Siting of a gas boiler flue?

[mistee]

They did ask if they could drill a small hole for a small flue, they indicated it would be further away, and we assumed that we wouldn't notice any fumes or anything as we assumed a proffesional fitter was doing the job. The hole wasn't where we thought it would be and it was a good deal bigger. We only found that out after it had been done. Then the boiler wasn't switched on until a couple of weeks back, a good 6 months since the work was done, as the house was being 'done up'. Now he's in and the boiler went on and you know the rest. So yes, we did say okay, but they didn't explain what it was for, just implied it was a small hole to drill for a small flue. We really didn't think they'd do that to us, they must have known the outcome for us by putting a flue there, as they knew all about the boiler and how it works. I guess you could argue that we should have asked more questions but they made it sound so routine and no big deal that we were being friendly and as it turns out rather naive. The fact still remains though that it shouldn't have been put there. I feel the wool was pulled over our eyes which makes me even more annoyed and much less trusting of them

 

[ChrisR]

Whether you as houseowner said it was OK or not it's against Building Regs. Ergo it's illegal to fit it that way, even if you had a fetish for the smell. If you wanted to sell your house there would be a severe problem.

It would possibly be easier/cheaper to move the boiler, maybe to the end wall of the garage, than buy and fit loads of extensions to its flue.

When the plumber installed your neighbour's flue, if it is right on the boundary as you say, then he must have accessed your property in order to drill the hole and fit and seal the terminal.

Not true. Most can be fitted from inside only.

 

[mistee]

The hole was drilled from the inside of his garage, it was only when the drill came through, we realised just how close it was to our window.

 

[bripl]

bottom line on this one is the flue needs repositioning as
A it is not fitted to the mi
B the flue is a nuisance
off you go and have a chat with your neighbour politely about your concerns and ask for the installers reg no.if this fails contact corgi/enviromental health/local building inspector who should/would have known about this issue when the work was being carried out and get it rectified failing that plant an ivy or some other fast growing climbing plant to
A CHOKE THE BOILER FLUE/NO AIR EQUALS NO IGNITION
B BUILD A WALL/SHED/PUT UP A SIGN A COUPLE MM IN FRONT OF THE TERMINAL DOES THE SAME AS ABOVE
you are in the right your neighbours installer is wrong so push as hard as you want to have it repositioned the mi/law/building regs all have been ignored so go for it

 

[mistee]

Hi...again, Sorry to keep on, I've read here that the flue should terminate at least 600mm away from the boundary and 2.4 or 2.5 m from the boundary. Anyone have any links to something that I could show the neighbour? I've been looking for ages but can't find anything other than it shouldn't really be causing a nuisance rather then it absolutely shouldn't be where it is. It'll help to have something to show him at this stage which will hopefully sort things out before we might have to resort to EH. We want this sorted with minimal bad feeling!! I do appreciate that you all know what you're talking about, but when it comes to talking to this neighbour, I don't really want to show him this thread!

 

[bripl]

have a look at the odpm site or look up the relevant british standard better still get him to show you the installation instructions all the info is contained in them.if you can get a copy of the third edition of the corgi hand book essential gas safety it contains information and the relevant bs number is 5440-1 hope this helps

 

[Slugbabydotcom]

I've been looking for ages but can't find anything other than it shouldn't really be causing a nuisance rather then it absolutely shouldn't be where it is

From my first post

General position
1. The terminal must not cause an obstruction nor the discharge a
nuisance. Particular care should be exercised with regards to the
pluming of the flue gases

Which part of MUST NOT means shouldn't really???

Loads of MI's Here
Or look up any manufacturers website

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Pour a gallon of water into the flue outlet as quick as possible every time you see it working, this will keep sending the boiler into fault mode and the installer will have to keep comeing back.

 

[brentwood]

Mistee, you've got to stop dithering, stop worrying about your neighbour and phone your local building control. Get them to visit and all will get sorted. Corgi will help by slapping a correction notice on the installer, but only if he's registered, and in this case the guy's been such a muppet I hope he isn't!
If your neighbour has been conned, or knowingly used an unregistered person, or builders have then why on earth put up with it for a minute longer than you need to?
BTW 600mm facing a boundary is the regulation minimum (also must be 2m from any openable door or window on opposing property).
The 2.5m for condensing boilers is an ODPM guideline but would evidence your case for 'nuisance' in a County Court hearing.
You don't need to worry about that- the 600mm will do. Get your neighbour to ring the technical line for the make of boiler he's got and hear it from the horses mouth.

 

[Agile]

Sorry to add a further figure.

As far as I am aware the 600 mm is the minimum Gas Regulation distance from an opposing wall. It was written in respect of non-fanned flues.

Most manufacturers of fanned flue boilers have a longer distance of about 1200 mm and this overides the minimum of 600 mm.

Now the important point, I had always understood that it was essential for this minimum discharge distance to be over property in your ownership so that if the neighbour were to build a wall along his side of the boundary then the operation of the flue would not be prejudiced.

Tony Glazier

 

[mistee]

Thanks everyone! Having spoken to the neighbour and asked him to get back to his installer. Now we're waiting to hear what he's found out. We thought, to keep good neighbourly relations, that we'd give him till the weekend to do something about it. If nothing is done we'll tell him we're going to ask CORGI or environmental health to come and look at it and then hopefully they will deal with it and it'll be between them and the neighbour...hopefully. Thanks again everyone for the useful advice, much appreciated.

 

[mistee]

QUICK UPDATE:

We phoned CORGI who say we can't complain about it to them, but the neighbour can. They did agree it wasn't in the right position and they are in breech of building regs, but they can't come and do anything unless the neighbour complains about the fitter themselves. We're a third party and CORGI won't act for us.

The option we have is contacting EH or building control.

We're just wondering if the fitter was a friend of theirs and they are now stuck between a rock and a hard place! If they don't complain, CORGI have said that no-one has taken it further yet because of the cost of taking it to court. Our biggest problem would be if the neighbour didn't complain to the fitter AND refused to move the flue, but we're a long way from that yet hopefully.

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

What an absolute joke, an INCORRECT GAS INSTALLATION and corgi dont want to know, yea and I should worry about prat p, once again corgi prove themselves to be tossers and just a money making machine

 

[dal5band]

Having just scanned this I agree that CORGI is probably the same as the BMI, the Law Society, and others who are there really for the benefit of their members not the customers.

I just thought, could Mistee get some sort of gas detector for his porch to show his neighbour the bad flue gases ?

 

[Agile]

I am sorry but I must strongly disagree with that last statement!

The last person that CORGI want to help is the Registered Gas Installer!

The RGI is milked by them for money which they then squander on £80k salaries for their executives plus expenses.

The slightest digression from good practice and CORGI are down like a ton of bricks on the RGI. Minor items like not insulating a condensate pipe for example. ***

Unfortunately, they refuse to investigate any gas safety issue unless called by the property owner. Only today an unregistered installer from Eastern Europe has fitted four boilers and the gas supply pipes are connected with plastic push fit connectors. CORGI will not investigate unless called by the property owner although this is a pretty serious issue!

Tony

PS To be honest, I dont really mind them expecting a high standard because I always do things properly but I know that there are a lot of RGIs who are not as careful.