Home DIY

http://mrstaraplumbing.com/2013/05/21/is-diy-gas-work-against-the-law-or-is-it-ok-in-my-own-home/

Ok then, tell me why not.

EDIT - Read your own link.

The law says anyone doing gas work and being paid for it (self employed or as an employee) must be approved – i.e. on the Gas Safe Register (GSR).

You do not have to be GSR to do gas work if you are not being paid e.g. in your own home (on a DIY basis though) you just need to be competent.

Ok I wasn't aware of the technicality. It's not illegal to DIY your gas if you are competent. This is where the complexities come in. What defines competent? Obviously being GasSafe, and arguably having a lapsed GasSafe qualification. Beyond that it's a grey area.

You ignored the next paragraph
"To be competent to do gas work if you are not actually gas safe registered you must have completed and passed the same training course as those who are GSR."

I read it, and the only definition is competent. The definition quoted in the article is a draft of a proposal.

You may ask where I got this definition from. Conveniently is is in the new draft ACOP, click on the link to the HSE consultation and you can download it. The same definition has been around for a long time but written in difficult language and buried in other HSE documents.

Who is Competent To Do DIY gas work?

To make it easier for you to check I am right I have copied and pasted the section here from the ACOP:

57 Anyone who works on a gas fitting…. Therefore, do-it-yourself gas engineers and those performing favours for friends and relatives all need to have the required competence.
58 Competence is a combination of practical skill, training, knowledge, experience to carry out the job in hand safely, and ensuring the installation is left in a safe condition for use. Knowledge must be kept up-to-date with changes in the law, technology and safe working practice.
60 Gas work should not be undertaken except:
a) by a person who has successfully completed an industry recognised training course followed by assessment of competence. Training that leads to assessment of competence in safe gas work must be recognised by the industry’s Standards Setting Authority. or
b) in the case of a previously Registered person, they have proved competence through a Certification Scheme. or
c) for those working at premises that fall outside the scope of the Regulations (see regulation 2(4) and associated guidance), by a person who has successfully completed an industry recognised training course followed by assessment of competence.
61 Training should be of a standard to enable a gas engineer to achieve competence in the safe installation, purging, commissioning, testing, servicing, maintenance, repair, disconnection, modification and dismantling, of the gas systems, fittings and appliances with which they are working. This should include an adequate knowledge of associated services, such as water and electricity, of the dangers they may give rise to and the precautions to take.

Having seen some of the poor work done by professional who were allegedly NICEIC and Corgi registered(now gas safe) was scary.

EDIT = Check out the ukplumbers forum for some amazing work.

So yeah, you're only going to be competant if you're Gas Safe or trained to that level.

Apart from accountability, which is the whole point.

Re read my quote, it is a draft proposal.

To whom?

Not a technicality, it is just one of those things. With gas it is easier to smell a leak, unlike electricity.

Whoever own the property? Who else would be hiring them? If you do a shit job wiring up my new extension and sign it off with a trade body, then you're at fault if it shorts and burns the place down, meaning I can sue you.

Your point?

would replacing the fan, indicated OP's posting, require tinkering with the gas? or is even working on gas appliances not allowed?

If you are paying someone, yes. If you are doing it yourself in your own property, electrical is different.

Not really, you need to be "competant" to undertake any electrical work that is notifiable too.

WELLLLLL this got boring really quickly! Good one guys.

Also, need a grill element changed, anyone used a decent oven repair person East based?

the only thing you can safely do, is turn the power off and then check both connectors to the fan are on properly:

if the fan requires replacing, then a recalibration of the burner combustion ratio will be required = competent (not 'competant'...) gas engineer

No, but that's fine. By the sound of it you are share of freehold?

In terms of who you would be fucking - as a shared freeholder you wear two hats. You need to think about your own interest as a lessee but also your interests as as a freeholder. So you would be fucking yourself but also someone else. In reality if it doesn't affect anyone else you are very unlikely to get any complaints but it's not kosher.

On the structural stuff - (I presume) you aren't qualified to make that judgement (if you're not a structural engineer). Again, you can make that judgement if you want but it could invalidate your buildings insurance and if the house falls down I doubt they'd pay out. You could also have issues when it comes to resale if there's no paperwork trail on the changes (building control/the structural stuff), but in reality I'm not sure how likely that is given the way the housing market works. A lot of that could come down to how thorough the buyer's/your neighbour's conveyancing solicitor is.

Asbestos - fuck that. If there is any chance of there being any get the professionals in. You can have a survey done even for a very small area, I had to do that once. I hope robadob is joking about dust masks from poundland. Even if you managed to not breath it in how would you plan to dispose of it or safely clean the area?

Cheers. I will hassle the Council some more, I can prob get away with it, it's not rocket surgery.

Are you competent enough to say that?

Yes, thanks.

Why not pop in the council planning office and have a chat with the duty planning officer. State that you are thinking of doing this and be polite. Should get the right advice.

I think you sometimes need to be careful when contacting planning. I'm not saying in Chris' case not to, but an example:

A "friend" of mine had a bathroom installed in their ground floor which they wanted rid of as they had another perfectly good bathroom upstairs. However, according to planning, the ground floor bathroom should now not be removed as it would make it no longer compliant with Part M (disabled access).

So, they removed it anyway, without telling the council that it existed in the first place, as it looked as if it had been added around the 1980's.

Never had that problem.

But that sort of work would need planning, unless a listed building, it would be building control. If that. That does depends also if the property is timber framed or not.