Gas Fireplace Service near you

A service is a set of checks, not a wipe down. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 set out what must happen whenever a person performs work on a gas appliance: immediately afterwards they must examine the effectiveness of any flue, the supply of combustion air, the operating pressure or heat input or where necessary both, and the appliance's operation so as to ensure its safe functioning, and must then take all reasonably practicable steps to notify any defect to the responsible person and, where different, the owner of the premises. That list is the backbone of a competent service visit.

Where an appliance has been installed rather than simply serviced, the same regulations require the engineer to test the connection to the installation pipework to verify it is gastight, and to examine the appliance, fittings, flue and means of ventilation to establish that the appliance was installed in accordance with the regulations, that the operating pressure is as recommended by the manufacturer, that it was installed with due regard to the manufacturer's instructions, and that all gas safety controls are in proper working order. If adjustments are needed and cannot be made, the engineer must disconnect the appliance or seal it off from the supply.

In practice the visit means cleaning the burner, injector and pilot assembly, checking the flame picture, confirming the flue clears its products of combustion and that the ventilation the appliance relies on is present and unobstructed, and putting the fuel bed back exactly as the manufacturer's instructions specify, since the positions of ceramic coals and logs are part of the appliance's safety case rather than a decorative choice. Ask for the readings and the findings in writing at the end of it.

The competence requirement is the whole of the law here. Under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 nobody may work on a gas fitting unless competent, and employers and self-employed people must belong to a class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive; the same regulations make it an offence to falsely pretend to be a member of that class. HSE tells consumers that anyone employed to work on gas appliances in domestic premises must be a Gas Safe registered engineer and competent in that area of gas work, that the engineer's competencies are marked on the back of their Gas Safe Register ID card, and that the register can be checked before the work is done.

Where the appliance may go is also settled by regulation rather than by preference. No gas appliance may be installed in a room used or intended to be used as a bathroom or shower room unless it is room-sealed; a gas fire, other gas space heater or gas water heater of more than 14 kilowatts gross heat input may not be installed in a room used or intended to be used as sleeping accommodation unless it is room-sealed; and one of 14 kilowatts gross heat input or less may not be unless it is room-sealed or incorporates a safety control designed to shut the appliance down before a dangerous quantity of the products of combustion builds up. Those restrictions extend to cupboards and compartments within such rooms and to adjacent spaces with an air vent into them. HSE dates the sleeping accommodation rules from 31 October 1998 and advises a risk assessment where a room containing such an appliance was already in use as a bedroom before then.

Northern Ireland runs the same architecture under its own rules: regulation 3 of the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 requires competence for work on a gas fitting and membership of a class of persons approved by the Executive.

Using an appliance you suspect is unsafe is unlawful. The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 provide that the responsible person for any premises shall not use a gas appliance, or permit one to be used, if at any time they know or have reason to suspect that it cannot be used without constituting a danger to any person, and define the responsible person as the occupier, the owner or anyone with authority to take appropriate action over a gas fitting there. HSE puts the same point to homeowners directly: it is illegal for anyone to use a gas appliance if they suspect it is unsafe, so turn it off and do not touch it until a Gas Safe registered engineer has checked it.

Engineers work to the gas industry's unsafe situations procedure when they find a dangerous installation. HSE describes the change made in its seventh edition, which took effect on 1 July 2015: where an appliance or installation is found to be either at risk or immediately dangerous, both now carry the same message on the warning label, 'Danger Do Not Use', and the category for situations that are merely not to current standards was removed because by definition those situations are not unsafe. A label is therefore an instruction about the appliance, not an opinion about it.

A smell of gas is a separate emergency with its own procedure. HSE's advice is to call the National Grid gas emergency freephone number 0800 111 999 immediately, open all the doors and windows, and shut off the gas supply at the meter control valve if you know where it is. The regulations put a matching duty on the responsible person to take all reasonable steps to shut off the supply where they know or suspect gas is escaping, and to notify the supplier if the escape or the smell persists after the supply has been shut off.