Does anybody know if it's legal - or if it affects house insurance -
to plumb in your own gas hob? Or does it have to be done by a Corgi
man?

Does anybody know if it's legal - or if it affects house insurance -
to plumb in your own gas hob? Or does it have to be done by a Corgi
man?

The general opinion seems to be that it can be done legally by the homeowner
in many circumstances. However, there are some caveats.

1. You must be competent. This means that things like jointing pipe, leak
detection, pressure testing etc. must be understood and correctly performed
to the standards expected of a CORGI registered fitter.

2. The house must not be rented out.

3. Rules (such as whether using flexible hoses is acceptable or not) must be
followed.

4. No payment of any kind can be made.

Christian.

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 10:04:37 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

1. You must be competent. This means that things like jointing pipe, leak
detection,

Squirt copiuos amounts of fairly liquid around the joints and wait for
the bubbles

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 09:33:51 +0000, s--p--o--n--i--x wrote:

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 10:04:37 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:

1. You must be competent. This means that things like jointing pipe, leak
detection,

Squirt copiuos amounts of fairly liquid around the joints and wait for
the bubbles

I have not taken the attitude that d-i-y should be totally outlawed. I
have tried to provide some information which might help people who are
already highly experienced general plumbers about gas fitting, although I
stress that work must e done competently.

I take the view information is to be preferred to ignorance. I receive
emails thanking me for the Gas Fitting FAQ and others telling me something
along the lines of "I'm endangering people by giving them knowledge which
they will misuse."

However some things I'm sure of.
a) Proper leak testing is done _before_ and after work on a gas
installation.
b) leaking joints are found using soft soap solution or
approved lead detection fluid.

Fairly liquid can be corrosive once it dries and becomes more concentrated.


--
Ed Sirett - Property maintainer and registered gas fitter.
The FAQ for uk.diy is at http://www.diyfaq.org.uk
Gas fitting FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/GasFitting.html
Sealed CH FAQ http://www.makewrite.demon.co.uk/SealedCH.html

s--p--o--n--i--x wrote:

On Wed, 15 Jun 2005 10:04:37 +0100, "Christian McArdle"
wrote:


1. You must be competent. This means that things like jointing pipe, leak
detection,


Squirt copiuos amounts of fairly liquid around the joints and wait for
the bubbles

The problem with doing this is that the leak may be greater that the
liquid's ability to create a bubble. I suffered this problem looking for
oxygen leaks in the cockpit of aircraft.

A better way to check for leaks is to use a brush and make a collar of
small bubbles around the whole length of the joint. If you can make a
full 360 degree collar then you can see if any of the bubbles begin to
grow. The use of a mirror and lots of patience helps in proving that
there is no leak. If you fail to make a 360 degree collar, then you have
a big leak.

HTH

Dave

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message
t...
Does anybody know if it's legal - or if it affects house insurance -
to plumb in your own gas hob? Or does it have to be done by a Corgi
man?

The general opinion seems to be that it can be done legally by the
homeowner
in many circumstances. However, there are some caveats.

1. You must be competent. This means that things like jointing pipe, leak
detection, pressure testing etc. must be understood and correctly
performed
to the standards expected of a CORGI registered fitter.

2. The house must not be rented out.

3. Rules (such as whether using flexible hoses is acceptable or not) must
be
followed.

4. No payment of any kind can be made.


Add to that a general point - it's a bit of a grey area (and implicitly
recognised as such by CORG1 if you read their warnings carefully - last time
I read it their wording was definitly designed to give the impression that
doing your own gas work is illegal, but they don't actually state it). If
something were to go catastrophically wrong (if for instance the hob
developed a non-fail safe fault that led to loss of life or serious injury)
you might find yourself in the uncomfortable spotlight of an investigation.

In other words, you need to be beyond reproach in your execution of the
job - I would argue that in this context "competence" extends to
understanding of the regs & issues; planning; due regard to such things as
siting, ventilation, test requirements, etc; workmanship; and procedure. It
might be a good idea to record all the tests performed & their results.

There is a website (think it's somewhere on the HSE site) that lists
prosecutions for illegal gas work - I read as many of these as I could stand
a while ago, and did not find a single prosecution for a householder
carrying out their own gas work. They were all either unregistered workmen
carrying out gas-work (explicitly not allowed) or gross incompetence in gas
fitting.

As for the insurance aspect, there's only really one answer - get the policy
terms & conditions and read them very, very carefully, especially any
catch-all clauses.


--
Richard Sampson

mail me at
richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk

"Pete" wrote in message
...

Does anybody know if it's legal - or if it affects house insurance -
to plumb in your own gas hob? Or does it have to be done by a Corgi
man?

Already a thread on this. Do a find on corgi. You can do it.