Removing a gas hob DIY

Perhaps the Heysham guy didn’t do a pressure drop test after capping off, that may have shown the leak.

If he didn’t, I’d hazard he was not competent. Let’s see if his actions are considered negligent by a court.

They were also stealing electricity and handling stolen goods at the premises. There is a precedent there for cutting corners in life….

Gas leaks do also happen after work by gas Safe certified people.

Brian, I can smell gas

At the meter there is a little cap you unscrew and can fit a manometer to. By fit, I mean you can shove a piece of plastic tube over the stub and by manometer I mean a couple of metres of clear plastic tube bent to a U and filled with water. Turn off gas at meter, do job. Fit manometer, turn on gas, manometer will read something like 30cm of water (doesn’t matter how much), turn off gas, wait, if manometer not dropped in 30 seconds you’re good, remove manometer, refit screw, turn on gas.

if manometer not dropped in 30 seconds

Clever stuff, why did the guy who capped my gas wait 15 minutes? Was he just a bit shit or do you suppose he knew you have to wait at least 30x longer to see a detectable drop in the differential pressure and wasn’t just an internet bullshitter passing out potentially dangerous info to people who don’t know any better?

Incidentally, that photo Nobeer linked to of the house in Ayr reminded me of some of the lovely details I was told about that by my fireman co-worker. Apparantly the guy was found, literally, bent double under the debris and when they moved him his hand fell off. Yeah, gas is just like water, except when it’s not.

There’s been a lot of advice in this thread, most of it incorrect. The two people who mentioned the most basic step of turning off the gas at the meter were also pretty clear they’d get someone competent in to do the job.

This is why you should get a GasSafe registered engineer to do it (to do *any* work on a gas installation, whether that is for pay or otherwise, you need to be classed as competent as per the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998, regulation 2/52 referencing regulation 3 @alanl. They know the allowable pressure drop for a gas installation to be classed as safe (not an unspecified drop from a makeshift manometer @neilnevill, not a blanket 1mb over an unspecified period of time @footflaps, they know how and when to use the correct fitting – soldered, compression, etc. (not PTFE tape on a “screw fit” (compression) fitting, the compression olive forms the seal and if you need PTFE tape you’ve done it wrong @footflaps) – and they have all the tools to do the job correctly and safely and understand how they work (it’s not plumbing @dovebiker because that’s water, gas might be at a lower pressure than water but water doesn’t form explosive mixtures in air if it leaks @footflaps, flue gas analyser isn’t just a carbon monoxide monitor @footflaps, you need to consider the requirement of purging the pipework after cutting and capping and you need to know how to a) calculate how much volume pipework you have and b) how much gas will be required to purge that volume @everyone).

Source: am GasSafe registered and I’ve been through the training, and there is so much more to unpick in this thread. For what it’s worth I’d charge 1hr of my time for capping a cooker gas supply.

To be honest, anyone not engaging a gas Safe registered person is trying actively or passively to qualify for a Darwin award

This is great timing. Yesterday I managed to cut thru the gas feed to my cooker! Man I shit myself

Capped the pipe and a mate who is “competent” is coming round to sort it all today

This BS comes up time and time again. Try and find anyone that has ever been “done” for doing their own work.

I don’t say this lightly, but this is an absolutely idiotic view. Not only illegal, but irresponsible and shows a complete lack of good judgement. Literally the worst post I have seen on STW.

@jamj1974 it’s not at all illegal if you do it to regulation and are competent. That’s my point.

Be prepared to demonstrate competency if anything ever goes wrong. The easiest way to demonstrate competency of course is to be gas Safe registered.

The stakes are high so have a think about whether you want to burden yourself with that risk.

To DIY, you need to be competent.

(and many other similar comments)

This is a term which crops up in my work. It is insufficient to go “yeah, I know what I’m doing,” rather you have to be demonstrably competent. So when the auditors come round and we say our testing have been undertaken by competent personnel for the purposes of ISO27001 / PCI-DSS / Cyber Essentials / Insert Accreditation Here, they aren’t going to reply “right you are then squire,” they’re going to say “prove it.” And proving it requires providing a bit of paper that says you’re appropriately trained.

I get the safety aspect for ‘have a go’ bodgers..

The consequences if you get it wrong are catastrophic, however it’s a really simple job and I don’t see why it can’t be DIY’d.

As long as you understand the job properly and do things correctly I can’t see why you shouldn’t.

I fitted a new ring main to get power in the cellar on a new breaker for example.. I could have done it as a spur but for the additional cable to make it a ring was negligible.
If anything it’s over specifications with the cable gauge too as the heavier gauge stuff happened to be the same or cheaper at the time.

I know that it will never go wrong unless I try to pull about 10,000 Watts from that one braker in which case even then the braker will trip or plug fuses will blow.. So it’s safe as safe can be.

How many of you have ever wired an electric plug? Were you competent to do the job, I mean legally?

The consequences if you get it wrong are catastrophic, however it’s a really simple job and I don’t see why it can’t be DIY’d.

Because it’s a legal requirement to be competent. In a legislative sense that Cougar described very well above. Also, it can’t be that simple given how much material TheFlyingOx had to tear into. It’s also not really like wiring a ring main in the slightest.

How many of you have ever wired an electric plug? Were you competent to do the job, I mean legally?

Yes and yes. Because anyone is legally competent to wire a plug, it’s just frowned upon since you can’t rely on folk doing it right hence moulded plugs. Just as there are certain things you can DIY on your house circuit.

How many things are allowed for gas DIY? I can think of one and I don’t even like doing that (have enough leaky schraeder bayonets at work on air mains, hate the things).

Again not even close to being the same.

Don’t forget soapy water is not allowed as a leak detector, it can corrode the pipe or fittings and cause leaks….
And also remember you are not just paying someone for the hour they are there but also the years of training and experience.
Remember any pipe has to be able to be purged to ensure it is full of gas, therefore the cap needs to be accessible, and able to be removed for this purpose. And if it is a compression fitting it can’t be in a floor void, but all you competent DIY’ers know all this already…..

I’ve been reading the legislation to understand why there are contradictory posts. It’s not illegal to work on your own system, only if you’re employed. BUT it is a strict legal requirement that you follow all the standards, purging, etc, as listed by TheFlyingOx, and unless you’ve had the training you’re unlikely to know what they all are or how to do it correctly.

they’re going to say “prove it.” And proving it requires providing a bit of paper that says you’re appropriately trained.

Nope training isn’t competence in the eyes of auditors.

Training is only the first part. Beyond the training for auditable competence trail there is to be competence assessment on a defined set of outcomes -usually practical that will be assessed and signed off by someone who is a qualified competency assessor and SME in the field.

Just completing the course doesn’t make you competent.

But as you were explaining what competence was I’m sure you knew that.

@trail_rat that’s just splitting hairs, of course there is a difference between having a bit of paper saying you’ve completed a course and proving you can use that training effectively but that’s what your company qualification manual/profile/whatever you call it does.

You take the training you have received (formal or on job) and prove that you can use that safely on your own (task performance evaluation) making you a SQEP (suitably qualified and experienced person) for that task.

FWIW I don’t think you would pass gas safe training without proving you can do the work anyway otherwise who assesses the sole traders?

My point was It’s pretty common malpractice particularly with management in industry that hold the belief that training course pass = competence – which appears to be cougars understanding.

As a competence assessor with a couple of approval bodies that’s a bridge I often have to broach with management when the employee produces a bunch of paperwork from courses but cannot answer simple questions or perform the task correctly/safely relating to the course content.

The other one is that as an assessor I can assess any competence against the set standard for that topic -and while many years ago that was the case for some Mickey mouse approval bodies anything reputable in any mature industry will need an SME who is deemed competent in the subject them selves.

If completing a training course proves competence why did my Part P qualified electrician label the two new circuits, he’d just installed, the wrong way round in the consumer unit?