Cost of capping a gas pipe .

and disconnect the gas meter in case of flashback !

If he puts a solder stopend on I can't imagine that a flame could travel through the capillary space to inside the pipe. Safety lamps used to work on the principle that a flame gets snuffed out by even a wire gauze, let alone trying to navigate the tiny gap that's left when a solder stop end is frst put in position. Best to stuff the end of the gas pipe with a suitable cork or what have you as soon as it is exposed to air when the pipe is first disconnected so as to stop gas and air mixing anyway. In fact, if the pipe is left open and you are worried about air being inside, a quick cracking open of the gas c*ck for a second will push out any air/gas mixture anway. Always assuming there are no naked flames nearby!

Follow up with a leak test.

Andy.

A client recently had an invoice (left by the previous owner) from some company for servicing their boiler. It billed for 1 hour's work at [are you sitting comfortably?] £85 per hour. Plus VAT.

Going back to the OP's OP: sometimes I'll charge less than the hour's rate for a very short job. It depends on factors such as if I know I can fit the job in between other jobs without too much travelling time, if it's a client I like, if I know they're not well off, which side I got out of bed that day, etc ... :-)

I must add to what Ed and others have said about jobbing: apart from the travelling time etc there's also the factor that you often can't tell how long a job will take. Something that sounds as if it might take 5 minutes can take all day, and vice versa, and can result in you either having to ring round other clients trying to rearrange appointments or sitting around twiddling your thumbs because you've finished a job early and the next client's not home yet. That and finishing early because there's not time to get stuck into another job at the end of the day, or working late into the evening to get someone's water or CH back on, or whatever.

Sometimes I think about upping my rate to £85/h and taking up sudoku in my spare time (or even golf :-)

Isn't a compression fitting not allowed for this? Should be a solder fitting.

I cost £65+VAT to knock on the door.

Exactly. There is a minimum size of hole through which a flame can pass without being snuffed out. Town gas (coal gas used to flash back through the burner ports, and burn directly on the injector. However, with domestic-sized burners that is almost impossible for natural gas.

Of course it is allowed! Check out BS 2051 Part

-- Cordless Crazy

What! You've been out carol singing?

Quite. Just as an example, we charge £50 plus VAT for the first hour and a half. The fitter MAY only be there for 15 minutes, but a two hour slot has to be booked regardless due to travel time and not knowing how long the job will *actually* take.

The way you could put it, is £15.00 for the time, the rest is for knowing

IIRC the domestic gas pipe fitting standard is BS 6891. This allows the use of compression fittings to BS 864-2 for gas provided the joint remains accessible.

If the gas metre is more than 2m from the work area there is no need to make any special provision for using naked flames nearby other than.

There is no need to disconnect the meter and more harm than good may result from such an action. There is no need to remove the gas from the pipework, it can only burn or explode if it is mixed with air. Occasionally if I unsolder a joint from a pipe full of gas then a small flame about (5cm max height) might occur for a second as the fitting is removed. It always self extinguishes.

Where the meter is nearer the work then the metre needs to be isolated this is either done by capping the outlet. or by inserting an blanking disc into the outlet (which is often easier to fit).

If you have also disconnected the other end of the pipe, you can get an unexpected 2' white flame out of a 15mm pipe for some seconds, and kiss goodbye to your eyebrows if you're standing over it.

The message from Ed Sirett contains these words:

I don't think it's worth getting out of bed for less than £100.

(This may contribute to me being rather underemployed, but on the bright side I am working my way through the library's entire stock of whodunnits.)

Owain

Ive noticed my gas fire is due for a service as well so i could ask the guy to quote for doing the two jobs together .he charged £45 for servicing the gas fire last year so his call out charges havent gone up at all

Stuart

--

Shift THELEVER to reply.

The ones I know are making good money. How can anyone become a Corgi registered engineer now anyway without a firm willing to take you on? Those who are Corgi registered have it all wrapped up now.

Closer to 10k overheads, I'd say and tax....hmmm. All the self employed folk who declare their whole income, please raise your hand!

The message from roger contains these words:

Sorry folks. For those of you who can't read invisible ink what the previous message said was:

I assume that the problem is that if the break in the pipe is less than the 2 metres from the meter there is a chance that the flame will not self extinguish before it reaches the gas meter and maybe do some damage. So is the blanking disc an off the shelf item in the local plumbers merchants or a cardboard cutout from a cornflakes packet?

Is this the voice of experience talking here?