Gas Leak - Has he taken the right approach?

[Kenny A]

I had a minor job done yesterday, to move a gas pipe feed to my hob further back to allow more space for the cooker. All went fine but when testing following switching everything back on, he found there was a drop (I assume pressure) highlighting that there was a leak.

In brief:
He isolated the appliances - still dropped.
Took up floor boards and isolated the entry - No drop so leak further down the line
Isolated feed to fire - still dropping
Cut hole in kitchen ceiling to find the branch for Hob/Boiler
Isolated Hob feed - still dropping
Isolated Boiler - Jackpot! No Drop, we have the culprit.

This all seemed logical, albeit a massive pain. He is coming back this morning to continue the work as he ran out of time last night.

Today, he is going to isolate the feed between the wall and the boiler which will confirm whether its from the Branch to the boiler, or at the valve itself.

The niggle I have is that at the end before leaving he mentioned it could be the isolator underneath the boiler, which is a standard one, open/easily view able and accessible.My very limited/non existent Gas knowledge thinks he should have had the relevant equipment to determine this quite quickly before running the trace and work through the pipes ie I wouldnt have a hole in my kitchen ceiling and a house full of dust. Am i wrong in thinking this and should just let him get on with is job??

 

[Nozzle]

Took up floorboards and cut holes before trying the easily isolatable stuff? You have brain of Britain sorting your gas out!

Nozzle

 

[misterdubya]

I had a minor job done yesterday, to move a gas pipe feed to my hob further back to allow more space for the cooker. All went fine but when testing following switching everything back on, he found there was a drop (I assume pressure) highlighting that there was a leak.

In brief:
He isolated the appliances - still dropped.
Isolated Boiler - Jackpot! No Drop, we have the culprit.

This makes no sense.

 

[Kenny A]

He had claimed to have isolated each appliance, I've assumed this means also checking that nothing is leaking out AFTER its been isolated. Looking at your response Nozzle you would agree that he hasn't properly checked that the isolated appliance could still be leaking.

Remembering back, I think his criteria was isolate, the run the tightness test to check if the pressure dropped, I'm not sure if he then checked around the applicance to see if it was fully isolated and no leaking occured before running the tightness test.

misterdubya - Not sure if you mean my info or his approach but to clarify, the isolation of the boiler that 'found' the problematic part was on the pipe, not the actual appliance, which he had isolated first. This was what drove his final statement before leaving that it could be the valve.

 

[Dan Robinson]

If appliances all isolated before cutting access, then fine. If cutting holes was done first then......

 

[Kenny A]

If appliances all isolated before cutting access, then fine. If cutting holes was done first then......

Thanks Dan, its whether/what level of testing you do after isolating the boiler to determine if it is truly shut off. If the valve that isolates is the issue then you cant say its isolated, never would be as the drop would always be there.

In short, how do we know when an appliance is truly, without question isolated? If the answer is to cap the feed before the appliance then going into the ceiling (bathroom floor was not an easy option) would appear to be the only way to determine this. If the answer is to perform an additional test to check the valve (with a meter) then this is the aspect that hasnt been explored fully before cutting holes.

 

[rules&rulers]

Maybe doing the gas leak test first would indicate a leak and the customer informed that additional work would be necessary,atleast your property is now safe.

 

[ollski]

In your post it says appliances isolated at the start and then isolated at the end?. If it leaked all appliances isolated you would then bubble your Iso valves to confirm pipe work was leaking.

 

[Agile]

A conscientious RGI will do a leak test before he starts any gas work.

Otherwise he may find there is a pre existing leak and have to charge extra to fix it.

Now why would any RGI ever want to charge any extra?

Tony

 

[hazetimesfive]

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