Impossible plumbing dilemma!

Rhiandrath

I'm stuck in a seemingly impossible situation! 

Last Friday we were running the central heating as it was cold. My mum noticed a smell of gas in the back of our lounge, there are no gas appliances in there but it was on the other side of some trunking where the pipe runs. We opened the door and the smell quickly dissipated. I rang the plumber who installed our boiler for advice and he told me to contact the gas board to report it. 

SGN came out to test everything. The bloke was finding a drop at the meter of under 1, which he told me was very small. He went round with his sniffer tool and in between all the boards etc near where we smelled it and found nothing. He told me he was capping the meter as I'd smelled the gas that I'd need to get a plumber out and they would likely turn it back on.

Well here we are nearly a week later. The plumber has been out every day, he's pulled up all the floors and used multiple testing tools. He simply can't find any form of leak. The drop is 0.25 at the meter and he tells me that if he was servicing a boiler he wouldn't even mention that level of drop but because I reported that smell at that point he simply won't put the boiler back on. He's sprayed every joint of pipe, been round with a sniffer, capped bits off and found nothing. He tells me a leak of that size is unlikely ever to be found but he still can't turn my gas back on. The boiler and pipe work are brand new as of July. 

What are my options here?! I have a newborn and a toddler, we haven't bathed for a week now and the house is getting colder. I'm starting to feel desperate and nobody seems to have an exit route. Apparently another plumber may turn it back on, but am I then putting everyone in danger? 

Ganga

Is it possible to replace the gas pipework in the house from the meter?

diystarter7

OP, could the smell be coming from outside, next door etc, etc?
Friends of the family used to have a gas smell in their porch, no pipes or rad there and had the gas people out several times over a year and nothing was ever found and then the smell just went away.

Could it be you've left the hob on too long before it lights up as these gas smells do linger?

Is there some kind of gas alarm you could buy, not sure.

i hope it works out for you and your family and you all feel a lot safer.

grumbler

Rhiandrath said:

The drop is 0.25 at the meter and he tells me that if he was servicing a boiler he wouldn't even mention that level of drop but because I reported that smell at that point he simply won't put the boiler back on.

I'm no expert, but this makes no sense to me.

If what we smell is more important than the test results, what's the point in using tools and making tests? Let's just sniff it and ignore the fact that smell varies hugely from person to person and that different things can smell similarly.

My friends had their gas meter replaced with a smart one recently. The engineer detected a drop higher than allowed and capped the meter. Some other engineer came next day, disconnected an old pipe going under the floor to the gas fire, repeated the test and uncapped the meter.

This does make sense.

FreeBear

Did have a smell of gas in my kitchen, yet don't have any gas appliances in there such as oven, hob, or boiler. Turned out to be a long disused iron gas pipe that was rusting through. Gas board came out and disconnected the pipe from the gas main.

How old is your house ?

Rhiandrath

V old house but I had all new pipework and a brand new boiler in July and there was no drop. I agree though, it could have come from anywhere and the tests are showing nothing but still refusing to reinstate it 

Rhiandrath

grumbler said:

Rhiandrath said:

The drop is 0.25 at the meter and he tells me that if he was servicing a boiler he wouldn't even mention that level of drop but because I reported that smell at that point he simply won't put the boiler back on.

I'm no expert, but this makes no sense to me.

If what we smell is more important than the test results, what's the point in using tools and making tests? Let's just sniff it and ignore the fact that smell varies hugely from person to person and that different things can smell similarly.

My friends had their gas meter replaced with a smart one recently. The engineer detected a drop higher than allowed and capped the meter. Some other engineer came next day, disconnected an old pipe going under the floor to the gas fire, repeated the test and uncapped the meter.

This does make sense.

Yes this is what I think too. If he's tested it and can't find it anywhere, why is he then referring back to a smell I briefly smelled a week ago rather than the results of the tests? Two of us smelled it but it could have just been a smell from somewhere else or a pocket. I'm hoping today's plumber has more common sense 

Rhiandrath

diystarter7 said:

OP, could the smell be coming from outside, next door etc, etc?
Friends of the family used to have a gas smell in their porch, no pipes or rad there and had the gas people out several times over a year and nothing was ever found and then the smell just went away.

Could it be you've left the hob on too long before it lights up as these gas smells do linger?

Is there some kind of gas alarm you could buy, not sure.

i hope it works out for you and your family and you all feel a lot safer.

I guess it could be anything but at the moment he's refusing to put it back on full stop due to the original smell of gas 😞

Rhiandrath

Ganga said:

Is it possible to replace the gas pipework in the house from the meter?

I believe they may try this tonight!

Alanp

If there is no drop or a permissible drop, then there’s no reason why you can’t be reconnected 

molerat

It is called backside covering.  He doesn't want his name on anything that there is the remotest possibility will come back and bite him.  You smelled gas so until a leak is found and fixed he will not commit to anything.  Replacing the pipe from the meter at your expense will fix any leak.