Cooktops, heaters and permanent outdoor kitchen connections, sized, installed, tested and certified in one visit, with the certificate handed over on the day.
Online Now!·--:--
The estates out here were reticulated for gas from the start and the houses have the outdoor space, which is why the alfresco kitchen is the job we get asked about most.
The temptation is to treat it as a bigger barbecue. Run it off the bayonet on the patio, hose across the paving, done. That bayonet is there for a portable appliance and it does the job it was designed for perfectly well, but a built-in cooker in built-in joinery is a different proposition.
A permanent appliance in an enclosure brings requirements a portable one does not: how it is ventilated, what clearances the cabinet has to give it, and how the connection is made and supported. Those are decided by how the enclosure is built, which is why the time to raise it is at the design stage rather than on the day the appliance arrives.
The other half is arithmetic. An outdoor burner set can be a significant addition to the house's total gas demand, and whether the existing line and meter will carry it is a calculation. If the answer is that the supply needs work first, you hear it before the cabinetry is built.
No switches, no phones indoors. Turn it off at the meter only if you can reach it safely, then ring from outside.
Air the place out and get everybody outside, and do not touch a switch, a fan or a power point while you are doing it.
Shut the gas off at the meter if the meter is somewhere you can get to easily. If it is behind the smell, leave it alone.
Then ring us from outside. A licensed fitter answers, and if the situation warrants the network's emergency crew we will tell you to call them first.
A bayonet is for a portable appliance and it does that job well. Wheel the barbecue out, plug it in, use it, unplug it. Nothing about that is second rate.
A built-in appliance in a cabinet is a fixed gas installation. It gets pipework sized for the run and the load, pressure tested, and certified.
The difference is not quality of cooking. It is that one is an appliance you connect and the other is part of the building.
Ventilation and clearances depend on how the enclosure is built around the appliance. A built-in barbecue in a masonry cabinet needs specified clearances and specified airflow, and both come from the manufacturer.
Which means the cabinet has to be built for the appliance rather than the appliance found for the cabinet. Getting that order wrong is the most common problem on an outdoor kitchen.
So bring the appliance details to the builder, or bring the cabinet drawings to us, before anything is laid.
The input rating on the appliance plate is the number the calculation runs on. Without it, nobody can tell you whether your supply will carry it.
It is usually stated in megajoules per hour on a plate on the appliance or in the manual. A photograph is enough.
Early means before the cabinetry is built and before the pipe route is decided, because both depend on it.
An outdoor burner set is a substantial addition to total demand. The line has a capacity and so does the meter, and a new outdoor kitchen has to fit inside both with the cooktop and the hot water still running.
Where it does not, appliances starve each other. A burner that drops off whenever somebody runs a shower is nearly always this rather than a faulty appliance.
On these houses the original installation was sized for what the builder fitted, and an alfresco kitchen added later was not part of that sum.
The distance from the meter to the outdoor area, and what is between them, is what makes one property's quote different from the next. Under a driveway is different to along a garden bed.
Going around an obstacle frequently costs less than going under it, even though it is more metres of pipe. That is worth saying because it is not obvious.
So a per-metre figure is an estimate rather than a price, and a proper quote comes from somebody having walked the route.
Gas pressure falls along a length of pipe, and the drop grows with distance and with how much the pipe is being asked to carry. A long run to a big burner set needs a larger bore than a short one.
Undersized pipe is the reason an outdoor kitchen works fine on its own and poorly when the kitchen inside is in use.
It is a calculation rather than a judgement, and it is done before anything is dug.
Every outdoor gas appliance has required clearances to combustible material, taken from the manufacturer and the standard for that appliance.
A shrub thickens, a hedge closes in, a screen goes up to hide a unit. Nobody decides to encroach on a clearance, it simply happens over several seasons.
The same applies to a flue terminal on a continuous flow unit, which is the part almost nobody ever looks at.
The pipe run and its diameter, the pressure test, the clearances around the appliance, the flue and where it terminates, and the ventilation for the room.
All of it is decided against a specification, and all of it disappears behind a wall or a cupboard on the day.
So when somebody offers to do gas work cheaply and informally, what is being discounted is the part nobody will ever be able to check.
Required on every gas job, and worth filing with the property papers. It records who did the work, that they held a licence, and that the installation met the standard on the day.
It is what an insurer asks for after an incident and what a conveyancer eventually asks for at sale, and it cannot be reconstructed afterwards.
On an outdoor kitchen it is also the only evidence that the pipework under your new paving was done properly.
Fixed price agreed before anything starts. These are indicative 2026 ranges.
Connected, tested and certified in one visit.
A permanent run sized for the appliance, priced on the distance.
On its own if you want the answer before the cabinetry is built, and it comes off the work.
With the compliance certificate handed over.
Made safe at any hour, with the cause established afterwards.
What is already connected, what is going in, and whether any joinery has been built yet.
Total demand against what the line and meter can deliver, before anybody orders cabinetry around an appliance.
A permanent run, fitted to the Australian Standards and pressure tested before anything is signed off.
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 569Yes, and it is one of the most common jobs we do out here. It is a permanent connection with its own run, sized for the appliance, rather than a bayonet with a hose across the paving. Done properly it is neater, safer and it does not have to be packed away.
Nothing, for a portable barbecue, which is what it is for. It is the wrong solution for a built-in outdoor kitchen, because a permanent appliance in a permanent enclosure has requirements a portable one does not, including ventilation and clearances that depend on how the enclosure is built.
A great deal, and it is worth raising before the joinery is built rather than after. A built-in appliance sitting in a sealed cabinet is a different proposition from the same appliance in the open. Tell your builder or cabinetmaker to talk to us at the design stage and it costs nothing to get right.
Usually, and it is a calculation rather than a guess. Everything in the property draws on the same supply, so the answer depends on total demand against what the line and meter can deliver. An outdoor burner set can be a substantial addition.
Yes, on every gas job, and on the day rather than in the post. Keep it with the property papers, because insurers ask for it after an incident and conveyancers ask for it at sale.
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.
An appliance connection is $200 to $500. A permanent outdoor kitchen connection is $600 to $1,500 depending on the run. A leak test and certificate is $180 to $350. A load calculation on its own is $150 to $300 and comes off the work.
Tell us what is connected now and what you are planning. If it is an outdoor kitchen, tell us before the cabinetmaker starts rather than after.
Calculated, installed, tested and certified, at the figure agreed first.
Online Now!·--:--
