Does Your Plumber Have The Right Accreditations?

When searching for a plumber in an emergency or to book a boiler service, you need to take into account whether they have the correct accreditations to be working safely on your boiler, heating system and even your kitchen sink.

You are often told that nothing counts more than experience when it comes to a trade, but experience only gets you so far. It’s actual training that separates a professional plumber from a DIY plumber or any tradesman. When looking for a professional plumber you need to look out for a few key things that let you know if they are legally able to work on your boiler system and if they are professionally trained to do so.

One of the most important accreditations to keep an eye out for when you are looking for a plumber to work on any gas appliance, gas fire or your gas boiler is whether they are Gas Safe Registered. Even if the work you need doing isn’t on gas we would recommend that you still only employ a plumber that is Gas Safe Registered, as you know they are experienced in their trade and work safely. All plumbers have to take a Gas Safe course every 4 years to maintain there Gas Safe certificate. Additionally, everytime they work on any gas appliance they need to sign off the work before re-connecting the gas supply. This way the work can be traced back to a plumber or heating engineer that carried out the job.

If you are looking for a plumber to carry out work only on water pipes such as fitting bathrooms, taps, sinks and drainage, there is no accreditation legally required. However, it is favourable to seek a plumber that has some accreditations as this shows they take their work seriously enough to have it checked. The first accreditation to look out for is CIPHE (Chartered Institues of Plumbing and Heating Engineering). This is in place to assure the customer that the plumber follows a code of professional standards. This also gives you, the customer, a third party to consult if you ever have to complain about the work carried out.

These are the 2 main accreditations you need to look out for when considering to hire a plumber to carry out any work on your property. These accreditations make sure you are not getting a “cowboy” plumber that has never been trained or knows how to work in a safe practice. Plumbcare.com are registered with these two organisations so you know you can trust us to be your reliable heating and plumbing engineer.