Agriculture
Farms and rural estates: off-grid heating, oil tanks and long private water supplies, from people who already work across rural Norfolk.
Read more →Short answer
The same boiler, cylinder or split system carries very different obligations depending on the building it is in. These pages set out what differs by sector – compliance, downtime tolerance, access, and who carries the duty.
Why sector matters more than the equipment
A gas boiler in a village hall and a gas boiler in a care home are the same appliance. Almost nothing else about the two jobs is the same.
What actually changes between sectors:
- Downtime tolerance. An office can be cold for a morning. A restaurant kitchen with no gas has lost the day’s trade. A care home with no hot water has a safeguarding problem and a regulator to answer to.
- Compliance obligations. Water hygiene duties, gas safety obligations, F-Gas records and the evidence a regulator or an inspector will want vary considerably.
- Access. School holidays, hotel occupancy, harvest, ward availability and trading hours all decide when work can physically happen – and that is frequently the hardest constraint of the whole job.
- Who carries the duty. Owner, occupier, managing agent or tenant, and it is written into a lease that nobody has read recently.
- Documentation. What has to exist afterwards, and who will ask to see it.
- Vulnerability of the occupants, which raises the stakes on scald risk, legionella, ventilation and carbon monoxide.
The lease question is worth settling early
A surprising share of commercial jobs stall on who is actually responsible for a piece of plant. It is normally answerable from the lease, and it is far better established before something fails than during.
The sectors
| Sector | What tends to define the work |
|---|---|
| Agriculture | Off-grid heating, private water supplies, long pipe runs, seasonal access and buildings that were not designed as buildings |
| Healthcare | Water hygiene, scald risk and thermostatic mixing valves, vulnerable occupants, and evidence a regulator will inspect |
| Hospitality | Catering gas, hot water at peak, no tolerance for downtime in service, and work that has to happen overnight |
| Education | Holiday-window programmes, water hygiene over long shutdowns, and safeguarding around access |
| Retail | Trading hours, shopfront appearance, landlord consent, and comfort cooling that customers notice |
| Offices | Comfort complaints, split and VRF systems, F-Gas records, and managing agent relationships |
| Industrial | Process requirements, larger plant, hot water volume, and planned shutdown windows |
| Property management | Portfolios, recurring compliance, reporting, and a single point of accountability across many buildings |
What is the same everywhere
Four things do not vary, whatever the building:
- Somebody has to be able to produce the records. Gas safety documentation, water hygiene assessments and monitoring, F-Gas logbooks, and evidence that work was done by somebody competent to do it.
- Legionella duties apply to essentially every non-domestic water system, at a level proportionate to the risk. A small office with a combi is not a hospital, and it still has a duty – see water hygiene and legionella.
- Planned maintenance is cheaper than reactive, not as a slogan but because the expensive part of a failure is almost never the part – it is the closure, the lost trading, the emergency premium and the consequential damage. See planned maintenance.
- The obligations sit with the duty holder, not with the contractor. A contractor is how you discharge them; they do not transfer.
How we work on commercial sites
Honestly about scale: we are a small operation, and that shapes what we are good for and what we are not.
- You get an engineer, not an account manager. The person who quotes it is the person who does it.
- We work around your operating hours where the job allows, including evenings and weekends.
- Written quotes and written records, because in commercial work the paperwork is frequently the point.
- We say no to things outside our scope. Below-ground drainage, large-scale mechanical installation and specialist controls work all have people who do them properly, and we would rather tell you than learn on your building.
- We do not hold a third-party contractor accreditation such as CHAS or SafeContractor at present. If your procurement requires one, we will tell you straight away rather than waste your time.
See also commercial, reactive callout and landlords and letting agents.
A building with plant nobody has looked at in a while? A survey is the sensible starting point.
Questions we get asked about this
Does the sector really change the job?
The equipment often does not change at all. What changes is downtime tolerance, the compliance obligations, when you can physically get access, and who answers for it.
Who is responsible, us or the landlord?
Normally answerable from the lease, and worth settling before something fails rather than during. It is one of the commonest reasons a commercial job stalls.
Do legionella duties apply to a small office?
Broadly yes – the duty applies to essentially every non-domestic water system, at a level proportionate to the risk. A small office is not a hospital and it still has a duty.
Can you work outside our opening hours?
Where the job allows, yes – evenings and weekends. In hospitality and retail that is frequently the only way the work can happen at all.
Do you hold CHAS or SafeContractor?
Not at present. If your procurement process requires a third-party contractor accreditation we will tell you at the outset rather than waste your time.
Are you big enough for a portfolio?
It depends on the portfolio. We are a small operation, which means you get an engineer rather than an account manager – and it means there is a size beyond which we would be the wrong choice. We will say so.
Regulations and standards referenced on this page
- Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 on fluorinated greenhouse gases, as retained and amended in GB law — UK Statute Law Database
- Fluorinated gases (F gases): guidance for operators and engineers — Environment Agency / Defra
Services
What we cover
Education
Schools and colleges, worked around term dates and safeguarding requirements, with the certification the estates team needs on file.
Read more →Healthcare
Surgeries, dental practices and care settings, where water hygiene and temperature control are compliance matters rather than preferences.
Read more →Hospitality
Pubs, restaurants and hotels: catering gas, high-demand hot water, cellar cooling and washrooms that take real punishment.
Read more →Industrial
Workshops, warehouses and light industrial units. Plant rooms, process hot water and heating that has to keep running.
Read more →Offices
Washrooms, kitchens, heating and cooling for offices, with work scheduled outside trading hours so nobody loses a day.
Read more →Property management
Managed portfolios and letting agents. One contact, certificates filed on time, and tenants dealt with directly.
Read more →Retail
Shops and units where a leak or a failed heater closes the door. Reactive cover with a response time you can plan around.
Read more →Need this doing?
Call and describe the problem — you will speak to an engineer, not a call centre. Written quotes, no estimates over the phone.