well this is the update.....me gas is up and running now...finally...
i had been given a number to me the other day by southern gas networks....after making loads of calls and everyone telling me to ring this number and this number and this number..lol anyway,
they got through to a guy on standby for the weekend, although he didn't do anything other then give the numbers for the right direction...yeah point less i know, anyway the number i was given was for a guy who was in charge of morrison, or so i thought he worked for morrison, anyway, it turned out he actually worked for SGN and was in charge of the construction workers...or something like that....
He had the report of a gas leak at my address and after speaking to him, i said that i need to get a HSE inspector round first don't I, i said this because i thought this guy i was talking too worked for morrison, but he didn't, he was an inspector for SGN ....opssss...lol
We made a time for 2 oclock today for him to come and inspect it and to bring an engineer with him.....which he did.
He came in and explained who he was and who the other fella was....inspector and engineer.
so i started off with the works that had been carried out....from Monday to Friday, up until the gas board came out early hours sat (fri night) at around 2 oclock. He took notes as i spoke, in step by step stage. I told him i had taken photo's of the cap being left on shelf, the meter hanging of the wall and earth wire etc.... he asked to look at them, so i showed him on the pc...
he gave me his memory stick and asked me if i could transfere the pics onto that, which i did.
i told him, that all weekend that i had been without, hot water, no heating and nothing to cook on and that i had been living out of the takeaway shop all weekend... .. well, i've got an emmersion heater as me boiler is a back boiler, me hob is gas, although me oven is a fan oven and me air conditioning unit on wall in front romm also has a heater blower on it......not to mention that i always live out of the takeaway shop all weekend and most of the week anyway...lol
he asked if i had any of the receipts for the takeaways, i said, well no, i'm not telling u this because i want to claim anything back for it, i'm just saying how i lived for the weekend....no problem, because u have been without gas for 24 hrs, u are allowed £30 per day for food, so i'll get a cheque in the post to u for £60.... ok if u insist....lol
anyway, told him about how he messed me around all of last week and his attitude on friday, so he noted that all down.....he also see for him self the meter box nearly hanging off the wall.
so off he went, leaving this guy to find the fault...
he was a nice guy, very placid in himself, the kind that lets customers let off steam to him, although he wasn't even present at the time it happened...oh and not that i did...lol, but he knows how to be with customers, just listens without interrupting in what they are saying.....i see that as a very good point. I think if ur interrupting them as they are trying to explain something, then customers may see u as a arugmentive kinda person.
anyway, i let him crack on. offered him a soft deink, which he excepted, went down stairs and let me neighbours dog out so i could have a fag, didn't wanna have one in flat..lol
he told me, step by step what he was doing. cutting pipe half way through run and capping it off...trying to eliminate section by section...
all ok, he took the front of me fire off, all ok, then the back boiler bit, the bit attaches to fire, if u know what i mean...lol
checked all that, that all ok.
he then took oven out so he could get access to the gas point where it connects to me hob, checked all that and thats all ok.
there's only one thing left to check and thats the pipe behind the larder cupboard where it was connected from the new pipe to the old excisting pipe.
so i unscrew it all and he helps me lift it out for me, he checks that connection and that is all ok, then suddenly he checks an old excisting fittiing at the bottom of the old pipe which has an elbow on it and wollahhhhhh, there it is.......
and u know what, the guy that was here on friday new it was loose and didn't even bother to tighten it up....i'll tell u how i know this.......
because he was in a stroopy mood, he took out the meter and i had previously told him i couldn't take out the larder cupboard until he removed the meter as the flexi pipes on either side of meter ran through either of the cupboard. although when he came to check out the job, he was gonna get a chippy round to move it...i had to point out to him that if he done that, then the chippy would of said .. and he couldn't move the cupboard until meter was out cos of the pipes running through either side of it.....duhhhhhh
i told him at that point i would take it out myself, being as it was me that fitted the kitchen in the first place....anyway, he removed the meter and walked off saying...tina just need u now to remove cupboard and then walked off downstairs to his van with his mate and waited there untill i had removed it. stroppy bastard.
anyway, i had to lift all the flooring up first as i couldn't move cupboard cos of legs wouldn't go over the flooring unless i lifted it, which i couldn't do on my own, so removed all the flooring so i could drag it out of it's hole.
As i'm doing this, the flexi pipes were still attached to the pipes either side. so i'm dragging the cupboard along with these pipes. the long pipe which was gonna have new pipe attched to it, came forward along with the cupboard, so i stopped what i was doing and shouted down to him to come up and remove pipe......so he poked it through the hole, stood back and waited for me to remove the cupboard.....cutting off his nose to spite his face come back on him didn't it. if he had help me lift it over the flooring this leak wouldn't have happened...
anyway,so the excisting pipe was now tlilting towards towards him, oh whats happened there he said, well it's obvious ain't it, i dragged it with the cupboard.
this join is on a compression join and i know i'm blonde, but give me some credit, i put the whole kitchen in myself, even i know that if a pipe has been moved forward and then pushed back, it will need tightening up...no not him, he just pushed it back to the wall and carried on...so there u have it. that was the result of it....and i told this to the inspector before he had left and even before this was found to be the result of it. Incompatence is the way i see it......i'm a bird and not gas safe and i would of known to grab some grips or adjustables to tighten that joint. teach that prat to be stroppy in future maybe.
The guy that was here today done a real good job today, checking everything including nothing that the other guy had touched..i.e boiler, gas hob etc...
even he was pleased that he eventually found the fault. lol
so i gave him a drink (u know what i mean) although he declined it, so i shoved it in his pocket.....oh yeah i did say to him, did u service me boiler whilst u had it all out....lol
i'm a pratt i know...
anyway, he now has to put his report in about it, but will mention about the pipe tilting forward like i said.... and just got to wait to hear...as they hav e to do other checks, like on any history of this sort of thing etc.......i told them, i'm not taking this likely at all and will be chasing this around.
me brother n law is a gas fitter and although i don't want to drag him into other peoples work, i asked him for the form about reporting someone under RIDDOR which he has gievn me and i've yet to go through it to see what it is all about.
thanks guy's for all ur support. x
lol
