How many men does it take to move a gas meter?

The bigger joke is the cost of it. I design kitchens and so come across this quite a lot, I think it is about £600-700 to shift one up here!

Dave

Reminds me of the Monty Python Gas Board sketch!

It reminds me of that old Flanders and Swann song!
YouTube - The Lego Gasman Cometh

For gas... maybe.
Winter 09/10 there was a gas leak next door. To dig down to the pipe, replace a short section, back-fill and tarmac took between 1 and 7 men on site at once over about 7 days, most of which my elderly neighbours were without heat, hot water and (if I hadn't brought my camping kit over for them to use) no way of cooking.

Work done by men in National Grid vehicles... which at a peak numbered 1 van, 2 pickup trucks and a couple of combi vans all but blocking the street.

The whole of my area had this done for free, Gas meters moved to the outside, so many weeks and so many men, they told me they would be back after the weekend to dig the hole and I said I would move my rose bush and some other plants, and the neighbours cats mess, before I knew what had happened they had been to do it, before the weekend, cats mess buried, rose bush left with big hole, plants lost and this was during a cold spell.

£433.01...........No idea where the penny came from.

It could only happen to you BM! Completely different scenario, but we have council bungalows opposite us. Last Friday some men came and put scaffolding up to do something on the roof of two of the bungalows. Saturday, 2 men came for about 2 hours and started working. Nobody's been near since.

I was waiting for the punchline........as in how many men to change a light bulb

Where I work we have plumbers who used to do the gas installations as well. Not any more...............rather than the company pay for the annual renewal of the gas ticket/licence/whatever, the plumbers only do water pipes and at great expense,they hire in gas fitters for any gas work!

I know!......If it wasn't true, it would be laughable........

It is incredible. Poor old gorilla!

I was waiting for the punchline as well - we see so many Gas Board (is that what it's called?) adverts here on UK TV channels, they make it look like they're the essence of good organisation.

I don't understand how it works but I wouldn't mind if the company we pay the bill did the work but they don't.

For those wondering this work is no longer carried out by the gas board (British Gas) this work is now all done by National Grid, who also run the national gas emergency service.

I make no excuse for lax service but I do have a good understanding of some of the problems. Some years ago death & injury rates from gas incidents in this country were climbing at a frighting rate and the goverment decided to do something about the problem.

First they let CORGI (a private company) establish itself as voluntary registration organisation to promote good working practices. After a few years registration became compulsory with an exam to be passed (pass rate 100%). Retake the exam every 5 years to keep up with the changes to regulation etc all at a cost to the individual.

Again after a while things started to get even stricter they split the exam into modules again each module at a cost to the individual. So now it goes something like this.

CCN1 Domestic natural gas safety cost about £600-00p everyone must take this assessment.

Then dependant on what you want to do.

CKR1 cooking appliances

HTR1 Gas fires & wall heaters.

WAT1 Water heating appliances.

CEN1 gas boilers up to 70Kw.

Those are my qualifications and it cost me £1500 every 5 years just to work.

You will note no warm air appliances, no industrial or commercial work, no LPG, these along with other assessments cost extra and so have to pay for themselves with the amount of work you can do over 5 years.

Large companies tend to split their skill base i.e. First 2 men are competent to move the external service pipe but not move the meter (different assessment), next man is competent to move the meter. These people are considered valuable assets and so will move on to other work, the others are just hole fillers with no qualifications, maybe even sub contract.

The other thing to consider is that as they also run the national gas emergency service this must take priority over all other work. However they are only qualified upto the meter so if you have a problem within your home they will only turn the gas off and advise you to obtain the services of the more expensive Gas Safe Registered engineer.

Colin