Extending a gas pipe

Hi, ive just brought a new house I need to move the hob approximately

The law requires that you are competent but doesn't define what that means. It is not illegal to do this job yourself for yourself in your own property. It would be if you were to do this for somebody else for gain or if you were letting the property. Under any of those circumstances, you would need to get a CORGI registered fitter to do the work.

How would you propose to go about doing the work, and are you aware of the requirements? Have you done plumbing using soldered joints before? Do you know what the test requirements are for the finished installation?

Ed Sirrett, who posts on here has some links to a gas fitting FAQ what he wrote at the bottom of his posts. This is very useful. To follow the regs you need to work out several things, all doable, like the bore of the pipe needed to maintain gas pressure to within 1mBar when all appliances are on ( there is a useful website, whose name I forget, try googling for cda + gas

• pressure or similar ), leak tests of soldered joints using bubbly stuff ( I have a bottle of stuff called Snoop, designed especially for this purpose, but actually, bubble-blowing solution works fine, remember to clean it off ), there are rules about how often the gas pipe is supported, how close electricity cables can come, what is needed if a gas pipe pentrates a cavity wall, final tests done at the meter gas nipple at two different pressures ( you need a u-tube manometer, easy to make though ) etc etc.

Start with Ed Sirrett's FAQ if you think you're competent and want to do it. I have put in a boiler and connected up a new gas cooker in my house, the boiler work was much more fiddly than the cooker.

Andy.

The fact that you're asking the question means you should get a CORGI in to do it!

It is permitted to DIY. However, you would be expected to meet the same standards as a CORGI, which means understanding about leak detection and manometers, etc.

Christian.

If you feel that you are competent then there is no reason why you cannot do this yourself.

As always with this subject, if you need to ask how it's done then you probably shouldn't be doing it.

The message from Psst contains these words:

Just leave the valve cracked open a bit so there's a flow of gas along the pipe to ensure no air can enter. (insert smiley of choice here).

Oh that wouldnt worry me at all. Low pressure gas fires from the likes of a 1" service pipe are a piece of cake. I have annual training sessions in putting out "gas fires" which involve donning a fire suit and sneaking up on an assortment of higher pressure escape scenarios with a fire extinguisher and putting them out.

When we did ours there was loads of small cracks and apparently it was costing us more than we thought with the gas escaping. Make sure that there are no leaks, even the smallest crack in the pipe might cost you a bit more on the gas bill.

Talk to these guys

Paul

Psst wrote:

|When we did ours there was loads of small cracks and apparently it was |costing us more than we thought with the gas escaping. Make sure that |there are no leaks, even the smallest crack in the pipe might cost you |a bit more on the gas bill. | |Talk to these guys

I prefer to test gas joints with washing up liquid, just look for bubbles. The professionals just use a spray can with dilute washing up liquid.

Washing up liquid contains salt, which is not good to leave on joints. Use a proper leak detector liquid/spray, which has a better capilliary action to get inside joints, longer lasting and much more visible bubbles for more reliable leak detection, and no harmful residue. It works so much better.

However, the required method of checking for gas leaks is described in Ed's Gas fitting FAQ, and whilst you can do this in addition to doing a proper check, you must not do it instead of the proper check.