Journey
Set up a machinery repair and installation business
Learning path for new repair and installation businesses — general machinery repair and industrial installation, and the specialist gas, refrigeration, pressure-systems, marine and aircraft trades. Work out which rules apply, put a safe business in place, get the specialist approvals for the systems you work on, and verify everything with a compliance checklist.
What this journey is for
Repairing, maintaining and installing machinery puts you among the engineering service trades, with duties that begin before your first job. You have to keep your people safe, in your own workshop and on customers' sites. You have to meet your obligations as an employer. And, for certain equipment, you have to hold a specific approval or certification before you are even allowed to do the work. This journey walks you through that path in the order you will live it, from working out which rules apply through to checking you have everything in place.
It does not give you the step-by-step instructions or the figures — those live in the guides it points to. It shows you where you are, why each stage matters, and which guide to open next.
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Work out which regulations apply to you
Start by getting the picture right. Every repair and installation business shares the same workplace-safety foundation, but what you add on top depends entirely on what you work on: a gas engineer needs Gas Safe registration, a refrigeration engineer F-gas certification, an aircraft maintainer a CAA approval. Working this out first tells you which specialist approvals you must hold before you start. Use the router guide to find your route before you commit.
Which repair and installation regulations apply to your business
Work out which rules apply to the systems you work on. A reference guide that routes you from the shared workplace-safety foundation to the specialist approvals for gas, refrigeration, pressure systems, ships and aircraft.
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Put your safe-business foundations in place
Whatever you work on, this is the universal spine. Risk-assess your workshop and on-site work — machinery, electrical, lifting, working at height and confined spaces — control exposure to solvents, fume and lubricants under COSHH, keep your own tools and rigs safe under PUWER and — under section 6 of the Health and Safety at Work Act — make sure anything you install or repair for use at work is safe before it goes back into service, manage manual handling, fire and hot work, hold employers' liability insurance, and meet your equality and data protection duties. Build this in from the start.
Set up and run a safe repair and installation business
The duties every business shares — general health and safety on site and in the workshop, COSHH controls, work equipment (PUWER and LOLER), manual handling, fire safety, employers' liability insurance, equality and data protection.
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Get the specialist approvals for the systems you work on
This is what sets the specialist trades apart. Some equipment can only be worked on under a specific registration or certification, and doing the work without it is usually an offence. If you work on gas appliances, you need Gas Safe registration. If you work on refrigeration and air-conditioning, you need company and engineer F-gas certification. If you work on pressure systems, you need safe installation and supporting the written scheme of examination. If you work on ships, you need work that preserves MCA compliance. And if you work on aircraft, you need a CAA Part-145 approval. Get the right approval in place before you take the work on.
Get the specialist approvals for the systems you repair and install
The system-specific approval and certification regimes — pressure systems, Gas Safe registration, F-gas certification for refrigeration and air-conditioning, MCA vessel standards, and CAA Part-145 aircraft maintenance approval.
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Verify you have covered everything
Once the moving parts are in motion, take a step back and check the whole picture holds together. A compliance checklist lets you confirm, in one place, that each obligation — workplace, employment, and the specialist approvals for the systems you work on — is genuinely met rather than assumed. Use it as your readiness review before you take on work, and come back to it as you move into new kinds of equipment.
Repair and installation: compliance checklist
Verify you have covered everything — the universal workshop and employment duties, and the specialist approvals for the systems you work on.
You will also need the general business set-up duties
Alongside the sector-specific path above, every business carries general obligations that apply regardless of trade and are just as compulsory. As you build the business you will also need to:
- protect the people who work for you — meet your workplace health and safety duties, including the COSHH assessments that bite around solvents, fume and lubricants.
- hold employers' liability insurance once you take anyone on.
- handle personal data lawfully — most businesses must complete data protection registration with the ICO.
- meet your fire safety duties for the premises you work from, alongside the hot-work controls you run on customers' sites.
These general duties run in parallel with the sector path rather than after it, so set them up as you establish the business. The safe-business spine and the compliance checklist bring the core duties together so you can confirm they are covered.
Where this leaves you
You now have the shape of the whole task: work out which rules apply, put a safe business in place, get the specialist approvals for the systems you work on, and verify the lot. Work the guides in order and you will have a clear, defensible position before you take on work.