← All use cases
RAMS & CPP for Plumbing & Heating
What compliance documents you need for boiler installations, pipework, and heating systems — and how The Site Book handles it for you.
Written by Nicola Dobbie, Founder, The Site BookLast reviewed
TL;DR
- CPP: Required — CDM 2015 applies to every construction project.
- RAMS: Strongly recommended — near-mandatory on commercial sites and good practice for boiler and unvented system installs.
- Key hazards: Gas leaks and carbon monoxide exposure, hot works (soldering/brazing) and fire risk, and legionella in stored water systems.
What compliance do you need?
Plumbing and heating work involves a wide range of risks — from gas safety and hot works through to legionella and asbestos. Whether you're fitting a new boiler, running pipework on a new build, or replacing a heating system, CDM 2015 applies alongside gas safety regulations.
Do you need a CPP?
Yes. A Construction Phase Plan is required under CDM 2015 for all construction work. For plumbing and heating, your CPP should cover gas safety procedures, isolation of services, hot works management, and how you'll work safely in confined spaces like lofts and airing cupboards.
Do you need RAMS?
RAMS are strongly recommended for plumbing and heating work. Gas work, hot works, and confined space entry all carry significant risks. On commercial sites, RAMS are almost always mandatory. They're also good practice for domestic work, particularly boiler installations and unvented systems.
Common hazards
- Gas leaks and carbon monoxide exposure
- Scalding from hot water and steam
- Hot works — soldering, brazing, and use of blowtorches
- Working in confined spaces (airing cupboards, lofts, risers)
- Legionella risk in stored water systems
- Asbestos disturbance in older pipe lagging and boiler flues
- Manual handling of boilers, cylinders, and radiators
- Slips and trips from water spillage
How The Site Book handles it
Describe your job — "boiler swap, combi to combi, 2-bed flat" — and The Site Book creates your RAMS and CPP automatically. It identifies plumbing-specific hazards including gas safety, hot works, legionella risk, and asbestos in older pipe lagging.
Frequently asked questions
- Do plumbers need RAMS?
- RAMS are strongly recommended for plumbing and heating work, especially for boiler installations, unvented hot water systems, and gas work. Most commercial clients and principal contractors will require RAMS. They're also good practice for domestic work where there are significant risks like working with gas, hot water, or in confined spaces.
- What gas safety requirements apply?
- All gas work must be carried out by a Gas Safe registered engineer. This includes boiler installation, gas pipework, and flue work. The engineer must leave a Building Regulations compliance certificate and notify the work to the local authority. Gas safety is regulated under the Gas Safety (Installation and Use) Regulations 1998.
- Do I need a CPP for a boiler installation?
- Yes. Under CDM 2015, a Construction Phase Plan is required for all construction projects, including boiler installations and heating system work. Your CPP should cover gas safety procedures, hot works permits if soldering, working in confined spaces like loft and cupboard installations, and coordination with other trades.
What's included at each tier
Starter
£0- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
Pro
£39/mo or £360/yr- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
Business
£199/mo- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 10 internal team logins
- Site Supervisor: a field-only login for whoever runs the site
- Up to 50 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Optional 4-digit PIN for shared-link document sign-off
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
Site Control
£675/site/mo- Risk Assessments (RAMS)
- Construction Phase Plans (CPP)
- Site inductions
- COSHH assessments (standalone doc, SDS upload, site-specific register)
- Worker cert tracking and expiry alerts
- Right-to-work evidence records
- Subcontractor tracking
- Toolbox talks
- Worker document signing (no per-signature charge)
- Integrations (Drive, Xero, Zapier)
- Up to 10 internal team logins
- Site Supervisor: a field-only login for whoever runs the site
- Up to 50 active site portal users
- Site attendance check-in/check-out
- Multilingual worker inductions (9 languages)
- Optional 4-digit PIN for shared-link document sign-off
- Slack Site Ready readiness checks
- Permanent entrance QR: guest sign-in and contractor self-join
- CSCS credential capture, review and expiry alerts
- Digital induction gating before check-in
- Live people-on-site, attendance and audit-grade exports
- Single sign-on (SSO) with Okta or Microsoft Entra
- Public REST API with scoped account keys
- Signed real-time webhooks into your own systems
Running live sites with subcontractors? Site Control is the per-site enterprise tier above Business — entrance QR sign-in, CSCS checks, induction gating, live attendance and audit-grade exports. From £675/site per month, plus £5,000 setup.
Where it helps and where it doesn't
Pros
- Hot-works permit issue-and-log flow built in
- Confined-space entry controls ready to attach to the project
- COSHH for flux, solder, and pipe-cleaning chemicals ready to pick
- Legionella risk notes baked into domestic-system method statements
Cons
- No Gas Safe notification / commissioning forms generated
- WRAS product compliance lookup is still manual
- Legionella risk assessments need a qualified specialist sign-off
Why The Site Book
- UK construction compliance tool that ships RAMS + CPP + COSHH + inductions (readable and acknowledgeable in 9 worker languages on Business, with the language audit-recorded) + worker sign-off, including optional 4-digit shared-link PIN evidence on Business, plus site attendance, portal users, site files, document reviews, subcontractor evidence and inspections/actions.
- Generate a site-specific RAMS first draft from a natural-language brief in under five minutes, ready for competent-person review - not a template library you hand-fill.
- Controlled document workflow without an enterprise contract: version history and a recorded issue confirmation before a document is shared with a client or downloaded in the app on every plan, re-sign on revision with superseded signatures preserved plus PCPP import, cert tracking and document checking from the £39/month Pro plan - and on Business, optional named-approver routing (a designated approver accepts or rejects each version, with recorded reasons, before it can be issued) plus client approve/reject/request-changes via share links.
- Transparent pricing: Starter £0, Pro £39/month or £360/year, Business £199/month with 10 management logins and 50 active site portal users. Worker document signing has no per-signature charge; project workers count as active portal users while assigned.
- Build RAMS for any trade - add your own work types and method statements alongside the built-in library, reusable across projects, including a ready-made Commercial Solar PV group. Save a finished job as a reusable project template, or clone it, so the next job of the same shape starts from your own setup.
- COSHH goes deep: a standalone COSHH assessment document, upload-a-Safety-Data-Sheet extraction, a site-specific substance register and an expert-reviewed library - plus per-worker RAMS sign-off and a one-click Audit Pack covering documents, sign-offs, worker evidence, attendance, incidents, COSHH, permits and up to the latest 500 live Site Diary entries.
Get your plumbing docs sorted
Describe your job, get professional RAMS and CPP in minutes. No credit card required.