gas leak

[michael007]

Hi today while having its annual boiler check, the guy from british gas. said i have a gas leak.
ok i said thiniking this would be sorted, with-in a hour.
he isolated gas fire and boiler, but could'nt find the pipe that connects the gas hob.
so he called in another guy to do rind and repair.
he's talking about digging up stone floors etc.
said it would be costed by the minute, and is coming on friday, wednesday today. hes turned gas off at mains.
When ever british gas as come to do annual check they have never done a gas check from main gas cupboard, so iam asking myself why as this guy checked this.
Is there a leak or are british gas making working to fill there pockets.

[JBR]

I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Why not call in an independent CORGI engineer to have a look. I'm not sure what the cost would be, but shouldn't be too much just to have an initial investigation.

[chas2008]

not 100% certain but i think its part of the corgi thing, whereby they have to do a leak test when any type of work is carried out its done with a bit of kit called a manometer at the gas meter.
.

[terence7556]

when carrying out work on gas the first job is to carry out a gas tightness check at the test nipple on the customers side of the meter to see if the system leaks or is gas tight.
gas workers are trained from this basic step.it is supposed to be carried out before and after (to show you have,nt left a leak) ,but most gas workers test any disturbed joints they touched with leak detection fluid/aerosol on the grounds they test what they touched and sod putting anyone else,s work right, well time is money.
if a leak is discovered they are obliged to locate and repair the leak, quite easy to establish if its an appliance or the gas carcase. after the first test disconnect all the appliances and test again.if leak continues its in the carcase(more later).if no leak in second test then an appliance is suspected so reconnect one by one untill leak occurs again and fix.
if the leak is suspected in the carcase(all gas pipe runs starting at meter) then each joint needs to be tested with LDF untill a leak (s) is/are found.this is the hard part potentially as most of the carcase is buried, mostly under floorboards and can become costly
i do symphatise with your problem but if a leak has been found/proved then it needs to be repaired.ask BG to explain how it was found
ps more bad news ,certain leaks are considered acceptable on older carcases with certain meters, just to complicate things
sorry for the long answer but not an easy question

[gucciman]

the main reason we test for leaks before we start any work is to see if there are any exisiting leaks so the customer can't turn around and say "well it was ok before you came" the second test is to ensure we haven't left any leaks.

there is an allowable leak allowed under the gas regulations but this only applies if there is NO smell of gas. The allowable leak in a typical exisiting domestic installation with all appliances connected is up to 4mb. to clarify this, if there is no smell of gas in the house and the tightness test only dropped 2 mb it is deemed safe to leave the gas supply connected and no further work is needed.

i doubt that british gas are trying it on to be honest but considering their labour charges i would be inclined to find a reputable independent local engineer.

as said before a leak on an appliance can be relatively easy to trace whereas a leak on the pipework can be an absolute nitemare to find and can involve getting up floorboards, digging up concrete floors, ripping out concealed compartments etc, you could easily spend 2 days looking for a leak as the worst case scenario.

my advice would be to get an independent corgi engineer to double check the leak first.

if your in south brum or surrounding areas give me a shout.