Almost none of the gas in these houses is original. It was added later and altered since, usually without records. We establish what is actually there before we change anything.
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Almost every gas line in this suburb is a retrofit. The housing largely went up before domestic gas was run the way it is now, so the supply arrived later, and then kept changing.
A kitchen gets moved and the line is extended. A wall heater comes out and the branch feeding it is capped, sometimes at the source and sometimes just at the end you can see. The back of the house is opened up and the run is diverted around the new wall. Each of those was reasonable on the day.
The result is that what sits behind the plaster in a house here is the accumulated record of sixty or eighty years of individual decisions, and the paperwork for almost none of it survived the sales in between.
So the first part of any gas job here is discovery, not installation. Where does it come in, where does it actually run, what is live, what is capped, and was it capped properly.
Quarter turn on the lever so it sits across the pipe. No switches, no flame. Call us from outside the house.
Open up, get everybody out, and touch nothing electrical on the way. In a terrace or a conversion, tell the neighbours as you go.
Ring from outside. Turn the gas off at the meter if you can reach it safely, and leave it if you cannot.
A licensed gas fitter answers when you ring us, and where the network's emergency crew is the right first call we will say so.
In a house built with its gas, the runs are broadly predictable. In this housing the gas was retrofitted into buildings that predate domestic gas, so it went wherever it could.
Under floors, through cupboards, along skirtings and around whatever was in the way, frequently altered again by later owners.
So what is behind the wall is genuinely unknown until it is tested, and testing is part of connecting anything new.
When an appliance goes, the branch that fed it should be cut back to the main run and properly sealed. Frequently it is simply capped at the outlet and forgotten.
A capped point can still be live behind the cap, and you cannot tell by looking at it.
So an old point found during a renovation gets tested rather than assumed, and decommissioning it properly is licensed work rather than a favour.
An industrial building had no domestic gas. Whatever is there arrived during the conversion, and the routes it took were determined by the structure rather than by convention.
That makes assumptions about where things run considerably less reliable than in a house.
It also means the original certification, where it exists, is the most useful document about that building, and it is worth chasing if you do not have it.
They run at different pressures with different injectors and cannot be swapped without a manufacturer conversion kit matching the exact model, where one exists.
The data plate states which the appliance is built for, plainly, usually underneath or on the back.
A photograph of it answers the question before anybody drives anywhere, which matters more on secondhand appliances than on new ones.
Adding an appliance is a calculation against total demand rather than a connection. The line has a capacity and so does the meter, and on retrofitted pipework both are modest.
The input rating on the appliance plate is the number the calculation runs on.
Where the sums do not work, appliances starve each other, and a burner that drops off whenever somebody runs a shower is nearly always this.
An appliance burning indoors consumes air from the room it is in, and the rooms in this housing were never large.
Draught proofing, new windows and a sealed fireplace are all sensible improvements that reduce air movement, and a powerful rangehood removes more.
So a kitchen that was fine for decades can stop being fine after a renovation that touched nothing to do with the gas.
A flue terminal has required distances from windows, doors and vents, and on lots this narrow those openings frequently belong to the neighbour.
There is nearly always a compliant answer, but it has to be worked out rather than assumed, and worked out before an appliance is bought.
Heritage controls on a visible elevation can narrow the options further, which is another reason to establish it early.
Pipe sized for distance and demand, a pressure test that held, clearances from the manufacturer's own instructions, flueing to the right termination, and ventilation sized for the appliance and the room.
Every item there is covered up by the time the job is handed over, and none of it can be verified afterwards by looking.
That asymmetry is exactly what the certificate exists to close, and it is the reason an insurer asks for one rather than for an invoice.
A Certificate of Compliance is the licensed fitter's written declaration that the work meets the standard. It is legally required and it cannot be recreated afterwards.
On a building where the gas was retrofitted and altered repeatedly, it is frequently the only reliable information anybody has about what is behind the walls.
Keep it with the property papers rather than in a folder of receipts.
Quoted at a fixed price before it starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges. The compliance certificate is included in every one of them. Where lines have to be traced first, that is shown separately so you can see what the discovery is costing.
Located, isolated and made safe. Any hour, including weekends and public holidays.
Cooktop, oven or heater onto an existing point that is adequate for it.
Priced on the run and on what has to be opened to get the pipe there.
Redundant branches found and cut back properly at the source, not just capped.
On every gas job. Never charged as an extra, and never optional.
Meter off, windows open, everyone outside, no switches. We will talk you through it on the phone before we leave.
Where it enters, where it runs, what is live and what was capped. In this housing that is the real first step.
Connection, new point or decommissioning, pressure tested before anything is signed off.
Issued on completion. It is your record and your insurer's, and on this housing stock it may be the only one.
Turn it off at the meter, open the doors, get everyone out, and do not touch a switch. Then call from outside. We come out at any hour for gas.
Call 1300 381 569Do not touch a light switch, a power point or anything else that could spark, and do not start looking for it with a flame. Open the doors and windows on your way through. Turn the gas off at the meter, which is the lever on the pipe, a quarter turn so it sits across the line rather than along it. Then get everyone outside and call from out there. If the smell is strong or you feel unwell, call the emergency line first and us second. Gas moves along cavities and under floors, so where you smell it is often not where it is escaping.
Because almost none of it was original. This housing largely predates domestic gas being run the way we run it now, so the supply was added afterwards, usually decades afterwards. Then it was extended for a new kitchen, capped when a heater went, re-routed when somebody opened the back of the house up. What is behind the wall now is the accumulated record of every one of those decisions, and the paperwork for them rarely survived.
It is the usual situation here and it is workable, but it does change how a job starts. Before we alter anything we establish what is actually there: where the line comes in, where it goes, what is live, what has been capped and whether it was capped properly. That takes a bit of time up front and it is the part that keeps everyone safe. Working off an assumption about where a gas line runs in a house that has been renovated four times is how people get hurt.
In this housing stock, often. When an appliance is removed the line feeding it should be cut back and capped at the source. What actually happened, in a lot of cases, is that it got capped at the visible end and left live behind the plaster. It is fine while nobody touches it. It becomes a problem the day somebody drills a shelf into that wall. If you are renovating, having the redundant runs traced and properly decommissioned is cheap insurance.
Sometimes, and the answer depends on the building rather than the apartment. These were industrial buildings that never had domestic gas, so whatever exists was brought in during the conversion and sized for what the developer planned. Adding a cooktop where none was allowed for can mean a supply that will not carry it, and in strata it also means an owners corporation conversation about common property. Worth establishing before you buy the appliance.
Yes, on every gas job, and you should not accept work without one. A Certificate of Compliance is the licensed fitter's declaration that what was done meets the standard. It is what your insurer will want if there is ever an incident, and what a buyer's conveyancer will ask for. On a housing stock with this much undocumented alteration it is also the only written record the next owner will have. Keep it with the property papers.
A leak test and make-safe is $200 to $450. Connecting a cooktop or a heater to an existing, adequate point is $250 to $550. Running a new point is $450 to $1,200 depending on the distance and what has to be opened up to get there. Tracing and properly decommissioning abandoned runs during a renovation is usually $300 to $700. The compliance certificate is included in all of it, never an extra.
Tell us what you need and whether you have any idea where the line runs. Most people here do not, and that is normal rather than a problem, it just changes where we start.
Fixed price before we start, and a Certificate of Compliance on completion of every job.
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