Boiler on stairs

[mogga]

Yup on the stairs not under it. Is this allowed?

[RW]

Nope.

It's a trip hazard

;-)

[mogga]

*sighs & grins* Just to clear this up - it's on the wal on the stairs not the actual steps. But I can't see how you'd get anything past it without giving it a swipe.

So it's a big no even if you built a cupboard around it ?

[James R]

[dom]

By your local Building Control dept.

IIRC - See Parts J and K of the Building Regulations:

[mogga]

Mr gas safety check man?

[Andrew Gabriel]

There's a minimum height/head clearance requirement over staircases, which you might fall foul of (can't recall what it is off-hand). Also there's a matter of safe access for servicing.

[Phil L]

If it can be safely installed there, and if it's easily accessible for servicing etc and doesn't pose any hazzards re; headroom etc, then go for it.

If in the future someone throws a hissyfit, which lets face it, is only going to be a plumber picked from the small ads, you just say it was there when you moved in....contrary to popular belief, building control don't have CCTV vans, telepathy or the power to kick down your front door.

[Ed Sirett]

From a gas fitting view almost certainly. You may, however, depending on the circumstances (the mind boggles at the bodge this could to be???) be restricting the stairway and that could be wrong by building regs.

[zaax]

Why do you think it isn't?

[YAPH]

Assuming it were high up enough to be out of the way of people using the stairs you'd have to consider how someone would access it to service/repair it, from an Elfin Safety pov, as you would for a boiler in an attic.

[pete]

Following up on the elfins, would there be an issue about escape routes in the case of a fire?

Also, on a more practical point. Could you get all the big stuff that we tend to move upstairs (beds, cupboards, wardrobes etc) back down again once this is in place. I'm thinking about when/if you decide to move house.

[Hugo Nebula]

On 04 Jan 2009 10:49:31 GMT, a certain chimpanzee, pete randomly hit the keyboard and produced:

By "in case of fire" I assume you mean a fire which involved the boiler. I would suggest that such things are rare, extremely short lived (ie, a few milliseconds), and not something you'd want to be in the same street as much less trying to make your escape past. To that extent, a boiler in a hall is probably at much less risk of being in the same space as a fire than in a kitchen or bedroom, both of which are perfectly acceptable places for a boiler to be mounted.

[mogga]

But what do the rules say? Does the gas safety check man "'e say no" or does he just check it's flued right etc?

[Doctor Drivel]

Fitting a boiler on a staircase is just plain dumb. Irrespective of regs it could block an escape in case of a fire.

He sounds like a cowboy landlord, who only thinks of money, so don't pander to him.

[Phil L]

Hmmm....I'm not entirely sure I know what you mean here - if you mean an explosion of some kind, then yes, it probably wouldn't be very pleasant, but a fire, whereby you would presumably have the full bore gas main spewing out a flame?

From experience, this is no more than 4 feet high and one in width, quite a 'match', but not exactly a flamethrower....imagine a huge bunsen burner, but with it's air intake blocked.

Kids had been using just such a 'feature' to keep warm in an empty property I worked on last year - it singed the wallpaper off, luckilly there was nothing else combustible in the property. If they'd had a bit more sense, they'd have known the leccy was still live too and they could have charged their phones, listened to music and had blow heaters running

[Owain]

I blame Part Pee...

Owain