Safe Gas Meter Locations

ejl514

I just bought a flat... end of terrace period conversion. A house that was chopped up into 3 flats 30+ years ago.

The flat I bought is on the ground floor. 3 gas meters are located outside directly under my bay window. I didn't think anything of it until my builder removed the box from under the bay window to find the gas pipes for all three flats from the meters go into my flat from below the bay window before going under the floor boards....

Is this normal? safe?

Tried ringing British Gas but was on hold for 20 mins and had to run to a meeting. Will try ringing them again but any advice in the meantime would be great!

captainhindsight_2

ejl514 wrote: »

I just bought a flat... end of terrace period conversion. A house that was chopped up into 3 flats 30+ years ago.

The flat I bought is on the ground floor. 3 gas meters are located outside directly under my bay window. I didn't think anything of it until my builder removed the box from under the bay window to find the gas pipes for all three flats from the meters go into my flat from below the bay window before going under the floor boards....

Is this normal? safe?

Tried ringing British Gas but was on hold for 20 mins and had to run to a meeting. Will try ringing them again but any advice in the meantime would be great!

There is nothing unusual about that.

I would recommend installing carbon monoxide detectors in your flat just incase of any leaks.

Andy_WSM

captainhindsight wrote: »

I would recommend installing carbon monoxide detectors in your flat just incase of any leaks.

LOL. Carbon Monoxide detectors won't detect gas leaks. They can only detect the combustion products of gas that is not burning correctly.

A gas detector might be a better idea to detect gas leaks!

Farway

Plus a your nose, that is why a "smell" is added to gas

Andy_WSM

Farway wrote: »

Plus a your nose, that is why a "smell" is added to gas

It doesn't work for everyone. It's a pungent smell that most people are sensitive to, but I'm not one of them.

First I knew of a gas leak in my loft was when the neighbours came round to say they could smell gas - they're detached too, so must have been a big leak for them to smell it!

I now have 2 gas alarms. One in the meter cupboard, one in the loft although having the gas taken out next year.

lstar337

Andy_WSM wrote: »

It doesn't work for everyone. It's a pungent smell that most people are sensitive to, but I'm not one of them.

First I knew of a gas leak in my loft was when the neighbours came round to say they could smell gas - they're detached too, so must have been a big leak for them to smell it!

I now have 2 gas alarms. One in the meter cupboard, one in the loft although having the gas taken out next year.

Might want to crack a window and let it out now. Could be dangerous! :rotfl:

C_Mababejive

The arrangement was probably done when the conversion took place. I doubt there is anything relating to regs which would bring the installation into question. In any case, it wouldnt be a supplier issue.

lemontart

You can get gas alarms such as these http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B008ASXV8W/ref=cm_cr_pr_top_recent?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=0&sortBy=bySubmissionDateDescending

SwanJon

ejl514 wrote: »

Tried ringing British Gas but was on hold for 20 mins and had to run to a meeting. Will try ringing them again but any advice in the meantime would be great!

It's unlikely that British Gas can do anything for you - they are not responsible for pipework, but may act as a middleman to companies that are (the distributors, e.g. Southern Gas Networks, National Grid Gas)
However, the pipework in your house is your responsibility, not the distributors. You'd need to get a gas safe engineer round to change the pipework, and probably have a discussion with your upstairs neighbours.

ejl514

Thank you. My builder is going to sort out a gas safety engineer to come take a look. He is convinced it's not normal for gas meter pipes from other flats to be coming into my bedroom (no leak detected... just a safety thing in the future).

British Gas doesn't look at this (you were all right!).