Key is not Pro or DIY, but competent.
For example Linda Barker's wallpaper often has incompetently made
edging making it impossible to hang without gaps.

So not all Pro's or DIYer's are competent.
In the words of Dirty Harry, a (wo)man has got to know their
limitations.


ELEC - Statuatory Instrument (SI) 2006 replaced 2004

That defines notifiable and NON-notifiable work.
- DIY can quite happily a) do non-notifable work AND b) do notifiable
work with inspection.
- DIY must do work to BS7671 (or named standard), whether they notify
or not

Pro's of course can
- 1) not do it to any standard it merely has to be safe in their view
- 2) have a registered company but unqualified, incompetent staff with
just a QA spark who turns up to eyeball & collect the money
- 3) have 5-day trained Domestic Installers rather than proper C&G
2382 and preferably (but not necessarily) 2392

A Pro is no-longer a Pro when he bawls over a neighbour's fence or
wholesaler that the law is SI2004, he becomes a cowboy with spurs -
and needs the fuse removing rapidly.


GAS - Gas work that is remunerated is illegal unless registered

DIY should do no work whatsoever unless competent for the EXTENT of
that work AND that includes right materials, right method, right
inspection and testing (combustion analyser for boilers) AND as much,
knowing what they don't know.

DIY conversely can just go and buy Viper, Tolleys and then a) define
what they know and b) what skills are sufficient. That may limit them
to turning on a gas appliance as a consumer. It might limit them to
capping an appliance off.

Pro should do not work whatsoever unless competent for the EXTENT of
that work - because Gas Safe has specific qualifications for each task
and is specific to the actual individual rather than the company.

Pro's of course can...
- 1) fail to sleeve thro the wall
- 2) fail to ensure any of 11 outside end-feed fittings had a
continuous bead of solder with leaks were detectable from 9 (leaking
for 8yrs by that point)
- 3) push 8mm pipe into a 15mm elbow and "fill-in" with solder
- 4) fail to sleeve thro the wall again
- 5) fail to fit a gas tap to allow appliance isolation
- 6) fail to locate the appliance at a height which permits a gas tap
- 7) deliberately not fit a gas tap so inspection leaks can be blamed
on appliance vs pipe
- 8) locate an appliance contrary to manufacturers instructions
- 9) physically fix the appliance with screws much deeper than the
browning so it is effectively supported by the flu tabs & pipe

This is the old British Gas where "everyone trusted and nobody
looked". Thankfully Transco ACS do in fact look and as he put it
"spends all my day wiping the arse of previous gas fitters who
shouldn't have been let loose with Lego".


Both DIY & Pro can do poor work.
The worst mentality is when a nation hands over responsibility to
essentially self-policing bodies because Pro's very rapidly become
cowboys because they can assume all work and dis-assume responsibility
as Corgi so demonstrated. Ireland has no Corgi/Gas Safe yet has no
statistically significant different in incidents (indeed over a 10yr
period I recall it was less, but that may be due to other factors
rather than DIY being particularly better or Pro's more competent).
Too many gas people ended up with poor practical skills & good
multiple choice skills. Standard of soldering should be job #1 yet is
often really pretty shabby as well as the understand of *why*
something is done like it is, *why* it matters and the *science*
behind it. Same goes for 5-day DI, who simply do not know enough yet
stand bawling at C&G qualified people "they are wrong" only to have a
Hilmor shoved up their ass. Following a manual is not enough, hence
DIY gas work even with the right manuals will always be virtually non-
existent (and is, most common from HSE is "capping a pipe". Most
common error of old BG is "no compression fittings are allowed
inside" (even if accessible), which is useful because it got a meter
moved outside for free in those days.


What surprises is the no-one has mentioned the obvious - the BBC has
no interest in DIY shows, only "Cowboy & DIY-SOS". Much DIY work is of
a far higher standard than Pro, but some is atrocious.

If someone is not competent for the extent of the work, then obviously
get someone in. Now, who wants to consider kitchen fitters and what
they do a) themselves b) to elec & gas after the others have left the
room... because that... truly... can be horrific.

NuLabour recreated the ministry of silly walk men-in-brown-overalls,
one to hold a screwdriver, one to write a HIPS, one to do an
efficiency assessment with moronic software & moronic lack of
understanding, one for window tax making it uneconomic to use
maintainable DIY-built wood windows at the expensive of vast
quantities of DG landfill which will merely increase with future
secondary glazing requirements (gap) and sustainable construction
(wood, acacia, gov't monitoring cameras).

Hopefully the next bunch remove the ball-&-chain with a flag painted
on it so as to prevent it being questioned by peer pressure. BR should
hopefully be reduced to a set of end-results, since the present lot is
merely creating a lot of opportunity for rushed-to-market rubbish
products.