Good to know
The questions people ask before they ring.
Including the two most people are slightly too polite to ask — about Gas Safe registration, and about what “open 24 hours” on a Google listing actually means. Ask them.
Q.Are you Gas Safe registered?
Yes — Matt is Gas Safe registered, and the registration is displayed on the van. By law, every Gas Safe registered engineer carries an ID card listing the specific gas appliances they're qualified to work on, with an expiry date on the back. Ask Matt to show you his before any gas work begins; he'd rather you asked. You can also check any engineer's registration yourself on the Gas Safe Register website.
Q.Do you work on LPG as well as natural gas?
Yes. Gas repair, servicing and installation is covered on both natural gas and LPG, which matters for houses out beyond the mains — plenty of properties around the Berkshire and Surrey borders run on bottled or bulk LPG rather than piped gas.
Q.Google says you're open 24 hours. Is that right?
It's shorthand for emergency availability rather than a staffed office. Matt is a sole trader, so there's nobody sitting by a phone overnight — but emergency call-outs are available seven days a week, and if you ring with a real emergency out of hours he'll answer if he possibly can. For non-urgent jobs, ring during the day and you'll get a proper conversation.
Q.What counts as a plumbing emergency?
Anything that is actively causing damage or leaving a home unsafe or unusable: a burst pipe or a leak you can't stop, no heating or hot water in cold weather (especially with young children or elderly people in the house), a blocked or overflowing toilet in a one-bathroom home, or a boiler that has locked out and won't restart. If you can smell gas, that is not a plumber's call — leave the building and ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 111 999 first.
Q.Do you charge for a quote?
No. Quotations are free. For a boiler swap, a heating installation or a bathroom, Matt will come and look at the job in person rather than guessing over the phone, and then give you a price with the reasoning behind it.
Q.Will it be you doing the work, or someone else?
It'll be Matt. This is a one-man business — the person who quotes the job is the person who turns up to do it. It's slower to book than a big outfit with a rota of vans, but you deal with one engineer who knows your house from the first visit to the last.
Q.Do you do tiling and full bathrooms, or just the plumbing?
Both. Bathroom installation and tiling are part of the service, so a bathroom can be handled as one job rather than you coordinating a plumber and a tiler separately — first fix, fitting, tiling and the final connections.
Q.Which areas do you cover?
Ascot is home, and the patch runs across Berkshire, Surrey, Hampshire, Middlesex and West London. If you're just outside, ring and ask anyway.
Q.How do I get hold of you?
Ring or WhatsApp 07581 733592, or email mattiwenni@hotmail.com. A couple of photos — the boiler's data badge, the leak, the room — make it much quicker to tell you what's involved.
Still got a question?
Ring Matt, WhatsApp a photo, or email the details — you'll get a straight answer from the person who would be doing the work.