Commercial plumbing in London

Reactive work is what most people call about first — a failed water heater in a shop, a blocked stack in a block of flats, heating down in an office. We attend, fix, and give you the paperwork.

Planned maintenance is the cheaper way to run a building over time. Annual gas certification, scheduled servicing on plant, and periodic drainage attention on a kitchen waste run cost less across a year than the emergencies they prevent. For managed blocks it also gives the agent a documented trail, which is usually what they actually need.

Commercial gas duties come from the same Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998 that cover let residential property, and the interval is the same 12 months. What differs is the appliance range and the qualifications needed to work on it — commercial catering appliances, warm air heaters and larger plant each sit under separate competencies from domestic gas.

Managing agents and insurers generally want more than a certificate. They want a record trail: what was attended, when, what was found, what was done. We issue records in that form as standard, because a job that cannot be evidenced 18 months later is a problem for whoever holds the building.

Pipe sizing and appliance loads are the first difference. A commercial kitchen may draw more gas through one range than an entire domestic property does, so supply pipework sized at 15mm or 22mm in a house gives way to 28mm and above, and the working pressure has to hold at the appliance under full load rather than just at idle.

Drainage is the second. Catering waste carries fat, and a kitchen run that is cleared reactively will simply block again in a few weeks. Grease management and a scheduled clean on the waste run is the only thing that actually breaks that cycle, and it is far cheaper than closing a kitchen at short notice.

Most commercial premises cannot have plumbers in during trading. Restaurant work generally happens after close, retail before opening, and office work in the evening or at weekends.

That gets agreed when the job is quoted rather than discovered on the day. Where a job needs isolating water to a whole building, the notice period and the window get set with you in advance so tenants and staff know what is happening.