Hole in gas pipe - how to repair?

Hello, just after some advice really. We had a leak in the central heating system and during the repair, the gas engineer put a chisel through the gas pipe leading to the boiler. He has repaired this with a big blob of solder. Is this a suitable repair? Just looks really messy to me (was a big hole) and makes me nervous.
Thanks for any help.

Call GSR, and refer matter.
Did you check that the chap was actually registered?

That is no way to repair a holed pipe.Damaged section should be cut ot and replaced using correct fittings and is RGI work.Get him back and question him as to why he did that.Is it buried in floor or easily accessible?

Yes, he's registered with Gas Safe I checked before taking him on. Just seems dodgy to me and wanted to check. I'm going to get someone else in to look at the repair as I don't trust the work at all now. There is also a small leak on some of the soldered joints he did (I did a soapy water test) and he's responsible for the hot water leak under the floor in the first place. Just wanted some second opinions. I have the gas turned off at the mains in the meantime.

It is under a screed floor (the copper pipes are lagged in something). He had to dig the floor up to get to the water leak in the first place hence putting a chisel through the gas pipe.

You have confirmed my gut feeling (I have not heating knowledge) but it makes me angry that he is prepared to put my family at risk.

Call 0800 111 999 and report suspected gasleak. They should be there within the hour and will not charge.
After that, report to Gas Safe Register 0800 408 5500 and ask for inspection. ( free as well ) They will force the faults to be corrected, again without paying anything extra.
Cowboys need to be stopped.

Thank you for your advice, exactly what I thought. To be honest, I trust the guy so little, I'd rather pay for someone else to come and fix it and report him to gas safe. I don't want him doing anything else in the house - I wouldn't trust any repair he did.

What worries me more is the rest of the plumbing he did under the concrete floor, the leak that happened so far was luckily in an accessible place, even with pulling the new tiles up etc, the rest of the stuff would mean pulling up the whole new kitchen if he's messed that up too and that begins to leak.

shil0464 said:

Thank you for your advice, exactly what I thought. To be honest, I trust the guy so little, I'd rather pay for someone else to come and fix it and report him to gas safe.

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Gas Safe will have to inspect what he did. You can not get it repaired and report him after that.
Best and fastest is to follow advice in previous post. After gsr have been, you can get someone else to repair it if you want.

shil0464 said:

There is also a small leak on some of the soldered joints he did (I did a soapy water test) and he's responsible for the hot water leak under the floor in the first place.

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Is thios all new work thats just been done and covered with concrete.

Are you saying that a gas joint is leaking when you add soapy water>

After any gas work the engineer is meant to do a leakage test at the meter. Thats a very basic test.

Tony

yep, the work was all new and originally done about 6 months ago. i called him back out last week as there was a massive water leak in the plumbing and a gas leak behind the cooker. new boiler and cooker and pipework to an extension.
the cooker joint just needed tightening, the plumbing hadn't been connected properly under the concrete leading to the large water leak and lack of pressure in the boiler (i think it had been leaking slowly since installation and then just completely failed). in trying to mend the plumbing, he put a chisel through the gas pipe and mended this (on friday) with a really messy solder blob. looks really bodgy which is why I did some google research. also when i checked the metre, there was obviously a small leak still, so i did the soapy water thing around the new pipework coming from the metre that goes into the garage and there's at least one leak I found in this work too.

in short, i don't trust this man to come back and sort this out - i think he would if I called him but I'd rather pay someone else to sort it out and have peace of mind. i spoke to gas safe this morning and they said I should make a complaint and he'd be made to fix it - but I don't want him fixing it, so I think I'm just going to pay for someone else to do the job instead.

my main worry is the plumbing to be honest, as the gas work is mostly accessible and hopefully can be fixed, the plumbing under the screed, if that goes again (in a less accessible place), the whole extension floor will need to come up!

Short of removing concrete and totally remaking all the joints I dont see there is much that you can do.

All gas joints should be carefully checked but they are easy to resolder because they are dry unlike the water joints.

Tony

shil0464 said:

...in short, i don't trust this man to come back and sort this out - i think he would if I called him but I'd rather pay someone else to sort it out and have peace of mind. i spoke to gas safe this morning and they said I should make a complaint and he'd be made to fix it - but I don't want him fixing it, so I think I'm just going to pay for someone else to do the job instead.

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You still need to tell GSR that you have safety concerns and want an inspector by calling the same number and ask for an inspector to come out. Do NOT discuss the matter by the phone; there is nothing to discuss, it simply needs to be officially established that he cowboyed it together. This is the only way to get this cowboy marked.
After that, you can choose whoever you want to do the job, and you don't have to let him in if you don't want to.

. Do NOT discuss the matter by the phone; there is nothing to discuss, it simply needs to be officially established that he cowboyed it together. This is the only way to get this cowboy marked.
After that, you can choose whoever you want to do the job, and you don't have to let him in if you don't want to.[/quote]

Shiklo,Ben speaks the truth. Follow his advice. Seriously.

FFS make gasache get off their backside and come and inspect, then get someone else in to fix problems.