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Life of a Gas Engineer in Medway

A Day in the Life of a Gas Engineer in Medway

So you want to know what it’s like in the life of a gas engineer in Medway? 

The Medway towns is a vast area and there are also many gas engineers covering the area. However there still aren’t enough of us to meet the demand of a population of around 280,000 people. 

That means if you’re keen to learn the trade, there’s plenty of work to go around. 

If you’re young and are looking to go into gas for your career, you might be weighing up your options between gas or instead electric. As the government looks to phase out gas boilers by 2025, the UK will gradually start to see a change. Just as the world is slowly moving from internal combustion engine road vehicles to instead electric. 

The good news however is that this will be a very gradual change. Gas boilers will still be around for a good twenty or so years more, at least. Therefore people will still need their existing boilers servicing. Another point to consider is that there are still other appliances that require gas, such as gas cookers and gas fires. 

So what’s a standard day like?

Morning: Landlord Gas Safety Certificates

The first job for the day is to carry out landlord gas safety certificates for two regular customers. 
 
Landlords require these gas safety certificates to state that their buy to let property has had all the gas appliances tested. This ensures it is safe for the tenant to live in the property.
 
It is not a legal requirement for you to have a gas safety check and certificate in your own residential property. However, it is a legal requirement for landlords to obtain one of these certificates from a gas safe registered engineer. The gas safety certificate arranged by the landlord must be done so on a yearly basis.
 
Once completed, a copy of the gas safety certificate is given to the landlord. Another is given to the tenant and the third is kept for business records. 
 
These two jobs were both in Medway, one in Gillingham and the other in Chatham, so it’s a nice relatively easy morning. It’s always nice when you can arrange for jobs to be close to one another. 
 
Landlord gas safety certificates take about an hour to complete. Prices range from about £50 – £75 typically for Medway towns area. Prices usually depend on how many appliances are being tested. At Super Trade Services, we charge customers £60 for a cooker and a boiler. £20 additional, per gas fire. 
 

Midday – Gas Cooker Installation

The day followed by a booked in gas cooker installation. This was for a lady in Iwade, which is a village just outside Sittingbourne. 
 
This job involved removing and disconnecting an existing gas cooker. Then connecting a new gas cooker. 
 
The process involves carrying out a full safety check. First the clearances above and around the cooker were checked to make sure they are suitable. Then the isolation switch is checked to make sure it’s safe. The isolation switch needs to be away from the heat zone – you don’t want to be leaning across the cooker to turn it off in case of emergency! 
 
Measuring the new cooker to ensure it’s going to fit is a must before further work is carried out.
 
Next, the existing connections are checked to see if they are suitable for using again. If the connections do not meet the legal requirements, then they get removed and replaced. The reason for this is to ensure the gas supply is gas tight. Then the cooker is installed and connected. 
 
Finally, the cooker is checked to ensure it’s working properly. This is followed by the completion of a job report, whereby one copy is given to the customer and one copy is kept for our business records.
 
The price for this type of job ranges from £50 to £100, depending on the level of work required. A job of this type will usually take an hour to complete, per customer household. 
Installing gas cooker
checking door seal on gas cooker
gas man fitting a new cooker

Afternoon – Quoting for a boiler installation

A day in the life of a gas engineer in Medway doesn’t always involve full on work. It also involves pricing up jobs ready for the week ahead.

Today involved visiting a customer in Rochester, Medway who need an existing combi boiler disconnecting and a new boiler installed. The customer may have an idea of which manufacturer they would prefer to go with when buying a new boiler. Otherwise, it is for the gas engineer to advise of the best option. There are various makes and models to choose from including Baxi, Bosch or Viessmann to name but a few. 

A fairly mid-range, good quality boiler will cost around £1,000 to purchase new. Usually it is best for the gas engineer to purchase the boiler as they will get trade prices, so it usually works out a better deal for the customer. To disconnect and remove an old boiler, as well as installing a new one will cost around £1,000 again. In total the job will cost around the £2,000 mark. This is quite a complex job for a gas engineer and will take around a day to complete. 

Fortunately for Super Trade Services, the customer in Rochester decided to go ahead with the new boiler installation. That job has been added to the diary for next week. 

To price up the job took no longer than 30 minutes. Sometimes you won’t hear back from a customer and that is the nature of the business. However, usually you end up getting the job and booking it in the diary for whenever is convenient for the customer. 

Advertising and Marketing 

The latter part of the afternoon involves carrying out advertising and marketing. Without advertising and marketing, quite simply the phone will not ring. So part of the day must be spent on finding new business. In the Medway towns, the best advertising is online, ensuring you’re on all of the main directories such as Medway Fair Trader. It’s also good to advertise offline in magazines such as The Net. 

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