That’s what my neighbour asked after a licensed gas fitter botched a simple meter install. :smack:
My neighbour is an electrician who flies about the country to troubleshoot large industrial project (mines, hydro, and mills), and on his spare time with his own hands has completely renovated his house inside and out, top to bottom, and built a two story heated garage and workshop that is twice the size of my home, so he was shaking his head when he had to call the gas fitter back to re-do a very simple but important task.
Thanks for all the responses! It looks like I’m going to wait after all, as my wife wasn’t convinced by my argument (“But honey, the SDMB said I could probably do it!”). I do plan on watching the guy install it, though, and maybe do it myself next time.
In the UK, for anyone searching and finding this thread, it is illegal to fit a gas appliance if you are not Corgi registered, regardless of how easy it is.
Same here in NC. A permit is required to replace a gas appliance, EXCEPT for a gas water heater. (But the water heater has to be replaced by a licensed plumber and has to meet some other requirements as far as size, gas usage, etc.)
Anybody I know who has bought a house with new gas appliances (especially when a kitchen has been renovated) has always asked for the permit relevant to the work. It’s a big deal if the permit can’t be produced.
I recently had my gas logs replaced. Gas was already piped to the location for the old logs. A permit was absolutely required, as well as a post-installation inspection.
Yikes. That would remove any possible savings from using a gas instead of electric oven. (or dryer, or hot water heater) Unless you need a permit for plugging one of those into the wall in NC. Though, to be honest, I’m not sure in any jurisdiction in the US if permits are realistically pulled more than a small percentage of the time they are supposed to be on paper. I mean, the darn heater is only $300 at home depot, most tradesman here add a $350 or higher charge just for pulling a permit.
It was certainly an additional expense that we did not anticipate when we priced gas logs. But, as I said, unpermitted gas, plumbing, or electrical work can be a really big deal when you go to sell a house.
No permit is required to connect a new electrical appliance to an existing receptacle.
Coincidentally, we were surprised to find two fire trucks outside our house one evening a couple months ago. The firefighters were fully suited up, with masks and tanks. They were responding to a report of the smell of gas. I literally had to show them my gas logs, my water heater, my gas meter, and let them through the house with their sensing equipment. It turned out that a jogger had smelled some chemicals my neighbor used to treat his lawn and thought that it was natural gas. He happened to be in front of my house and used his cell phone to call it in to emergency services.
I have not done this install, but the impact if you make a mistake can be huge. I am sure that for people who have already done it, it seems easy in hindsight. I have done a little plumbing and it’s trivial to tell if you have a leak immediately, and the consequences are minimal. Gas leaks not so much.
Yeah, really. In residential home sales, I don’t think anyone actually walks through, writes down every appliance, outlet, fixture, and other permit requiring device, and then calls up the local government to find out what permits were actually pulled. Home inspectors do conduct inspections of what’s there, but I don’t think they actually verify the permit status of everything. If it looks legit, and they take a cover off or something and it still looks legit, that’s going to pass.
Our town is probably like many where there’s no way to track the details back very far. There are a lot of install, repair, and upgrade services provided by professionals that don’t require a permit either. You wouldn’t need one to add a gas appliance here if the gas line is already in the house, and there’s no record at all for changing out an appliance like an oven.
Correct, and if you go on forums frequented by electricians, etc, they talk about generally skipping the permit even for jobs where it is technically required. For major work - like rewires, service panel upgrades, etc - they don’t have a choice, but they will not pull a permit for lesser stuff generally, since the fine isn’t much and the chance of being caught is minimal.
So if your neighbor’s homes are full of things added without a permit, nobody is going to raise an eyebrow when it comes to inspecting/insuring yours.
If you use tape, use the yellow kind. It is made for gas. I have connected a gas dryer and a repaired my gas furnace. I use pipe dope. I think it is the best choice.
