Commercial Plumbing, Heating and Air Conditioning

Reactive work

A genuine 24 hour line, answered by a person, 365 days a year. Burst pipes, leaks, heating and hot water failures, blocked drains and washrooms, electrical faults, air conditioning failures.

What you get with the job: a clear account of what was found, what was made safe, what was repaired and what is still outstanding, so you can pass it to a landlord, an insurer or a client without having to translate it first.

Compliance, and the things commercial premises are actually caught by

Gas

The Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations apply to commercial premises, and duties also arise under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act for the employer or person in control.

One thing worth being straight about, because a lot of contractors are not. Whether gas work is domestic or commercial is not decided by whether the building is a business. It is decided by the installation. A domestically qualified engineer may work on a domestic type boiler in a non domestic building provided the installation downstream sits within a U16 meter or smaller, 35mm pipework or less, and an installation volume below 0.035 cubic metres. Cross any one of those and it becomes non domestic work requiring commercial ACS qualifications, which are a separate set of tickets.

Domestic cooker qualifications are similarly no use in a commercial catering environment, which falls under BS 6173 and needs a commercial catering category, even where the appliances themselves are domestic cookers in a school food technology room.

We confirm which side of that line your installation falls before quoting, and we tell you plainly if a job needs a qualification set beyond our own scope so it can be resourced properly rather than taken on and hoped through. Our Gas Safe registration is 956889 and you are welcome to check what it covers.

Legionella, and why commercial is genuinely different from domestic

This is the compliance area most commercial occupiers underestimate, and the gap between the domestic and commercial position is wide.

For a residential landlord, the HSE’s own position is that most can assess the risk themselves and that no legionella certificate is required by law. For an employer or duty holder in commercial premises the picture is very different. The duty arises under health and safety law and is supported by the Approved Code of Practice L8 and HSG274, and it involves a written risk assessment, a named responsible person, a scheme of control, monitoring of temperatures and outlets, records, and review.

Systems that put you squarely in scope: stored hot water, cooling towers and evaporative condensers, spa and hydrotherapy pools, showers in low use areas, long dead legs, and buildings with seasonal or partial occupancy. Care homes, hotels, gyms and schools are the sectors where this bites hardest.

If somebody has sold you a legionella certificate for a small office with a combi and no stored water, ask what risk assessment it was based on. If somebody has told a care home that a certificate is all it needs, that is worse.

Backflow prevention and fluid categories

Rarely mentioned on trade websites and regularly the thing that fails an inspection.

The Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations classify the risk of contamination to the mains in fluid categories 1 to 5, and require protection appropriate to the category. Category 5 is the most serious, covering a risk to health from pathogens or very toxic substances, and it demands a physical air gap rather than a valve.

In commercial premises that catches more than people expect: catering equipment, cleaners’ sinks and janitorial points, chemical dosing, irrigation, bedpan washers and sluices in care settings, laboratory and dental equipment, and any connection where a hose could be left in a container. A great many commercial premises have category 4 or 5 risks protected by a single check valve, which is not compliant and would not survive a water company inspection.

We survey for it and tell you what you have got.

Thermostatic mixing valves

Where hot water is stored at 60°C for legionella control, it arrives at the outlet hot enough to scald, so it has to be blended at the point of use. TMV3 is the healthcare standard and applies in care homes, hospitals and comparable settings. TMV2 is the domestic and general standard. They are not interchangeable, and a TMV is not a fit and forget item, it needs periodic testing and servicing to keep performing.

Electrical and air conditioning

Fixed installation inspection and testing to BS 7671, arranged and managed through qualified electricians. Air conditioning servicing with F-Gas handling, plus the record keeping that goes with refrigerant.

Full detail on systems, F-Gas duties and install work is on our commercial air conditioning page.

Washrooms and welfare

Employers have duties under the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations covering suitable sanitary conveniences and washing facilities, including a supply of hot and cold water. A washroom that has been out of service for a fortnight is not just a maintenance backlog, it is a welfare issue.

Where we work

Across Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire from our Stevenage base, covering Stevenage, Hitchin, Letchworth, Baldock, Royston, Welwyn Garden City, Hertford, Ware, St Albans, Harpenden, Hemel Hempstead, Luton, Dunstable, Bedford, Biggleswade and the surrounding business parks and towns.