Pre heating installation tips?

[Fentoozler]

The company I work for is bidding for a substantial contract to install heating and are putting together a tender. Included is a section for initiatives regarding actions that can be taken before installation which:

1. Could benefit Health & Safety;
2. Save money.

We have thought of a few (e.g. getting tenants to sign a carpet disclaimer, which states that we can cut carpets (for rad tails) if they wish, but we are not carpet fitters and therefore cannot be held liable etc etc).

Anybody think (or already use) any systems / activities which they find beneficial before installation?

TIA, Angus

[sPoNiX]

If you were coming round to install central heating I'd give you permission to make holes in the carpet for pipes but I'd certainly expect you to accept liability should you c*ck it up and damage the carpet.

sponix

[John]

Never consider using acid cleansers without a disclaimer. No signature no treatment!

[Chris Bacon]

Are tenants responsible for their carpets in this instance? Maybe uk.legal.moderated might be a help.

[Ed Sirett]

I found out the hard way 8-(. It cost me £180 for a new carpet.

[Ed Sirett]

Moving furniture and clearing a work space - make it the occupiers problem. Maybe make the disposal of non-hazardous waste someone else's problems? e.g. Boiler box. If the dwellings are identical/symmetrical but in differing states of repair make a check list of requirements: e.g. Survey for water flow, availability of modern electricity, flue position unobstructed etc.etc.

[Owain]

If it's council or housing association property then it's likely to be let unfurnished and the carpets will belong to the tenant.

Owain

[Fentoozler]

boiler installation (indeed a question on the benchmark form)?

Angus

[Fentoozler]

Thanks for comments so far, given me something to mull over and maybe suggest.

Angus

[Fentoozler]

'mean' obviously!

[John]

No - I mean the serious acid cleaning kit stuff which deals with major scaling problems such as Fernox DS9/40 etc. These strip out any scaling which might be present including any internal coating which might have healed up the odd pinhole in metal. It also attacks soft materials such as hemp/bosswhite and fizzes whch produces corrosive foam. Restorers have strictly limited powers compared to these.

[Ed Sirett]

Well generally most systems I upgrade have some level of black oxide sludge from mild through to severe. Limescale IMHO tends to occur only near the feed water input into the main circuit. Often this area gets cut out and chucked anyway as part of the upgrade (to a sealed system with integral pump).

I usually use Sentinel desludgers and inhibitors, however once I tried an acid descaler (because both I and the local PM were out of Sentinel X400) I used 'Chem Cal' which turned out to be phosphoric acid. 6 drops made 6 black holes in a carpet. I should have woken up and engaged brain when the bottle started to very slightly give off 'smoke' which then drifted downwards when the cap was opened.

I don't think it made any difference to the sludge level (which was low for that system anyway).

Obviously any carpet that found its way into the system would have been dissolved. I complained to the manufacturer that the bottle was not adequately labelled (it only said irritant). I have kept some back for use as a serious descaler.

[Fentoozler]

Yes Owain, you are correct (Housing Assoc).

Angus

[Owain]

Whatever you put in the tender to the HA won't be binding on the tenants, and even if you get individual tenants to sign a disclaimer I don't think that exempts you from the obligation to carry out the work with "reasonable skill". A court might decide that if you need to cut a carpet and are not sufficiently skilled to do so, then you should indeed have a carpet fitter on squad.

Anyway, carpet is easy compared to tiles and laminate.

You might want to think about a requirement for the tenants to evacuate pets and small children from the house whenever floorboards are up or hot work is in progress. A singed cat trapped under the floor is the sort of story that local newspapers love. Also (especially after March, in Scotland) consider whether you have a legal duty to request tenants from smoking in the presence of your employees.

Owain