Appliances connected, points commissioned, and the run actually sized for what you are asking it to carry. Most weak-flame complaints in newer homes are a sizing problem, not an appliance problem.
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In an established house, a gas call is normally about the appliance. In the estate homes that make up so much of Liverpool now, it is very often about the pipe.
When the house was built, a gas fitter calculated the run for the appliances in the contract and installed pipework sized for exactly that. It was correct on the day and the compliance certificate says so. Then the household grows into the place. A better cooktop goes in, a heater gets connected to the bayonet point in the living room, someone runs a line out to a barbecue. Each addition is small and each one looks harmless.
The total is what matters. Gas pipe delivers a finite volume, set by its diameter and the length of the run, and once the connected load passes that, everything drops at once. The cooktop goes weak while the hot water is running. People replace the cooktop and nothing changes, because the cooktop was never the problem.
So the first thing we ask before connecting anything is what else in the house is already on gas. It is a five-second question that decides whether the job is a connection or a connection plus an upsized run, and it is a great deal cheaper to answer at the booking than on the day.
Get everyone out, leave the switches alone, and turn it off at the meter on the boundary. Then ring from outside rather than from the kitchen.
Open the house up, get everybody outside, and touch nothing electrical on the way past. Ring from outdoors.
Turn the gas off at the meter if you can reach it safely. If it sits behind the smell, leave it and get out.
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.
Gas pipework is not one-size-fits-all. A gas fitter works out the pipe size from the appliances it has to feed and the distance it has to carry them.
In an estate home the builder did that calculation for what was installed at handover, correctly, and the pipe has not changed since.
So anything added later is being asked to fit inside a calculation it was not part of.
A cooktop, a heater on a bayonet, an instantaneous hot water unit and an outdoor kitchen all draw from the same line and the same meter.
Each one on its own may be fine. Together they may exceed what the original run can deliver, and the symptom is appliances starving each other rather than anything failing.
A burner that drops off whenever the hot water fires is nearly always this rather than a faulty appliance.
Estate builders frequently rough in points that were never commissioned, for a future barbecue or an outdoor kitchen, and cap them off.
Connecting one is licensed work with its own certificate, and it involves testing a line that has been sitting unused.
It is not a matter of taking the cap off, and doing it informally leaves you with an uncertified connection on a house that is otherwise fully documented.
The compliance certificate the builder handed over covers the builder's installation. It says nothing about anything added afterwards.
So every subsequent piece of gas work needs its own certificate, and those accumulate as a record of the property rather than replacing each other.
Keep them together with the handover documents rather than in a folder of receipts.
Gas installation on a new home is residential building work, so it falls under the same statutory warranty scheme as the rest of the build.
That means a defect in the original installation is worth raising rather than simply paying to fix, particularly inside the warranty period.
We are plumbers rather than lawyers and we will not advise you on your rights. We will document what we find.
Adding an appliance is a calculation against total demand rather than a connection. The line has a capacity and so does the meter.
The input rating on the appliance plate is the number the calculation runs on, and a photograph of it is enough to start.
Doing the sums first is most of the difference between an installation that works and a callback that gets blamed on the equipment.
A gas cooktop has required clearances to the cabinetry around it and to anything combustible above it, taken from the manufacturer's instructions.
A rangehood at the wrong height, or an overhead cupboard fitted after the cooktop, is the common way a compliant installation stops being one.
It is worth a look if the kitchen has been changed since handover.
Certifying a new appliance on a line losing pressure elsewhere achieves nothing, so the existing installation gets tested as part of connecting anything new.
On a newer home that occasionally finds something in the original work, which is exactly the sort of thing worth documenting rather than quietly fixing.
When it does, we tell you before doing the work rather than after.
Pipe sized for the run and the load, tested to pressure, appliances installed to the manufacturer's instructions with the required clearances, flueing that discharges where it should, and ventilation suited to the appliance and the room.
None of it is visible once the house is finished, which is exactly why the certificate matters.
On a new home it is also the only independent statement that the rough-in behind your walls was done properly.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. Indicative 2026 Sydney ranges for guidance, not quotes, and the compliance certificate is included in every one of them.
The installation isolated and put under pressure, with the result explained.
Onto a point already there, tested, and confirmed adequate for the total load.
Tested, connected and certified. Priced on what the point needs, not on opening a cap.
Priced by length and access once the load calculation says the existing run will not do it.
Issued and lodged on every gas job. Never a separate line on our invoice.
Asked before the appliance, because it decides whether this is a connection or a connection plus an upsized run.
The installation comes off supply and goes under pressure. On a capped point that has sat since construction, this is not optional.
Work to AS/NZS 5601. Where the load calculation says the existing pipe will not carry it, you get that figure before anything is cut.
Certificate issued, lodged, copy to you with the invoice. Keep it with the others, a conveyancer will want the set.
Get everyone out and shut it off at the meter. Leave the light switches alone on the way, and make the call from outside.
Call 1300 381 569Get everyone outside. Do not touch a light switch, a power point or anything else that could spark, and do not use a phone inside the house. Once you are out, turn the gas off at the meter, which on most estate homes is on the boundary or in a recess on a side wall. Then ring from a distance. If the smell is strong, ring the gas emergency line first and us second.
That is the classic sign of an undersized run, and it is common in newer homes for a reason that is nobody's fault at the time. The builder sizes and installs the gas pipework for the appliances in the build contract. If you have since added a cooktop, a heater on a bayonet point or an outdoor barbecue connection, the total demand is now higher than the pipe was sized to deliver. There is enough gas for any one of them and not enough for several at once, so everything drops together. It is a sizing calculation, not an appliance fault, and swapping the appliance will not fix it.
No. A gas compliance certificate covers the specific work the gas fitter did on the day they signed it. The builder's certificate covers the builder's installation. Anything connected afterwards is new gas work and needs its own certificate, whether that is a cooktop, a heater, an outdoor point or a hot water unit. It is worth keeping them together, because a conveyancer will ask at sale and an insurer will ask at claim, and the gap people discover at that moment is almost always an appliance added a few years in.
Very likely, and plenty of estate homes have points roughed in during construction that were never commissioned, most often in the living area for a heater or on an external wall for a barbecue. It is not a matter of taking the cap off. The point has to be tested, the run checked for the load you are about to add to it, the appliance connected and the work certified. If it has been sitting capped since the house was built, testing it is not optional, it is the whole reason to have a licensed person do it.
Yes, without exception. Connecting an appliance, uncapping a point, extending a run or altering anything on the gas installation is licensed work. Unlicensed gas work voids home insurance and it is the sort of thing that surfaces at the worst possible moment. Our licence number is 368473C and it goes on every quote before you accept it.
Yes, and it is a large part of what we do. Bring the appliance and its installation instructions, and tell us what else in the house runs on gas when you book. That second answer is the one that matters, because it decides whether we are making a connection or whether the run needs upsizing to carry the extra load. Finding that out at the booking rather than at the door is what avoids a second visit.
It is the document a licensed gas fitter issues certifying the work meets AS/NZS 5601. In New South Wales it is lodged and a copy comes to you. It matters at sale, because a conveyancer asks for it, and at claim, because an insurer asks for it. It is included in every gas job we do and it is never a separate line on our invoice.
Tell us what the appliance is and what else in the house already runs on gas. Those two answers decide the whole job, and getting them up front saves a return visit.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts, and a compliance certificate on every job.
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