"Mary Fisher" wrote in message
et...

"Bob Mannix" wrote in message
...

Fisher wrote:
I wish I'd taken a picture of a central heating boiler installation
at a neighbour's house - done on a government grant..

The gas pipe was fixed *outside* the walls.

Not unusual and arguably often safer than the alternatives.

I've never seen it before. The alternative would be to take it under
the
floor (a much shorter route) which is the norm round here at least.
Fixed
to
the outside wall is vulnerable and therefore potentially unsafe.

The trouble is that, although more likely to be damaged, the hazard from
a
gas leak outside is fairly low (no explosion risk).

Piping should be done so that it doesn't leak in normal conditions. when
outside it's far more vulnerable than when it's under the floors. Are you
worried about your gas piping being under floors?

No, bit of a cheat though - I don't have any under the floors (they are
solid), so it has to go round the walls (but inside). Given the situation
you describe, I would probably have gone for the under floor route and
limited my worrying to *definitely* ensuring the under floor ventilation was
adequate. The nub of the argument is whether surface mounted pipes are
"illegal" in some way - I don't believe they are in themselves (but I may be
wrong)- although long runs of exposed thin copper pipework would certainly
not be best practice.


Under floor leaks
(although much less likely) are far more hazardous (very high explosion
risk).

I guess the two balance out and you would go for the shortest run (which
it
sounds like they didn't!)

They didn't.

That was accepted by the installers when they were threatened with
legal
action.

Well that *may* just mean they couldn't afford the time and money to go
to
court - the case for most small businesses.

Court was never mentioned, I think the threat of losing the contract might
have been more telling.

Well it comes to the same thing! Money counts whether what they did was
"legal" or not.


My major complaint would have been that it looked crap and could they
please
redo it!

That was the first line, they didn't accept it.


I really wish I'd taken a picture ...

You know how when there's a post or the like on a corner and children
swing
on it every time they go past it? That would have happened in this
situation, it would have come off the wall next to the back door in no
time.

I would have probably tried the legal route as well, in that case, whatever
the actual state of the law! If the gas pipes are available to swing on
(which I don't think you said to start with) the fitters might well be
accused of negligence and failing to take proper care etc. I agree it sounds
a horrendous installation. The fact remains though the domestic gas loose
outside isn't particularly dangerous compared with it loose inside. Even if
there's no-one in, a light gas explosion will destroy a house as most
masonry walls will only withstand about 2psi (AFAIR) (across the whole wall)
lateral pressure difference.

If someone popped up now with a proposal to pipe inflammable gas into
people's houses in thin walled cooper tube (this not having been thought of
yet) they would be laughed at, of course, but there we go!

Bob