Smell of Gas

C_Mababejive

Hot off the press last night...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-gloucestershire-18027302

Butterfliesarepretty

macman wrote: »

You cannot employ a plumber to help fix a gas leak. You need an RGI. A plumber is not qualified to work on gas appliances unless he is also an RGI.

I dont mean plumber sorry I mean my boiler guy. the guy from national grid said as long as he has GAS SAFE he should be able to find it.
He serviced my boiler and there was no leak then so its either the cooker, fire (not used since xmas) or its the pipes. Hes a good gas fitter and Gas Safe.
The national grid guy had all the equipment and still couldnt find it.
And no I cant smell any leak. and im not complaining about the gas being turned off, im fine, my boyfriend is helping me.

Ive never had a gas leak before so its new to me.

Butterfliesarepretty

Long time no reply but it was fixed and found in May, under the back bedroom floorboards, old lead pipe from kitchen up the wall bending over into the bedroom through bathroom, you could hear it hissing, the reason it didnt blow up is because the back door is directly under the pipe and i usually have back door open to freshen house. Lead pipe also replaced in front bedroom and meter checked £300 in total. Also found my front fire had not been tied to the wall of the fire. So that is disconnected and will be reconnected later in the year ready for winter as I dont use it.

lemontart

glad to hear you are all sorted and safe. and thank you for updating us.

Ben84

lemontart wrote: »

better a few days with out gas, that flick a switch one day and good bye, I unfortunately hear of this now and again in my role at the gas emergency service . You should never smell gas at any time. a smell of gas is not normal,.

A brief smell when you first light a gas appliance is normal, but you shouldn't smell it during use or randomly around the house. That's a bad sign. Even a relatively small smell needs checking out as many gas pipes are hidden under floors or boxed in, so a small odour in the house may be caused by a larger leak where the gas is trapped - which is actually a bad thing as high concentrations of gas are more explosive.

Anyway, it's important to know how to turn your gas off at the meter if this happens and to have the key somewhere easily found, as well as knowing the local emergency gas number. I have mine stuck to the meter on a paper card. Personally, I don't worry too much about having gas in the house as millions of people use it with no problems every day, but there have been a few serious gas explosions over the past year in the news which could perhaps have been avoided by people taking the smell more seriously.

lemontart

Ben with all due respect do not take any smell of gas at any time as normal . please call me or my colleagues on 0800 111 999 even if turns out to be nothing.

What may be normal to you may well turn out not to be safe.

Ben84

lemontart wrote: »

Ben with all due respect do not take any smell of gas at any time as normal . please call me or my colleagues on 0800 111 999 even if turns out to be nothing.

What may be normal to you may well turn out not to be safe.

I just don't understand the idea you should never smell gas ever. The compound added to it basically stinks. When I turn on a burner on the gas hob or a fire for example, I smell gas almost instantly as it escapes in to the air. Doesn't everyone notice it? I'm not hanging around with the gas pouring out, this is just the half a second or so it takes to turn on the burner and light a match. Anyway, once the gas is lit the smell goes shortly after. That's normal for me, it happens with every gas appliance I've ever used.

undaunted

Butterfliesarepretty wrote: »

I reckon ive had this leak for long time, I cant smell anything.
Gas bills have never been high always good, so its not a dangerous leak, hes marked it as concern.


So no gas shower, no cooker or heating.:(

I'm not a gas fitter admittedly but personally I'd say if you can repeatedly smell gas and have naked flames, electricity etc then it's dangerous.

I'd just be thankful you haven't had an explosion or been poisoned rather than worried about anything else.

Didn't this engineer warn you of the dangers of even a small leak or suggest you get a detector?

Is the lesson of this story also that it's pointless having a boiler serviced if you then leave the rest untested / dangerous?