I have a CORGI gas fitter come to look at the gas leak I have. 4.5 millibars in 2 minutes is not dangerous but it needs to be zero under new regulations. They've quoted £650 to replace the cast iron pipes with copper. Access isn't a problem as the pipes are clipped to the basement ceiling. They also want to run a copper gas pipe up the outside of the house to the bathroom boiler, which I don't like the sound of. It sounds like a lot of money for 1 day's work for two people. Is it reasonable?

Wont transco sort the leak out for you? obviously depends where along the line it is.

In my experience Corgi registration is a license to print money.

I had my hob installed a few years back. Very few of the Corgi installers could be bothered to come out because it was "too small a job".

I ended up paying £120 for 75 minutes work (including drinking a cup of tea).

I'm retraining next year

quote:

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Originally posted by Hammerhead
Wont transco sort the leak out for you? obviously depends where along the line it is.

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Running copper through the wall and up the outside is fine, as long as the holes in the wall are lined with plastic to prevent any chafing, and the pipe is clipped every 1000mm.
Corgi registration for the 'one man band' costs about £2k per year to keep up, all equipmenyt needs calibrating and certifying etc. but, 2 x £30 PH, is too much considering one will be 'the lad'

CORGI registration iirc is expensive to keep, requiring regular courses and fees to be paid to CORGI. However as with all rackets once you have joined as has been said it's a license to print money.

Could be wrong on this one but is it not the case that you can do the work yourself as long as the supply is isolated, then get the engineer to connect up and test?

your right - but then you have to make sure the work is up to corgi standards and find someone prepared to come out and test.

I'd bet the bloke testing will want a good 100 quid for the 30 minutes he's on site (cause he just lost out a days work).

Nothing wrong with getting 2 or 3 quotes......

DIY.


It's not as if it's an aluminium chassis or anything.


Paul G

Have they proved its the cast iron? pipes that are leaking.. that sounds iffy in itself as there usually LCS (low carbon steel) if anything.

Its unusual for a length of pipe to leak, its normally on a screwed fitting or a joint if anywhere.. or possibly if its passed through a wall or floor without being sleved it might have corroded there.

If they haven't actually found where its leaking from, either buy some leak detector spray yourself, or get busy with some soapy water and see if you can find it, and then just replace that bit.

I can't say i'd like the pipe running outside either really, but they'll probably have to do it like that, as if its inside it has to be in a ventilated duct to meet current regs, which might make a bit of a mess inside.

[Edited on 22/2/08 by MkIndy7]

im all for self employed people making a good wage, but id say 650 is a bit OTT.

Id also query (and i know some fitters on here can clarify) wether or not it has to be zero pressure drop or not. AFAIK its only zero for whole new installs, which this isnt. Admittedly if he repiped the whole house it would have to be zero though.

Deffo get more quotes, if you were in leeds id get that done by my mate for under 200, and if it were my house id just do it myself.

As an example, we fitted a gas hob last week and had an excess drop. Repiped from the meter in 22mm, replaced all the accessible pipes and got it down to 1mb. He only charged £80 to the customer.