Gas Line Installation near you

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 reserve the work. Regulation 3 requires competence for any work in relation to a gas fitting or service pipework, requires the employer or self-employed person to be a member of a class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive, and makes it an offence to falsely pretend to be a member of that class. HSE's guidance to consumers is 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, and that the competencies are marked on the back of the engineer's ID card, so asking to see the card and reading what it covers is a reasonable thing to do on the doorstep.

Building control usually attaches to the appliance rather than to the pipe. Approved Document J notes that the Building Regulations allow work not to be notified to building control bodies where it solely comprises the installation of a gas appliance undertaken by a member of the HSE-approved class of persons, and GOV.UK's building regulations guidance lists installing or replacing a heating system among the alteration projects that need approval, with the competent person route as the alternative to applying yourself. So the pipe run to a new gas fire is gas work, while the fire, its flue and its hearth engage Part J as well.

Northern Ireland applies the same principle through the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004, whose regulation 3 requires competence and membership of a class of persons approved by the Executive. Scotland's building standards are devolved, and its schedule of work not requiring a building warrant includes work associated with pipework, radiators, convector heaters and thermostatic controls connected with a combustion appliance installation, while excepting work associated with a chimney, flue-pipe or constructional hearth.

The route is a safety decision before it is a convenience. The regulations prohibit installing installation pipework in any position where it cannot be used with safety having regard to the position of other pipes, pipe supports, drains, sewers, cables, conduits and electrical apparatus, and to any parts of the structure of the premises that might affect its safe use. They also prohibit installing pipework in a way which would impair the structure of a building or the fire resistance of any part of its structure, which is why cutting a notch through a joist to make a run fit is not an acceptable shortcut.

Pipework in and through walls and floors has its own rules. Any part installed in a wall, floor or solid standing must be constructed and installed so as to be protected against failure caused by movement; a pipe passing through from one side to the other must take the shortest practicable route and have adequate means to prevent escaping gas entering any cavity; and pipework must not be installed in the cavity of a cavity wall at all except to pass through it. There is one narrow exception, and it is a fireplace one: pipework connected to a living flame effect gas fire may run in the cavity provided it is as short as reasonably practicable, enclosed in a gas-tight sleeve and sealed where it enters the fire. Pipework must also not be laid under foundations or under the base of a wall or footings without steps to prevent damage from movement, and pipework in an unventilated shaft, duct or void is prohibited unless it is itself in a ventilated duct.

The end of the job is a test, not a handshake. Where work might affect the gastightness of any part of the pipework, the engineer must immediately afterwards ensure that part is adequately tested to verify it is gastight and examined to verify it was installed in accordance with the regulations, apply any necessary protective coating to the joints, purge the pipework so that air and other gas are safely removed, seal off at every outlet with an appropriate fitting where the pipework is not going straight into use, retest any connection loosened during purging, and test every seal fitted afterwards. One further detail belongs to the electrician as much as the gas engineer: where installation pipework is connected to a primary meter and equipotential bonding may be necessary, the regulations require the person doing it to inform the responsible person that bonding should be carried out by a competent person.

Act first and investigate later. HSE's advice for a suspected gas leak 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. Do not go looking for the source, and do not attempt any repair yourself, whoever told you it would be simple.

The regulations put matching duties in place. Where the responsible person for premises knows or has reason to suspect that gas is escaping into them, they must immediately take all reasonable steps to cause the supply to be shut off at whatever place is necessary to prevent further escape, and if gas continues to escape after the supply has been shut off, or a smell of gas persists, they must immediately notify the supplier. Once an escape has been stopped by shutting off the supply, nobody may cause or permit the supply to be reopened, other than in the course of repair, until all necessary steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence. The supplier's own duty is to prevent the escape within 12 hours of being informed of it.

The same regulation treats carbon monoxide as an escape of gas. Where an escape includes carbon monoxide resulting from incomplete combustion in a gas fitting, and the person supplied notifies the supplier, the supplier's duty is to advise on the immediate action to take and on the need for the fitting to be examined and, where necessary, repaired by a competent person. That is the legal backdrop to a simple rule: if an alarm sounds, ventilate, get out, and leave the appliance off until a registered engineer has been.