Boiler condemned due to overflow pipe

[wheatifus]

I live in a 2nd floor flat and my boiler was condemned by British Gas due to the overflow pipe pointing out from the wall. Apparently we need to put an elbow joint on the end to point water back towards the wall. Being 2 floors up, access to the overflow pipe is difficult. It's too far away from the tiny kitchen window to use a grabber arm, for instance.

So what do we do?

* Get a plumber with a ladder, bearing in mind the height and and that the wall is directly on the street/pavement?

* Pay to hire a cherry picker and put it on ourselves? (don't want to use a ladder but I know someone licensed to use a cherry picker) Is there anything I need to know, for instance type of elbow joint or distance from the wall? These might seem stupid questions but I don't want to have to do the same thing a second time...

* Hire a cherry picker AND a plumber? This seems an expensive solution for such a simple thing.

Any advice is appreciated.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Happyplumber]

Ah yes the "AT RISK" Pressure release valve connection ,get a plumber in it will be far easier then the other options and not a great deal of money compared to cherry pickers and the like

A local independent should be able to help you out ,you will be amazed how resourceful we can be when it comes to these type of problems

 

[dunbar]

http://www.pipecowl.com/

Get one of the above in 15mm.
Cut pipe inside building.
Enlarge hole through brick work to around 22mm.
Stick a new pipe through wall with new pipe cowl on end until it just appears on outside wall.
Reconnect inside building.

 

[Jordon]

Call gassafe and ask if gas regs are part of water regs and weather they cover both as a company on there register is going round illegaly flouting there powers to be and illegally condemned a boiler due to a water reg issue and not a gas safe issue. Also call British gas a complain as gas and water regs are two separate issue.

 

[dunbar]

Sorry forgot to add tell British Gas to f**k off!

 

[oilman]

Further to dunbar's post, overflow pipes are part of building regs, and you need only to be advised it does not comply. What you do about it is your business. The boilerman has discharged his responsibility by telling you. To condemn the boiler is outside his authority. He needs to go for training.

 

[simond]

Installer's trick with these is to cut/disconnect relief pipe indoors. Push through wall and let fall down outside.

Get a length of garden hose or similar, push through hole and let droop to ground level.

Attach elbow on end of pipe, then tape pipe to garden hose and pull back through hole from inside. Bit of washing up liquid helps here.

British Gas; why would anyone use them for installation? Advertising?

 

[dcawkwell]

Simply route the pressure relief pipe so that it is near a window
and you can reach it.

Good grief.

Ladders! cherry pickers!

Make life easy for yourself.

 

[doitall]

Or connect it to a drain with a tun dish.

 

[nickso]

Or ignore it.

An awful lot of **** being bandied about here. Whether or not BG have the "authority" to " condemn" (I hate that word) your boiler they have done it(in actual fact they have "condemned" a piece of pipe) . You now need to decide whether or not you give a purple toss. I would advise you to forget about it.

The BG chap is only doing what he has been told to do, no point in calling him all the names under the sun either.

 

[muggles]

How did he classify it? NCS? AR? ID? Something else he invented on the spot?

 

[doitall]

I wouldn't ignore it if as you say it discharges over a public path.

Some one could get burnt if it blows when they are under it, could be a small kid or a toddler in a pram.

 

[wheatifus]

Thanks everyone for the replies. A few people suggested just leaving it, which I have done for a year or so.

I'm now going to be renting out the flat though, so I guess I need to deal with it. What can I do to get the boiler passed as safe in order to rent the flat out?

If I do have to deal with it, I'm reassured that there's ways a resourceful plumber could sort it without resorting to cherry pickers and whatnot, such as the garden hose idea.

Chris

 

[wheatifus]

How did he classify it? NCS? AR? ID? Something else he invented on the spot?

I'll have to dig out the form they gave me. This is actually only part of the way British Gas screwed me over.

When they left the "DANGER - DO NOT USE" sign on my boiler, it came with a form detailing two faults. 1) flue too close to kitchen window and 2) the overflow pipe issue. They didn't clarify which issue was the supposedly 'dangerous' one.

A day or two later they rang me up to ask if I wanted a quote for a boiler and sent someone round who quoted £3k for the work, including scaffolding. I asked if there was anything else I could do, such as moving the flue, as I didn't have the cash. Their sales-guy told me "No, you'll need to replace the whole thing". I was trying to sell the flat at the time and lost my only interested buyer due to this. Not happy.

So I read up on the building regulations that said that the boiler flue didn't apply to an existing boiler like mine. I took this up with Gas Safe, and Trading Standards started an investigation (they eventually decided not to proceed with it). Finally, British Gas rang me "oh, it was just the overflow pipe that was the issue". Not a new boiler then, just a £2 elbow joint on a pipe.

It's news to me now that, in fact, even the complaint about the overflow pipe might be beyond their remit. Now I'm sort of angry all over again! What a company.

Chris

 

[doitall]

Interestingly the flue is within their remit as it is with all RGI's.