Question about laying gas pipes:

denise123

this may sound daft, but is there a waiting time for trenches to be dug and pipes laid and meters put in? The pipes will be laid by west wales utilities. And the gas will be supplied by BG


I ask because our LP bulk tank has been marked as unsafe and illegal to use, [I have other issues with flo gas anyway, so for now they are out of this picture!]


we got in touch with our housing association who came on Monday 9th Feb looked at the tank ummed and arred about moving it and having to build a blast wall and relay all the pipes and in the end said, it will be easier to have the trench dug and pipes laid, they would be in touch with west wales utilities, and see what can be done, we informed them that my husband is disabled and the heating and hot water would run out within the week or thereabouts as we were at the time and still are! On zero reading on the bulk tank.[running on pure luck and fumes we think, I only turn the hot water tap on now and again to see if hot water still comes out]


We popped into the housing office about two days later to be told they had posted the forms of and again noting that we were vulnerable and my husband disabled with three children and no heating or hot water, the house was now very cold and that there was the smell of damp in the air. They said they would phone us back, never did


we are popping into the housing office again tomorrow afternoon, [we have phoned the office time and time again, they say the person we need to speak to is not in, they will leave a message for them to phone us back, but they never do the phone back bit,]


before we go, I wish to check back into this site to see if anyone has any information that we may now find useful in some small way


we have the open fire downstairs in the front room, with no back boiler, all it is good for is eating money in coal logs and such like, and heating up the rug in front of it.[the drafts in this house well may as well leave the front door wide open!]


So I know they are covered in as much as we have adequate heating?


But is there any law about hot water, its costing a small fortune in boiling the old kettle for baths, three kids! One husband and myself, so we boil water for two baths a week, one I share with the girls, and the second one my husband shares with our son, [the electric is on prepayment meter ok, say no more....and sometimes if it gets to cold, we will run one bar on a halogen heater we bought in poundstrecher, one bar broke so even thats not very good!]


once we have mains gas in, we will of course ask for a home visit from BG, so we can work out better tariffs, the warm home scheme and such like that they have grants for loft installation, draft proofing and so on.


Anyway is there a wait for trenches to be dug, I did hear one of the workmen [that was there with the people who came to see the tank] say that they could dig the trench if needed


but we have no idea about laying the pipes and what or even if there are any laws that would be on our side [we are talking about maybe what?way way under five meres of pipe to be laid to the house wall where they will put the meter itself, maybe even just six feet of pipe work thats all]


the housing, if they are doing what they say they are doing, have of course done all they need to do,left us with the open fire, which is what I assume the adequate heating law is] it is all now out of their hands, but all we have is their word that they have contacted the utility company to lay the pipes, we have yet to hear from anyone about anything whatsoever to do with this issue, we can go in tomorrow and ask, and maybe have to walk out with a bog standard answer and nowhere closer to the solution, [even if they said it will be six weeks, at least we have a rough date all but to late to keep us warm!] so any information that may help us from anyone here, would be a good place for us to start from when in the office tomorrow.


Thanks for any answers to this weird query, and any words of advice you can give us at this point in time.


We were thinking of getting a loan to get the smallest amount of LP gas from flo gas, but by doing this we think we are then saying hey, its ok it does not matter how long this will take.

So we don't really want to do that, nor do we really want to get into debt with a loan, [we still owe them some money from the last order which is still being paid via direct debit, we wont stop that until its been paid off, and then tell flo gas to remove the tank, at this present moment in time flo gas have said if i have any more LPG from them i have to pay in full when its delviered, they will not allow us anymore gas via the direct debit payment, we owe them now about £300, they said its either that or up the direct debit payments we cannot afford the £300 to pay the last bill, nor the £330 to order 500 litres and pay that of in cash, we have not got the money,especally now as we are feeding the electric meter at a silly rate because of the kettle boiling all the time and the heater on as well, and paying for the coal the logs and such like also, out outgoings are not good at this present moment in time]


anything at all no matter how small would be a help I can find no answers on the west wales utility site, in regards to waiting times for gas pipes to be laid, and if I am right the open fire is enough for the housing to say they have covered their backs, its just we are so cold now, and of course in this weather we are wearing all our jumpers and have no chance of getting any clothes dry I have tried not to use the washing machine at all, again because I can get nothing dry, and we cant afford the cost of electric tumble dryers, and the kettle boiling for everything from washing up to washing and the odd bathe when I have the patience to half way fill the bath up, if I am right then it is a case of waiting for how ever long it will take, but maybe someone out there can spread some light as to our next steps and questions that we can ask and have a right to ask the housing association at this point in time.


Thanks anyway sorry if its to long and if I have put this in the wrong place. I am at my wits end with this and the cold is adding to my grumpiness, to make matters worse is the idea that this was normal many years ago! no wonder a lot of the women looked grumpy all the time :rolleyes: