DIY Work On Gas Installations

[megawatt]

Hi all,
I've been reading through some interesting debates on DIY gas fitting and have a request.
I fully agree with the sensible viewpoint made by the corgi guys about not doing any DIY work on gas installations but the majority of people who are asking the questions are likely to do it themselves anyway (same with Part P in sparkworld) so would it not be sensible to have a reference section in the forum which points to recommended reading or offers basic advice on important stuff like "how to leak check a gas installation" etc etc.
After all, isn't this the purpose of this forum?
Simply saying "don't do it, get the nice man/woman from Corgi" doesn't give me a warm cosy feeling if they do it anyway without any idea at all (and happen to live next door to me)
I'm sure the Corgi members of the forum will have their own take on this, it is their world after all, but a little pragmatism is more likely to prevent accidents in these cases I think.

 

[nstreet]

Simply saying "don't do it, get the nice man/woman from Corgi" doesn't give me a warm cosy feeling if they do it anyway without any idea at all (and happen to live next door to me)

But isnt a little knowledge worse than none at all. As they saying goes 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' People may get ambitious after completing the simple tasks and go for someting a lot more adventurous. I'm not corgi, but I don't think there is much room for error with gas, the last thing you want is numpty's moving gas meters by themselves or connecting up ch boilers.

 

[Nige F]

Simply saying "don't do it, get the nice man/woman from Corgi" doesn't give me a warm cosy feeling if they do it anyway without any idea at all (and happen to live next door to me)

But isnt a little knowledge worse than none at all. As they saying goes 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing' People may get ambitious after completing the simple tasks and go for someting a lot more adventurous. I'm not corgi, but I don't think there is much room for error with gas, the last thing you want is numpty's moving gas meters by themselves or connecting up ch boilers.

Move to a village without a gas supply

 

[kevplumb]

keeping out of this one

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Been watching Dr who again Kev

 

[Diyisfun]

Well I just fitted my gas fire. Put a match to all the joints. Im still here. So wasnt I lucky.

 

[ollski]

From a legal point of view it wouldn't be worth it. For example if you put in your own gas fire and checked the continuity of the flue and the smoke test seemed ok, but the next week your neighbours were killed by co poisoning due to the chimney condition you could just turn round and say "well DIYnot didn't tell me I needed to check that". The whole point of getting things installed professionally is that the installer can check the complete appliance safety, the fact that a gas connection doesn't leak does not neccessarily make it safe

 

[Diyisfun]

ollski
--------

Understand & agree 100%.
My fire came with installation instructions, to me that means if you can read & understand what is implied & feel confident, then it will be installed by the DIYER.

Maybe the manufacture should not supply installation instructions, because Mr Corgi knows how to do it without them..

 

[megawatt]

The point you're all missing is that many of the people who post questions to these forums have probably made up their minds to do the work already and sensible guidance is better than no guidance at all (disclaimers can be included with the advice to avoid any legal implications). Some of these people may well be competant to do the work and be asking sensible questions and the fact that they are not Corgi registered does not necessarily mean they should not do certain work (I'm going into hiding now ).
If the only advice given is "seek a professional" then this forum should simply have that advice as a single reference topic and not accept questions about gas fitting ... Or make it a closed forum for Corgi bods only, presumably to bang on about the latest horror story they've witnessed by some crazed DIY'er (which may not have been a horror story if they had received sensible advice which is the point I'm trying to make here).
Kevplumb ... Stop hiding behind the sofa and get stuck in

 

[kevplumb]

Kevplumb ... Stop hiding behind the sofa and get stuck in icon_lol.gif

no chance my feelings on the subject are well known

 

[ollski]

Not missing the point megawatt, if these people are competant then they don't need any advice plain and simple. There is an absolute shed load of advice on here which doesn't require a corgi engineer to carry out and the advice is dished out for free, however if the work is corgi territory then we will point that out for your own safety, but check the posts...there aren't that many of those.....well except for agile maybe

 

[megawatt]

if these people are competant then they don't need any advice plain and simple

Rather a strange attitude Ollski ... We are all learning irrespective of how experienced we are or what we think we know and getting advice from one's peers is one of the best ways to advance our knowledge ... There are generally many ways to do a job (competantly) and someone may have thought of a better way than we had planned ... I, for one, have found advice on the diynot forums invaluable even in my own areas of expertise though I find people on this forum in particular are not too forthcoming in useful advice when the job is related to gas installations (my personal view based on the threads I've read obviously).
The electrical forums have useful reference stickies and, though the pro's still hammer home the need to comply with all appropriate regs, they are forthcoming with advice on how to tackle most jobs in an attempt to guide the DIY'er towards the safe approach to the job (assuming they will do it anyhow).
My reason for starting this thread was to request that the same approach is taken regarding stickies etc.

 

[ollski]

No mate, the acs certification in the gas world is to prove you are competant in gas safety, if you don't have it you cannot claim to be competant. Of course we are all learning, but what we are gaining is experience as our competance is the base standard we are building on, you are not looking for that you are looking for us to provide snippets of information so that less than competant people can muddle through. As I said before the vast majority of posts give useful responses that a diyer can undertake but when a corgi should be used that information is relayed aswell.

 

[oilman]

if these people are competant then they don't need any advice plain and simple

In which case the manufacturers need not produce installation manuals, because if the gas people are anything like oil people they don't read them, as I note from the cock-ups I fix.

But isnt a little knowledge worse than none at all. As they saying goes 'a little knowledge is a dangerous thing'

And it's a very silly saying.

 

[Noraslad]

Diyisfun, wrote:

My fire came with installation instructions, to me that means if you can read & understand what is implied & feel confident, then it will be installed by the DIYER.

And

Well I just fitted my gas fire. Put a match to all the joints. Im still here. So wasnt I lucky.

Love to see the instructions with that on it

Did it come complete with smoke pellets and matches too