An inspector called

[jimhet]

As things stand, when a City and Guilds qualified builder with over 40 years experience undertakes even minor building jobs like forming a door/window opening or installing a new drain run, [ neither which tend to be life threatening] he still needs to notify and pay a fee to LABC, who then visit the site to check and test workmanship. In contrast the 2 trades in the construction industry [ electric and gas] most likely to cause serious injury or worse receive no third party on site checks/tests at all You really couldn't make it up.
Nothing would serve to improve workmanship more than the thought of an independent third party who knows what to look for, calling round to check/test all new installations. It should cost no more than a landlords
test and compared to some of the prices quoted on this forum to do a power flush would surely be value for money.

 

[PRS1]

Which is what u have in realaty anybody who has any doubts or not can phone gas safe for a free inspection and they will oblige.
As far as a charge for an inspection which could be made compulsary
alot of people wont even pay to annually service appliances!
Although i agree in an ideal word it would be good and only up the anti on the decent trades out there.
Personally i only undertake a job if i can carry it out to standard and dont want jobs which cant but there is always someone available to do half a job at cut price leaving the customer initally thinking they have got a good deal only to regret it later.
Iam not saying dont shop around but to a certain extent u get what u pay for and in alot of cases that is not everything thats required ie;blagged system cleans for whatever reason is not acceptable

 

[bengasman]

...Although i agree in an ideal word it would be good and only up the anti on the decent trades out there....

Would it? I doubt it.
Although I am pretty good at what I do, and don't accept jobs where I have to cut corners because the customer is a skinflint, I don't doubt that you can find something wrong with most of my installs if you look hard enough.

The main problem is not with RGI's that don't meet ALL the regs ALL THE TIME.
The really big problem is with illegals that don't give a toss ANY OF THE TIME.

 

[PRS1]

In an ideal world Ben there would be no illeagals!
Any genuine tradesman just cant get anywere near the prices they work fore-due to overheads
but i aint telling u owt u dont already now.
Totally agree that its these that need stamping out-There should be penaltys for people that employ them.
You would think the tax people would be more interested there quick enough to get on at the genuine trades.
blah dont start me off-the whole systems wired up wrong!

 

[The Baker]

edit

 

[mehran]

the problem with inspections is there is little for RGI to gain and vast amount to loss. it would only take one jobsworth to get out his tape measure and start pointing out completely meaningless infractions to cause chaos.

"ah, see here Mrs Jones, your flue is only 1.95m off the ground so must have basket for your safety"

(for you non-gas people under 2m a flue needs a bracket around it to stop you burning your self on the low temperature flues you get nowadays )

take agile for examples, he can count how many installs he does in a year on one hand and only does them if he can take all the time in the world because he does not want to feel "pressured"... but he feels he can so freely slag off an installer of that his had is work rated as "generally done to a high standard" and about a gap that some manufactures say you don't need to fill in(alpha for one)

now imagine if agile ever become an inspector... i wonder how long before an installer strangled him to death now I'm not picking on agile as someone has to be on jobsworth end of the spectrum

 

[Agile]

If I was an inspector then its totally clear that the flue should be sealed in the UK according to custom and practice for good workmanship. Some manufacturers also ask for it but others dont.

Its not the end of the world and on a high rise impossible to do in most cases. Not something to revoke a resistration for. ( At least not the first time! )

Tony

 

[jimhet]

Mehran wrote

the problem with inspections is there is little for RGI to gain and vast amount to loss. it would only take one jobsworth to get out his tape measure and start pointing out completely meaningless infractions to cause chaos.

"ah, see here Mrs Jones, your flue is only 1.95m off the ground so it must have basket for your safety

No need for a basket then but why stop there, who'll know/care if you dont upgrade the 15m gas feed on a 30Kw boiler and why bother to move the boiler just because the flue exits a bit to close to an internal corner and so on and so forth. Wake up smell the coffee and step into the unknown, called the real world where builders and most other trades have been coping with jobsworth District Surveyors since time began.

 

[Whitespirit66]

Not sealing the flue is a very basic defect and I see that as indicative of a very lazy installer who needed that inspection to make him toe the line.

Bushes by the meter box are not the installer's responsibility and should just be pointed out to the owner.

One of my trainees once got kind of stung on his arm by a very ordinary looking bush.

Tony

 

[mehran]

where builders and most other trades have been coping with jobsworth District Surveyors since time began.

that is my point! very little to gain, lots to loss.

from most accounts I have heard so far the inspector go in looking to find something, anything! to pull you up on. a bush here, a pipe clip missing there.

the problem is no matter how anal you there will always be something... and something is all it takes to loss rep or for a difficult customer to with hold payment.

 

[Happyplumber]

I would not tar all inspectors with the same brush our local one has been in the job for many years and before this he was out on the tools to the extent he had 20 odd employees.He is now slowly crusing into his retirement

He is fair and will not tolerate bullsh.itters,if you dont know then better to use a book and check ,he does not like people having guess and is always on the end of the phone for any enquries.

 

[jimhet]

Mehran wrote
that is my point! very little to gain, lots to loss


The gain would be an improvement in workmanship across the trade and in turn an increase in customer confidence. Also naff installers [whether RGI or illegal] would soon leave the trade if their installs were being condemned all the time.

 

[bengasman]

The gain would be an improvement in workmanship across the trade and in turn an increase in customer confidence.

No, that would only happen in Utopia.

Also naff installers [whether RGI or illegal] would soon leave the trade if their installs were being condemned all the time.

That is most unlikely too.

 

[Paul Barker]

Not sealing the flue is a very basic defect and I see that as indicative of a very lazy installer who needed that inspection to make him toe the line.


Tony

The trouble is Tony that more than 50% of the boilers I attend have this installation defect. When I was doing it for the gas board it was usually missed by previous service visits, not mentioned on computer anyway. So it is actually a massive blind spot in the industry. I find at least one not to current standards situation on every single job. I used to feel quite embarrased saying to customer when she said "you fitted it" (meaning Gas Board), well it should have been sealed. I am not one of those people who flanels the customer with lines like "there must have been a reason why it wasn't done at the time" I just tell them, well it was done not to current standards at the time. There is a bit of an unwriten policy to say to customers "well it was OK at the time, but nowadays it is not to current standards." which is quite often a lie, so I won't say that, I tell them the facts.

Sometimes got me into trouble!

So there is no need to be too critical of this installer, he is just one of many who have this blind spot. But it is right for Gas safe to get him back to it.

 

[jimhet]

Its amazing how many RGIs on this forum are only too willing to boast to anybody daft enough to take notice how/what wonderful tradesmen they are, but mention a compulsory inspection scheme and there's an immediate run on toilet paper. Bengasman seems to think the trade is infested with illegals, maybe it is but there's more than enough naff RGIs as well. Compulsory inspection of all new boiler installs costing in the region of an extra 3% on the price [closer to 1% if doing a complete system] would force everyone [including illegals] to clean up their act overnight.