Central Heating Flue

[andyefc]

I bought my house from local council 13 months ago and central heating system was installed 5 yrs ago by them.
Recently had Britgas out 4 survey to put boiler on contract but said no because flue did not have a flue bracket it was fixed in the loftspace by fishing twine and said the installer had broken law by installing like this and that it was not safe to use I explained that I had gas safety certs from local council for last 5 yrs to which he asked had the council engineers ever looked in the loft to which I replied no.So rang council and they stated there was no legal requirement for a bracket and Britgas had knocked it back as it didnt pass their criteria not Corgis anyone help ie what to do next etc.

 

[bengasman]

Bracket would be better, manufacturers instructions will tell you what really must be done.
Count yourself lucky that ****ish gas tried to pull this off; the amount of people posting here that have problems with them is beyond belief.
Search the forum on "british gas" and you will see what I mean.

 

[palerider45]

I take it you what you mean by fishing twine is this is the tied round a joist, B/g were right about being at risk as a flue needs to be supported , but you can use other material other than a bracket, i tend to use metal braiding, its not as good as a proper bracket but done properly gives good support, I think b/g were a bit harsh knocking it back just for that they could of supported flue for you wouldn't of taken long. don't listen to all the b/g knockers on this site most of them are complete ididots who only throw parts at a boiler till it works, and the rest just tell you to get a new boiler as their skill level stops a re lighting pilots..

 

[holty]

don't listen to all the b/g knockers on this site most of them are complete ididots who only throw parts at a boiler till it works, and the rest just tell you to get a new boiler as their skill level stops a re lighting pilots..

theres me thinking its BG that can afford to throw parts at boilers. personally i dont have the luxery. so i spend my time trying to diagnose the fault, cause it aint the customer that will pay for the part i order and diagnose wrong.i dont knock BG but you shouldnt knock people who dont work for them.

 

[kirkgas]

the BG guy may be seen as harsh by some but was he? he was merely (and correctly) pointing out an installation defect that could have a detrimental effect on the use of the appliance, and why should his company take on work shoddily done by other, it is no surprise that the council are claiming BG are wrong (the council are wrong as a flue pipe must be fitted with approved brackets, try to get written approval of tie wire, fishing line, galv band etc etc) because it has now been proved that their service contract has neither been carried out or supervised properly, and they dont want the brown stuff to hit the fan, ask them to quote you how long they give an engineer to service and carry out annual safety check (which includes checking flue in loft if that is where it is) ask them what their supervision policy is, ask them how many houses they have like yours and how many of them have been inspected (because they will say yours is a one off and has been missed as an oversight)

 

[namsag]

Flue must be properly supported not more than every 1.8metres fishing twine is not a correct method if it collapsed it could leave you dead so , measure it and then tell council who is talking sh~te them or gas board.


Oh and it is a corgi/gassafe rule

 

[Agile]

BG have correctly refused to take the boiler on a maintenance contract. Thats their perogative and their decision.

However, its an odd business attitude to walk away. The obvious way is to quote you for bringing it up to an acceptable standard and then cover it.

In an ideal world you would threaten to sue the Council for selling you a property where they had a duty of care to ensure the installation was safe. Properly set out you would be almost bound to receive an offer to settle out of court as they would not want the bad publicity.

However, the reality is that you probably dont have the skills and resources to proceed seriously with that approach.

Tony