Cooktops, heaters and gas lines fitted, tested and certified in one visit, and a look at what the garden has grown into around anything installed outside.
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Every gas appliance has minimum clearances to combustible material. They come from the manufacturer and the standard, they are specific numbers rather than a matter of judgement, and an outdoor appliance is installed with them satisfied.
What nobody accounts for is that a garden does not stay the size it was. A shrub thickens, a hedge closes in, something gets leaned against a wall for a season and stays there for four. The clearance that existed on installation day quietly stops existing, and it happens slowly enough that nobody notices it happening.
It applies to anything outside, which mostly means hot water units, outdoor heaters and cooking appliances, and it applies to the flue terminal on anything vented through a wall. On a property with substantial planting it is one of the most common things we find, and one of the easiest to put right.
Usually the fix is a pair of secateurs rather than a plumber, which is precisely why it is worth mentioning. Walk out and look at what is around and above each outdoor appliance. If you want the actual figures for yours rather than a guess, ask, and if we are already at the property it costs nothing.
No switches, no phones indoors. Turn it off at the meter only if you can reach it safely, then ring from outside.
Open the doors and windows. Do not touch a light switch, an extraction fan or anything else that makes a spark, and take the phone call outside. Turn the gas off at the meter if you can get to it safely.
Then ring. A licensed gas fitter answers, and if the situation warrants it we will tell you to call Jemena on their emergency line first and we will say so plainly rather than book you in.
Every outdoor gas appliance has required clearances to combustible material, and they come from the manufacturer and the standard for that appliance rather than from anybody's opinion on the day.
An installation satisfies them at the moment it is signed off. That is the only moment anybody has checked.
They are not arbitrary either. They exist because an appliance discharges heat and products of combustion, and the numbers describe how much clear space that needs in order to be safe over years rather than on a mild afternoon.
A shrub thickens. A hedge closes in over three or four seasons. Nobody decides to encroach on a clearance and no single afternoon in the garden causes it. It simply happens, slowly, on a property that is doing well.
On blocks planted like these it is the most common non-fault we find, and it is found by looking rather than by anything going wrong first.
The same goes for anything built after the appliance went in. A deck, a pergola, a new fence line or a screen around the unit all change the space around it, and none of them trigger anybody to go back and check the numbers.
Not only the appliance body but wherever it vents through a wall. The terminal on a continuous flow unit or a space heater needs clear air around it, and it is the part almost nobody ever looks at.
It is frequently behind the thing that grew. A screen put up to hide the unit counts as much as a plant does.
Terminals also have required distances from windows, doors and vents, so a window put in after the appliance can create the same problem from the other direction. It is worth mentioning if you have had building work done.
A flue that cannot discharge properly can push products of combustion back towards the building instead of away from it, and it can stop an appliance running cleanly. This is the reason the numbers exist.
It is not a scare and it is not usually urgent. It is a thing worth having looked at before winter rather than a thing worth losing sleep over.
Which is the reason to raise it, not the reason to leave it. Most of what we find here is solved with secateurs and ten minutes, and the rest by moving a screen.
Easy problems are still problems until somebody points at them.
Where it is not, it is usually relocating a screen or shifting a planter, and it is still an hour rather than a project. The expensive version, moving the appliance, is rare and we will say so before suggesting it.
Everything on the property shares one supply. Putting in a cooktop, a heater or a continuous flow unit means checking total demand against what the line and the meter can actually carry, and sizing any new pipe for the run it has to make.
Skip that and you get appliances that starve each other, which shows up as a burner that drops off whenever the hot water runs. Doing the sums first is most of the difference between a job done properly and one that gets blamed on the appliance.
It is also the point at which the rest of the installation gets looked at, which is frequently more valuable than the new appliance. Older work here was done to the standard of its day, and the standard of its day is not the current one.
A clearance check is a poor reason for its own call-out and a good thing to add to a visit that is happening anyway. Mention it when you book and it costs you nothing.
Every gas job we finish comes with a compliance certificate. Keep it. It is the only durable record that the work was done by somebody licensed to do it, and it is the document an insurer asks for.
Pipe sized for the run and the load, tested to pressure, appliances installed to the manufacturer's instructions with the clearances that apply to them, flueing that discharges where it is meant to, and ventilation appropriate to the appliance and the space it is in.
None of that is visible once the job is finished, which is precisely why the certificate matters. It is the record of the parts you cannot inspect.
It is also why unlicensed gas work is not worth the saving. Nothing about it looks different on the day, the fault it creates does not announce itself, and an insurer declining a claim on a house fire is a long way past the point where the discount was relevant.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
With any other gas work at the property. Mention it when you book.
Connected, tested and certified in one visit.
Priced on the run rather than by the hour.
With the compliance certificate handed over.
Made safe at any hour, with the cause established afterwards.
Which gas appliances are installed outdoors, and whether anything has grown up around them since.
The manufacturer's clearances for that appliance, rather than a general impression of whether it looks tight.
Fitted to the Australian Standards, and told plainly where the answer is that something simply needs cutting back.
The Certificate of Compliance in your hand before we leave rather than in the post afterwards.
Get outside, leave the switches alone, and ring. A licensed gas fitter can be on the way immediately.
Call 1300 381 569Every gas appliance has minimum distances it has to keep from combustible material, and they come from the manufacturer and the standard rather than from anybody's judgement. An outdoor unit is installed with those distances satisfied on the day it goes in.
The garden. Planting grows, a hedge thickens, something gets stacked against a wall, and the clearance that existed at installation quietly stops existing. Nobody decides to do it. It happens over several seasons and nobody is looking at the appliance while it does.
Anything installed outside, which in practice means hot water units, outdoor heaters and cooking appliances, plus the flue terminal on anything vented to the outside of the building.
Walk out and look at what is around and above each outdoor appliance and its flue terminal. If planting is touching it, or growing over the top of it, or something has been leaned against it, that is worth attention. We can tell you the actual figures for your appliance rather than guessing.
It is one of the most common things we find on a property that has not had a gas fitter on it for years, and it is one of the easiest to put right. Usually the fix is a pair of secateurs rather than a plumber.
Everyone outside first. No light switches, nothing electrical, no phone used indoors. Turn the supply off at the meter only if you can reach it safely, then ring from outside.
A clearance check on outdoor appliances is included with any other gas work at the property. An appliance connection is $200 to $500. A new gas point is $500 to $1,200. A leak test and certificate is $180 to $350.
Tell us what you need done, and mention anything installed outside. If a hedge has closed in around a hot water unit, that is worth two minutes while somebody is already there.
Installed, checked, tested and certified, at the figure agreed first.
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