Boiler Flue Position

[Agile]

That attitude by the builders will not help them in court when you claim damages and hotel bills.

My friend was in a hotel for SIX weeks and had to eat in the hotel restaurant. As he is a wine buff he had to have some of their better wines just as he would have had at home.

Make sure you keep a daily diary of everything that happens.

When are Gas Safe coming?

Tony

 

[Kan0]

All of a sudden i have lots of people with fancy job titles calling me and admitting they got it wrong, quite a change from last week’s don’t worry it’s all ok. It would have probably worked out better for them if they had just had a look and said we need to double check, then admit their mistake and fix it. On the face of it, they either didn’t know it’s wrong or hoped I wouldn’t take it further. Ooh how they got that one wrong.
Gas Safe now have us as a priority as we have no gas heating and instructed us not to allow any work or alterations to the boiler, this has really upset the builder and the gas installer as they wanted in first thing this morning to change it all, what a turn around from last weeks “Don’t worry”.
Just need to wait for the Call from Gas Safe now.

 

[Agile]

Explain your situation to gas safe as they are not involved in any compensation even if they delay their visit to you.

They can often keep you waiting for 14 days before they visit! You dont HAVE to wait for them if you dont want to.

The builders now seem keen to please which is a nice change from the usual lack of interest!

Tony

 

[Kan0]

Gas safe have now confirmed they are coming on Friday morning, i'll post up what they say.

 

[Agile]

Its a long time to wait without heating/water.

If I can go and fix a boiler the same day then I dont see why they cannot come sooner.

I know why they make you wait though. Its because they make appoints two weeks in advance for routine checks on installers and dont have any slack for urgent needs and they dont work any more than their basic hours.

Let us know what they say and particularly what they are going to do about all the others on the development which are not correct.

Tony

 

[Kan0]

Well it looks like i was correct all along, the Gas Safe inspector ran through all the checks and decided the boiler was working correctly but he found a few problems with the install.
1. the boiler electrical cable was secured to the gas pipe.
2. the gas meter pipe was unsupported.
3. the gas pipes in the garden are unprotected
4. the flue was too close to the air brick
5. the flue was too close to the brick weep vent
6. the flue was too close to the soffit vents before the heat shield was fitted
7. the flue is installed level so the condensate runs out onto the path instead of back into the boiler.
8. the condensate soak away was right beside the building before it was moved the recommended distance

So not bad for a job i was told was nothing to worry about and was installed as per the manufacturers spec, they are coming next week to finish the work, all they had to do was block the vents with silicone to get the boiler back on temporarily.
They say they will check the other houses and then have a meeting with the installers.
Looks like I won’t need to be doing as much landscaping as I thought I would.
Thanks for all the advice.

 

[towan]

Good onyou for getting this sorted!

One point, the MI state the flue is to be fitted level as the fall for the condensate is built into the flue,

Also MI do not require for the flue to be cemented in, the seal has been designed to seal.

Gas safe DO NOT Require all flues are cemented in, MI are to be followed over Gas safe.

 

[Ray84]

Yeah i agree with Towan most flues unless extensions are involved should now be horizontal as the flue will have been designed to let condensate run back in. i know the ideal isar wants a slight run though so not sure if logics the same?
Its all quite sloppy really. How many houses are in the estate? a couple of small mistakes on each installation could endup being a nightmare for the installer as well as having gas safe on their backs just for being lazy, poor show from them!
out of curiosity, where abouts is the new estate in Stirling?

Ray

 

[Kan0]

By the sound of it my Flue must have a small downward run then as it lets water out every few minutes, The estate is in Larbert and from what i hear the Plumbers have only been around since ROK went out of bussiness and they were brought in. I was unaware that the flue should only let out steam as this is my first condensing boiler, i thought they all did that and i would just have to accept the wet path.

 

[towan]

even when fitted correctly you can still get condensation dripping from the flue.
As the moist warm air hits the cooler air your get condensation forming right on the end of the flue that then drips.

Remember, the more the boiler is condensing the less pluming you get and the more efficent the boiler will be.
A easy way of increasing effiency is to turn down the boiler flow temp( to around the 2 oclock postion on the dial).

 

[Kan0]

The amount of water we are getting is around an egg cup size every few minutes, i can't find anything about the angle other than if extensions are used so i guess the inspector is basing it on the amount of water that hit him as he was looking at the condensate drain. we leave the boiler on the 'e' setting as advised.