How long should a gas connection take? A week, a few weeks, a month, a few months?Gas connections are complex and the truth is that some individuals, companies, charities, and organisations are surprised at the length of time involved and the apparent hurdles to jump over. There is often pressure to get gas connected to a property as quickly as possible. The fastest gas could be connected to a house is around 6 weeks from start to finish. Getting gas connected to a commercial property such as a shop, office, restaurant or take away can take 2-3 months in total. We’ll talk you through below the steps to obtaining a new gas pipe and meter below.
A domestic quotation for connection to gas mains will usually arrive within 5-11 working days from original request. A business quote can take between 11-20 working days. At quotation stage, a preliminary design quote is created – a more detailed design would then be created following acceptance of a quote. For a household, usually no site survey is required so long as the property already exists, or if it is not yet constructed – an architects plan or map has been supplied. For a commercial property, whether a survey visit is required, depends on the complexity of the project or to evaluate difficulty with accessing a gas main or managing busy traffic. Occasionally quotes will take longer than expected durations if there are an influx of requests or at busy times of the year.
Following acceptance of gas connection quotation, work dates usually come back within a month , and business gas connections do take a little longer to organise, usually because a bigger demand (and therefore bigger pipe and meter) is needed. The timescale for obtaining dates is for the most part down to three main reasons:
1) Creating a much more details design of the works must be created by a engineering designer.
2) This design must then be approved by the relevant gas network who own the gas mains in the associated region of the UK.
3) Finally, the local council may be required to give permission for digging in the public land (road, footpath, or verge). This can all take up to a month or more.
On a good day, works will be completed within 4 weeks, the time most engineers are booked up in advance for. When you receive gas pipe connection work dates, you should expect to see engineers on site completing the works within a month, but again, there are no guarantees. You will also received your MPR/ MPRN (Meter Point Reference Number) which is the reference for your connection pipe which allows a gas supply agreement to be set up with a supplier such as British Gas. We can assist with organising a gas supply agreement if needed. Once a gas meter is fitted, you will know your (MSN) Meter Serial Number which is displayed on the meter and on your gas bill.
Given we’ve provided the estimated lead times, we think it’s important to detail the possible times when things may be slower than planned. There are many parties involved in organising connection works. These include councils, engineers, plumbers, mechanical engineers and more. So one link in the chain taking longer than normal can create a delay. In addition to this, wintry weather, other works being carried out locally at the same time, councils requesting weekend working, and other unforeseen circumstances such as engineering difficulties can create possible delays. At 1Gas we work hard to ensure delays are minimised and aim to communicate with customers at regular intervals if there are problems.
