an end feed. but, when it has the wall plate elbow on it then it isa termination.
the argument is when the tennant says 'you only have to connect to that'.
if it were just the pipe, then £65 no messing+- the chain.

i tell you now that half of them are asking what the bayonet is called so they can go and do it themselves.

 

[sparra1100]

there proberly done by plumbers or neweys who dont no the regs and then signed off by someone gas safe and because theres no appliance to them its classed as just a gas carcass

 

[kirkgas]

i agree that if you are going to the bother of fitting a wall plate then it should be at the right height, but as a carcass it isnt breaking any regs as it is terminated properly, as long as the wall plate if fixed to the wall and has the correct blank cap in it, their arguement will be that the fitter will fit to the exact MI and will alter to suit, they dont know what side to fit the pipe without the MI, (what they mean is they just throw the supply into the 600mm space for quickness) i have seen hundresa like this with both the gas pipe and electrical point fighting for the middle spot which has left me the job of piping it round the switch to keep it 150mm away, most i haave seen terminate with a blank about 150mm above the floor so i expect to fit 1m of pipe, i prefer this TBH as it allows me to select the correct spot for the bayonet

 

[kirkgas]

there proberly done by plumbers or neweys who dont no the regs and then signed off by someone gas safe and because theres no appliance to them its classed as just a gas carcass

i dont necessarily agree with this, the drawing could simply show a gas supply pipe in a position without then knowing whether it is a hob or cooker so a blanked tail high enough to let me work on if a unit iss there is fine for me

 

[gasmarc]

i would not install unless the extras were agreed before hand as it is the installer who installs the cookers problem if it is pulled up later,I went to a 5 year old estate that had no drain off for the central heating doesnt help when trying to clear a blockage

 

[REDSAW]

well, been to another one today. 4 doors down from the last one who turned me away.
pipe in same place, i told her it will need altering in which she agreed at a tenner extra so happy there.
told her to pass on my number as whole row will need doing.