One afternoon I was called out to do a gas safety certificate for a regular letting agent in Leicester. (No names mentioned for obvious reasons.) I was told the landlord had refurbished the property and was almost complete. Therefore I was required to inspect the property for the relevant documents. Now as an experienced gas engineer in Leicester, you know how the installation has been done from the minute you set your eyes on the pipe work. Alarm bells were ringing as soon as I saw the boiler installation. That was just the beginning of what was in store for me. After completing the relevant checks on the boiler and making a whole list of things to be done, I came across the gas hob.
Starting with my visual inspection, I removed the oven to inspect the gas isolation valve to the hob. There it was, the most unbelievable gas connection I had come across. The builder (or cowboy) had used a flexible tap connector which is used for (as its called) connection a tap. Probably due to his lack of knowledge in soldering he connected a tap connector to the hob.
If this was overlooked, this could’ve turned out to be really dangerous. Even tho the tightness test had passed, it’s a must to carry out a visual inspection of visible pipework. The gas safe regulations state that hobs must be installed with rigid pipework. What was supposed to be a routine gas inspection turned out to be a 3 hour job.
The gas industry can not stress enough, how important it is to use Gas Safe engineers when it comes to dealing with gas work.