Any Plumbers Around

I have started this thread to ask for advice on central heating.

Comments

  • I am buying a 3 bed mid terraced house which has a back boiler, so I am assuming its quite old.

    I would like to find out a rough idea of how much it would cost to install a new central heating system, I believe that new regs means i will have to have a condensing boiler. Will I be able to keep the existing radiators? Or should I replace them with new ones?
  • existing rads are usually ok if they are flushed through. sounds like you will need whole system updating i.e room stat and thermo valves. a whole new system with good combi with say 7 rads £2500 approx.
    boiler exchange to combi keeping rads etc £1500 approx
  • I would think it would be a whole system, as its mid terrace, with an attic conversion I suppose the boiler would have to go in the kitchen?

    Any suggestions for boiler type, whats good and trouble free?
  • boiler can pretty much be sited anywhere, vaillant are the best in my opinion, baxi and worcester not bad also ngl.
  • I just paid £3K for a straightforward boiler replacement in a 4 bed house - no pipework alterations at all.

    British Gas quoted over £4K for the same job.

    I specified a Worcester Bosch Greenstar 35CDi. This might be larger than you need but Worcester Bosch have a good reputation so a smaller combi boiler from the same range might suit. It is room sealed so you could fit it anywhere.
  • 3k? for a straight forward boiler swap, thats pricey you know, do you liv ein london?
  • No, live in Scotland. Got together with 2 neighbours and the 3 of us (houses all built at same time, so boilers the same age) drew up a spec. and got 3 competitive quotations.

    The £3K total includes the VAT
  • why not consider some form of solar heating/energy generation as well??
  • FB - worth looking into, expensive tho, worth it if you are planning on staying in house long term.

    SPM- how long were they in house doing job?
  • NGL - contact your local council - some offer grants for this kind of updating work.

    I work for a commercial plumbers and the boiler of choice here tends to be Valiant or Worcester - search the web tho cos prices vary greatly.
  • I've just had my boiler replaced and have to concur with SVP. Kept pipework and paid £2600 -had same boiler and also 4 bed det.
  • Took several quotes -this was the dearest but I fancied the bloke most.....no other considerations!
  • Sorry am a bit alcohol affected - SoP not SVP

  • Bosch are good but pricey, I have put in loads and they have only broken down after years Are easy to fix but parts are not the cheapest.

    Valliant are supposed to be like the Rolls Royce type but I have had loads of trouble with them, even from new, and stopped putting them in years ago. Ariston seem excellent value and I have installed loads which have worked fine. Easy and cheap to fix too. Have installed a couple of Biasi recently (you can buy these in B&Q amongst other places) and they seem quite good for a budget boiler esp their most recent 32kw HE type.

    It would be false economy not to change (very) old rads in my view. Make sure that the plumber puts in plenty of drain-offs in all the right points. Also if you can afford to zone your house (upstairs/downstairs or living room / rest of house) then this is a good idea. Cost of parts is about £250 although some find the wiring a bit of headowrk.

    You might want to consider a wireless themostat that you can take from room to room keeping the temp of the house tuned to where you are at.

    Make sure all your earth bonding is up to date while you are at it in particular that the boiler is bonded to the meter and the main electric board with 16mm earth cable. This is easy to do yourself if you have a bit of time and are reasonably handy.

    I have one of this brand , a carlos fandango model. Been in 5 years and works brilliantly. Not a hint of a problem and I work it really hard.

  • My brother lives in Yarmouth a six hour drive away. During the summer his LPG tank was full and it was 42 degrees, one of the lockouts on the tank was a bit touchy and the tank tripped out.

    Brother didn't know what was wrong, local firm came out, reset the tank without telling him what was wrong, condemned his boiler (nothing wrong with it, albeit was old), disconnected it and removed some parts so it could not be restarted. They quoted £2400 for a like-for-like swap and the blimmin boiler would have put in would only cost them £430 + vat.

    I can't believe some people get away with it. Would have been barley a mornings work.

    Also spoke to someone today who had been charged £80 to get his boiler going. Fitter had told him it was 'condensation in the gas pipe'. Fitter had actually just pressed the reset button.
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