The tale of a hidden Are you sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin. This is a story about an everyday job in an everyday gas engineer’s everyday life. And how they may have just saved their customer’s life. By Jon Palmer, Gas Safe Register Technical Support Officer.
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t’s Monday morning and I’ve picked up my first job sent from the office. I’ve arrived at a small semi-detached house in a quiet close on the outskirts of town. The house seems well maintained and, as I walk up the path through the front garden, it feels like the gnomes are watching me. The customer directs me through the small but tidy passageway to her kitchen. “The boiler’s in that cupboard,” she says, pointing to a larder unit in the corner. “It was fitted last year by a local chap. He was ever so nice, but he’s not turned up twice now to do the service, so I had to call someone else in. It needs to be done for the warranty, you see.” I assure her it’s no problem as I put my toolbox down, and I open the larder door to take my first, cursory glance at the installation. At first sight, the installation seems to be OK. The pipes are straight, evenly spaced and clipped. There’s a magnetic filter fitted to the return pipe. And the condense has been run into 1½” waste pipe, which is then
make it easy to pop off though.” While she makes me a nice cup of tea, I go out to my van to grab my stepladders, returning just in time to see a selection of biscuits laid out on a plate next to my steaming cuppa. I set up my steps, climb the first few rungs and take a look at the boxing.
“I notice a puddle of water on top of the wall unit. I pull off the panel covering the chimney/flue and inside I find a horror show.” taken out through the wall. It’s then that I notice that the chimney/flue pipe doesn’t run straight out through the wall behind the boiler, but turns right, running above the other wall units in the kitchen and out through the back wall. I hadn’t noticed this at first because the space has been covered with boxing – obviously to hide the chimney/flue, I think. “Did the boiler installer do that boxing?” I ask. “Oh yes, he said he’d hide that ugly old pipe for me,” the woman replies. “He said he’d 26 April 2021
It’s then that I notice a puddle of water on top of the wall unit. Feeling apprehensive, I grab a little handle that has been attached to the boxing and pull off the panel covering the chimney/flue. Inside, I find a horror show. While the rest of the installation looks good, the chimney/flue most certainly is not. Only one clip has been fitted, installed to hold the first section in place. But there are no clips on the next three sections and, worst of all, two of those sections have come
apart, spewing products of combustion into the property. There’s water all over the top of the units. “Have you noticed water dripping down from up here?” I ask the customer, concerned as to if and how long she may have been being exposed to carbon monoxide. “Sometimes,” she answers. “If the heating has been on a while, I seem to get water on my tiles at the back. I thought maybe it was condensation.” I step down from the ladder and say: “I’m ever so sorry to tell you this, but your boiler is very dangerous, and I’ve got to turn it off immediately. Your chimney/flue pipe has separated, and the water you see at the back is actually water from the chimney/ flue. Have you been feeling unwell at all lately? Headaches? Any flu-type symptoms?” 6.2 Leakage of products of combustion from room-sealed chimney system eg, evidence of products of combustion; leakage from the chimney/flue system; appliance or condensate air break.
“Well, I do get headaches sometimes if I’ve been in here cooking for the family,” she tells me, looking worried. “But I just thought it was because of the heat.” “OK, that may be the reason, but I want you to get yourself to the doctor and get checked for CO poisoning. Do that now. Unfortunately, I’m going to have to cut off your boiler. Let me just check the Unsafe Situations book I have. I need to check whether this is RIDDOR reportable. You phone your doctor, and I’ll set about making you safe.” As the customer goes off to phone her surgery, I grab my tablet and call up the GIUSP (IGEM/G/11 Gas Industry Unsafe Situations Procedure). I open the document and look down the sections till I get to the chimney/flue section. There it is, 6.2: ID Where the affected property is one of a number of similar properties in a block or complex, include the approximate number of properties in the development in the summary of the report. Also classify as ID signs of distress to material enclosing a concealed chimney/flue system with no evidence of subsequent corrective remedial work.
