Gas and water bonding: what the electrician records
Main protective bonding joins the metal gas and water pipes, where they enter a building, back to the installation’s main earthing terminal. It is electrical work. A gas engineer who finds it missing will tell you; an electrician fits or repairs it and records exactly what they did.
Last updated 10 November 2026. Written by the CertSync team and checked against the standards.
What is gas and water bonding?
A green-and-yellow conductor that connects the metal gas and water pipework, close to where each enters the building, to the main earthing terminal. It keeps those pipes at the same potential as the installation’s earth if a fault happens. It is fitted and checked by an electrician, not by the gas engineer.
1. Who fits it, and who tells you it is needed
Bonding is electrical work, so an electrician fits it. A gas engineer who finds bonding missing or disconnected after working on the gas tells the customer, often with a label at the meter or a note on the gas safety record. That notice is a reason to call an electrician; it is not the bonding itself.
An EICR can also record missing or undersized bonding as an observation. The remedial work is then the electrician’s, and so is the record of it.
2. Where the bond goes
For gas, close to where the pipe enters the building, after the meter and before any branch, as HSE guidance (L56) describes. For water, just after the stopcock or any insulating insert, again before any branch. A service that enters in plastic may need no main bond at all, and the electrician decides.
The clamp should be the right kind for its surroundings, labelled, and somewhere the next person can see and reach it.
3. What the electrician records
One line per bonded service: what was bonded and how it enters, what was done (new, upgraded, repaired, or checked and left), where and how it is connected, the clamp, the conductor and the size chosen with the reason for it, the label, and the continuity reading with how it was tested.
Where a bond was not needed, was refused or could not be reached, the reason is recorded instead. Where there was a gas engineer’s notice, the record notes how it was given, its date, who issued it and how the electrician responded.
4. Recording it in CertSync
An Earthing & Bonding Certificate records the job: main bonding, supplementary bonding, the earthing conductor and main earthing terminal, or an earth electrode, in any combination. The main bonding register has the line described above for each service.
CertSync holds no bond size or reading limit of its own: you enter the size and your basis, and a reading you could not take can be answered N/A or LIM rather than left blank. Page 1 says plainly that the record is not a BS 7671 model form.
5. When a different certificate is needed
If the job also adds a circuit or changes the consumer unit, that work needs an Electrical Installation Certificate or a Minor Works certificate. The earthing and bonding record covers the bonding; it does not replace those.
Frequently asked questions
- Can a gas engineer fit the gas bonding?
- Bonding is electrical work, so it is done by an electrically competent person, usually an electrician. The gas engineer’s part is to tell you, in writing, when they find it missing.
- My pipes are plastic. Do I still need bonding?
- Often not, if the service enters the building in plastic. Metal pipework inside may still need attention. The electrician checks and records what they found and decided.
- A meter change removed my gas bond. Is that a problem?
- It should be put back. Ask an electrician to reconnect and test it, and to record the work so you have a note of what was done.
- What should the record of bonding work show?
- Each service bonded, where and how it is connected, the conductor and its size with the reason, the label, the continuity reading and how it was taken, and how any gas engineer’s notice was answered.
- Is bonding work notifiable?
- In England, bonding work on its own is not one of the listed types of notifiable work. In Wales it is listed as not notifiable. Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own rules.
Disclaimer
This guide is general information, not professional advice, and does not replace professional judgement or training. The rules differ between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and can change. The contractor named on a certificate is responsible for what it certifies.
Sources & official guidance
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