HELP fire installed incorrectly for back boiler. Advice needed.

evasmum1

I bought my house in 2005 and have had my baxi bermuda back boiler serviced every year since under a homecare agreement.
The boiler was installed by the previous owner by a supposidly reputable company in 2001.

Every year the boiler has passed its service no problem- until today.
When the fire was removed to service the back boiler, the engineer found that the front fire was not secured safely to the wall- it was drilled into plaster and barely through to the red brick behind- hence it could have fallen off at any time and was not very safe. He said it should have been picked up before.
As we have a soon to be toddling baby, the fire was said to be at risk and was disconnected- lucky we probably wont use if for the next 6 months. I am left with an unsecure fire.

Can any advise me what to do- the engineer said to contact who installed it. Who will have to pay to correct this mistake?


Many thanks

penrhyn

probably a waste of time trying to find the original supplier. Get a gas Safe engineer along to fit a couple of longer screws.

evasmum1

I have a receipt from original fitter. Problem now is there are no bricks behind the fallen plaster to secure the fire onto so it will be costly to rebuild a safe surface to reattach the fire to. Hope that makes sense.

HappyMJ

evasmum1 wrote: »

I have a receipt from original fitter. Problem now is there are no bricks behind the fallen plaster to secure the fire onto so it will be costly to rebuild a safe surface to reattach the fire to. Hope that makes sense.

What is where the red bricks were where the screws barely were screwed into now? Did the engineer remove those too?

gas4you

Although he is technically correct and it should be secured, I would doubt very much a toddler will be able to pull the fire off. It takes a fair bit of force sometimes for even us engineers to remove it when servicing.

Anyway, with a toddler around, won't you be placing a fireguard over the fire front to protect him from burning himself when the fire is on?

This will eliminate any chance of him pulling on it.

Sterling

Evasmum1, you could try approaching the original fitter, but would you really like him to come in and do another botched job? In the long run you will almost certainly be better off paying for another qualified gas engineer to put matters right.

Also, you don’t appear to have any contractual relationship with the original fitter anyway, since the original work was carried out for the previous owner.

So any claim you make would have to be based on alleging that the original fitter was negligent. All you have is the opinion of your last service engineer, whereas none of your previous service engineers since 2005 ever mentioned a problem even though the work was done back in 2001.

Claims like this normally have to be brought within six years, and while you may get over this hurdle I somehow doubt whether its worth risking the time and effort just to get to the starting gate.

Sorry its not better news.

penrhyn

gas4you wrote: »

Although he is technically correct and it should be secured, I would doubt very much a toddler will be able to pull the fire off. It takes a fair bit off force sometimes foe even us engineers to remove it when servicing.

Anyway, with a toddler around, won't you be placing a firegaurd over the fire front to protect him from burning himself when the fire is on?

This will eliminate any chance of him pulling on it.

Remember the fireguard will want screwing to the wall!

Farway

gas4you wrote: »

Although he is technically correct and it should be secured, I would doubt very much a toddler will be able to pull the fire off. It takes a fair bit off force sometimes foe even us engineers to remove it when servicing.

.

Don't you believe it, my son climbed onto the top of my Baxi and it fell over, luckily it was not alight at the time

This was over 30 years ago, so the gas rules were much different then of course and he of course got a good hiding as well, and still recalls to this day just what he did

So yes it does need fixing to a wall

evasmum1

thanks very much everyone for your advice, we hardly use the fire anyway. we are getting a quote for a more energy efficient system on friday. Im just dissapointed that this happenened now- while im on mat pay and I am really gutted this wasn't identified in any of the previous services as we will now have to fork out for a builder to rebuild part of the fireplace, to reattatch the fire, then get it reconnected. I might ring corgi anyway just incase they advise anything else. Currently the red brick are left inside the floor of the fireplace and the top left screw is firm and the top right screw is loose.

penrhyn

Corgi don't exist anymore, were replaced by Gas Safe.

ollski

A bit over zelous to leave it at risk imho. The flue spigot at the top and gas pipe at the bottom hold it very steady especially if it has a case style with feet. Something I would mention on a stand alone fire but not on the majority of back boiler fires.