Fitting new gas pipes and joists?

martyp

Hi all,
I've got a boiler engineer (gassafe) out next week to fit a new boiler and one requirement is a new 22mm gas pipe. Originally this was going to go from the outside cupboard across the front of the house but he has said alternatively it could go under the floorboards in the upstairs room across and down into the kitchen.
My Dad has now worried me after I confirmed the joists in the house run front to back so to run the pipe he'd have to cut through the joists and weaken them? Or run the pipe across the skirting board?
He also indicated if the pipe runs across the joists then someone might nail in a floorboard and hit the pipe.
Surely the boiler engineer would know about all that anyway wouldn't he? Should I worry or just leave him to do the job...

A.Penny.Saved

I think that it is fairly common to cut notches into joists when fitting heating, especially radiators. I don't think that it will cause any problems unless you intend having a car in your bedroom.

My boiler 22mm gas pipe runs under the floor boards.

It's the same with gas pipes, unless you employ a total idiot, you shouldn't have a problem. You could and probably should replace the nails with screws anyway for easier maintenance and safer re-fitting. That gives more grace to any careless idiots you might employ by mistake.

Every time I take a new floor board up, the nails get replaced with screws.

MX5huggy

He should notch the joists within these dimensions.

http://www.trada.co.uk/faq/viewAnswer/28F42B4A-B9EE-4ADB-B22D-8C11EC1434D0

martyp

Excellent, many thanks both. I haven't seen the floorboards to see if they might be held down with screws or nails to be honest, hopefully it might be screws as the house is about 20 years old. I don't have any plans to have a car in the room although there is tons of junk in there I'm trying to get rid of which probably weighs as much as a supermini in total! It's going to be fun moving it all out the room to lift up the floorboards...

ed110220

My main concern wouldn't be that they'd do anything unsafe if you've got someone reputable doing the work, but that left to their own devices they may do something unsightly with the pipework as an easier solution.

For example, when the new 22 mm gas pipe was put into the boiler here it was run on the surface all the way round the kitchen door which looks terrible (the original gas pipe is in the wall).

A.Penny.Saved

ed110220 wrote: »

My main concern wouldn't be that they'd do anything unsafe if you've got someone reputable doing the work, but that left to their own devices they may do something unsightly with the pipework as an easier solution.

For example, when the new 22 mm gas pipe was put into the boiler here it was run on the surface all the way round the kitchen door which looks terrible (the original gas pipe is in the wall).

That seems to be very much the way these days....tradesmen take the "time is money" philosophy very much to heart and a good or decent job just isn't worth their time and effort. It might explain why some companies look for foreign workers in preference to British workers.

I had an experience of someone doing such a thing which I mentioned to his superiors.......when I next mentioned it to another man he told me that the man was seeking work at the local job centre. There is no excuse for shoddy work IMO.

southcoastrgi

if a gas pipe is notched across the top of a joist you should use these to protect it

martyp

Many thanks southcoastrgi, if I check on the work as he goes along I could enquire if he could use those if he doesn't.