Temporarily stopping gas supply and metre

iamlucky18

I have dry rot growing in my hallway and this is where the gas metre is. To get the rot removed and treated, the joists and floorboards will be replaced, the plaster hacked off and redone, and the brick walls treated with fungicide.

The specialist company that will be doing the work said that I have to get all pipes and furniture removed in the area.

Can I have the gas meter temporarily removed and the supply stopped, because the guys will have to do the work safely. They will only need water and electricity for the work.

I'm with Scottish power.

Thanks.

[Deleted User]

Go through your supplier to get the costs. Its done by national grid and your local electric distributor. It wont be cheap.Moving the meters outside is an arm/leg.
I m not advocating this but many a time I ve seen people doing house refurbs and the gas meter has been removed completely and stuffed away in a cupboard whilst the pipework is worked on.

iamlucky18

Can i just ask them to stop the gas supply, remove the pipes and put them back after the treatment? My family will be bunking somewhere else and the specialists don't need gas for their work. Rerouting the pipes will be difficult as the treatment area has to extend a meter beyond where the rot is. So this will include the adjacent living room too.

[Deleted User]

Yes, they will do the work but as I say they charge top dollar. You can shut the control valve off at the gas meter yourself. Prob the gas can be temp removed and pipe work removed for a while, much cheaper by any gas safe registered local fitter. National Grid have their set prices for removals, replacing etc but technically ( I think ) they are the only ones legally allowed to move gas meters.Judging by what I see tho, people don t take any notice of any legalities when refurbs are underway. I cant give you any advice on the electric supply, that usually stays in situ from what I ve seen.

iamlucky18

I'll get a gas safe registered engineer in to shut off the gas and remove the metre and pipes. They'll be put back in their provisional place anyway. The treatment will only last a couple of days.

iamlucky18

I tweeted a message to Scottish Power and got a very swift reply. Basically, I can use a third party gas safe registered engineer, with the condition that the meter remains on site. Phew.

wr1ght

yer thats correct a gas engineer is not allowed to alter pipework ie soldering with a meter in situ its supposed to be removed and the ecv capped

[Deleted User]

Thanks for that info. Does "on site " mean in situ or just somewhere in the house ?. Also I would think that Ngrid will be charging to come out and cap/uncap the supply, prob £60 a visit

wr1ght

on site means not to be removed from premises. dont need to get grid involved gas safe engineer can do this

C_Mababejive

This has nothing to do with NG. You can simply get your own GSR bod in to temp cap the meter outlet as long as he has MET1 on his card. Strictly speaking, the meter owner/supplier must give permission to work on their meter. NG are only responsible for the supply upto and including the ECV. Any metering work requests must be routed via your supplier as NG do not interface directly with the public (domestic consumers) save for calls directly to the gas emergency hotline and/or direct requests for service installs/alterations.