Gas meter positioning

[gazz]

we are moving into a rented bungalow soon, we've got it at a very cheap rental rate as it needs re-decorating, garden is an absolute bomb site, kitchen is a home made heap of crap etc,

The gas meter is located in the corner of the kitchen on the floor, and hence the kitchen cabinets have to go round it, currently you have to pull our 4 drawers then peer through an access hole cut in the side of the drawer cupboard to see the meter (using a torch of course) to get at the shut off valve, you have to put you arm upto your elbow through another hole in the cabinet side, grope around hopefully find it,

the gas pipe comes in the front wall about a foot above the floor, and the isolation valve is right there, my GF would never be able to reach it as her arms arent long enough.

The awkwardness of getting to the meter and valve is mentioned in the gas safety certificate, but it hasnt been put down as something that needs fixing, i'm going to mention it to the company that is managing the letting of the house, but don't think they will do owt about it.

Idealy it needs moving outside, but i've read the gas co's charge a good 400 quid plus to do this, so im doubtfull the managment co will entertain that,

is there anything in the regs or what ever that says the valve or meter must be easily accessable? that i can use to persuade them to have it moved,

or is there any cheaper way to get it moved to an easier/safer position?

[Invisible Man]

It probably was perfectly accessible before the cabinets were put around it. You could try the line that the property has been let with an unsafe gas installation because in an emergency it would be impossible for some people to be able to turn off the gas.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Someone would come and rip out the cabinets. Problem solved. If that's what you want to happen, then continue down that path.

[gazz]

dunno, i tried to reach the shut off valve today, no way, there is a stick of wood propped up in the space the meter is in, and using that i can knock the valve to the off position,

I wonder if i were to attatch a length of steel cable (bicycle brake cable inner) to the end of the lever, an eyelet in the wall below the lever, and run the cable via a few more eyelets to a place where i can pull on it to shut the gas off in an emergancy,

or would that be classed as tampering with the gas supply? as only the bits after the meter belong to the house owner.

i know i should never need to use it, but as is common with modern practices, when the combi boiler was fitted, the 22mm gas pipe feeding it has been run externaly (and is unsleved as it passes through the walls, that's on the gas cert too, as well as there being no/or insatisfactory equipotential bonding present on the gas pipes) i can just see the GF backing the car out of the drive, turning too soon and catching the side of the house, where the gas pipe runs at car bumper height (ok i could do the same, but i'm a bloke, and blokes dont do things like that :)

other thing i thought of, the meter is an old un, reading in cubic feets, so one day it's going to be replaced with a cubic meter reading one, and i've rad that usually when that happens, if the meter is in an unsatisfactory position, the gas board move it, for nowt, in 99% of cases it gets put outside, Wonder if i were to call the gas board (i know it's not that name, but the people who own the meter) and see if they planned to replace it in the next few years, and tell them i'll have the kitchen out in a few weeks, and if they want to move it then it'll be a heck of a lot cheaper for them than having to rip the kitchen out to get at it for replacement.

[ARWadworth]

Try phoning CORGI and make a complaint.

Adam

[Gazz]

Tried that, the queen came on the line and told me to stop harassing her dogs :)

the maintinance bloke for this house is coming out to see me tommorow, and he's gonna look at the meter positioning, we're replacing the kitchen (is a rented house, but it's very cheap rent as it need redecorating, and the kitchen is so shit we're gonna replace it with a cheap one from ikea at our cost (got a 3 year let on the place) But there's no way to make the access better when fitting new cabinets, as the meter is in the only corner the cabinets must go round.