Domestic gas work question

[DTR]

Evening All,

A year or two ago we had a combi boiler installed, fed from a new pipe run straight from the gas meter. The existing gas pipe (under floor) remained in use for the cooker.

Fast forward a bit and we've found a gas leak from the old under-floor pipe. We called out National Grid and they confirmed the leak, then condemned the under-floor pipe. As an emergency measure, the old pipe has been disconnected from the meter and capped off so that we can use the boiler. Obviously this has left us without the cooker.

The combi is located not far from the cooker, albeit upstairs. I called in the (local) firm who installed the boiler, and inquired whether it would be possible to tee off from the boiler to feed the cooker. They responded by saying it's possible, but a bigger pipe would be required from the meter to the tee to allow for the combined draw of the combi and the cooker. That sounds plausible to me. The trouble is, they want £500ish for the work! The new pipe from the meter to the tee would consist of four elbows and five straight runs, all easily accessible. The new run from the tee to the existing cooker pipe is probably four or five straight runs, again nothing too complicated. Is 500 quid for this reasonable? I appreciate that I'm paying to have a qualified gas fitter for the day, rather than the actual work involved.

Just to muddy the waters a little, SWMBO is lobbying me to sack off the gas and just get an electric cooker instead. Of course it goes without saying that there's no circuit installed for the cooker, and every bay in the consumer unit is already in use.....

 

[Myfordman]

Either route needs signed off work so you are likely to be spending similar amounts either way. Most installers are going to quote for days work for this sort of job mainly because of the unknowns and quite possibly not have a useful number of hours left for another job that day.
I assume by your question that you are not confident at DIY ing (?) and then getting the work signed off which would be cheaper.

 

[DTR]

Thanks for the reply Myfordman. Quite correct, I'm not happy DIYing when it comes to gas. I'm happy doing minor electrical work (my day job is very much electrical) but for something as involved as a consumer unit I'd rather not. It's just not worth my time when I have to pay for a professional to sign it off anyway. As for a cooker circuit, I'd probably just run the cable in at my leisure so that the sparky doesn't have to take the floors up. Then they can terminate either end to their own satisfaction.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

If you can do the job, gas isn't that much different to electricity in the sense that both will be tested before anyone else signs the job off. It depends whether you can find someone to do it.

 

[Mark A]

I'm just thinking out loud...

Around where I live a lot of people cook with Calor gas as mains gas isn't available away from the larger villages.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

It's twice the price of mains, though. I'm just looking into all this, being 100% electricity.

 

[themackay]

I dont think £500 is reasonable but it seems to be the price you pay for a small job only taking a few hours.I did the lot when I installed gas in my first house but that was in the days before all the rules we have nowadays.I have had to pay a similar sum for the wiring in my extension 95% of the work done by myself

 

[AES]

@DTR:

I'm not qualified to comment on the price of that gas re-piping job.

But I would point out that one disadvantage of living in a small village in Switzerland is the fact that there is no gas at all - thinking of the industrial revolution in England, where every decent-sized town eventually had it's own gas works, and where you had to move a relatively long way out of town before gas mains stopped - as opposed to Switzerland where there is/never was little such gas infrastructure in existence, we are forced to use electricity for cooking (and oil for heating).

When we lived in Singapore for 5 years (similar lack of gas infrastructure to here) bottled gas was relatively cheap and we cooked with that, but as above, here we have little choice other than to cook with electricity because bottled/tank gas is VERY expensive here.

Our electric cooker is fine as far as it goes but my Swiss wife (who is the main cook in our family) still misses her first ever experience of cooking with gas all those years ago in Singapore. In her words, gas is so much more "instantly controllable", even compared to our present, state of the art glass ceramic electric hob and ovens.

Given the choice she would change back to gas cooking in a flash (no pun intended) although we are both prepared to admit that it is very much a personal preference. If you wife has not cooked with electricity up to now may I suggest that you try to arrange an electric cooking session with a friend, family, etc, before making a final, quite costly decision that you/she may regret.

FWIW,

AES

 

[DTR]

Thanks for the replies.

AES:
We had an electric cooker at the last house so the wife is well acquainted with it. I prefer gas personally, but like you say it's a personal preference. I think I've already lost that battle!

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I've a new Zanussi with an induction hob, and I'd think it was just as quickly controllable as gas.

 

[Scottdimelow]

That's a ridiculous amount of money. What would it be, half a days work? I don't know how they get away with it, it's not rocket science. Just because it has to be signed off they can charge what they like.

 

[Willy]

I think £500 is too expensive. Call about and get some more quotes.

 

[MIGNAL]

It sounds like it would only take a half day for someone with experience, especially given that they can install a whole central heating system in a matter of a few days. . . but we are guessing.
Get some more quotes. It's the obvious thing to do. 10 years ago I had 3 quotes for the installation of a gas fire. They ranged from 120 down to 60 pounds.

 

[davem62]

Have you considered an induction hob that can be plugged into the ring main .bosch do a 13 amp one also candy
regards david

 

[DTR]

The Domestic Controller has spoken. Electric it is. I am going to run in a cooker cable myself and terminate in a secondary CU (the current CU has no spare ways). Then a registered sparky is going to link up to the main CU and (hopefully) sign it off.

davem62:
Great minds think alike, SWMBO has already bought one for the interim. With that, the slow cooker and the abominable microwave we are getting by, but the lack ov an oven is a bit of a pain.