Grants for new boiler

Further to the above, I'm almost persuading DH for us to go for a loan from smile. 6.9%, 12 months £172.77 a month, £2,073.22 in total, to pay it off earlier it's 1 month's interest. We could probably pay it off in half that time.

DH insists on 'thinking about it'. To me it's a no-brainer! What's to think about? We've been thinking about it for ages!

Still, I'd rather have him like this than the type of DH that unthinkingly 'sticks it on the plastic'. It takes him ages to come to a decision, but once he does, that's it.

Margaret Clare

Hi Michelle

When looking for someone to do a job, ask around, other people round about may have had work done and can recommend good workers who charge a fair price.

Unfortunately, as people get older there are people out there who can only be described as rip-off merchants. The local paper is always full of horror stories. Above all, never accept a 'cut-price' offer by someone canvassing door-to-door - 'just in the area today, mister, got some spare left over from a council job'. 'Can offer you a good deal/a discount but only if you sign up for it/pay a deposit right now'.

I've learned a lot from my DH, from the way he goes about things following his decades in business. He never pays a deposit, for a start. He won't pay up-front 'I've got to get the materials, mister'. The most he'll do is to pay for materials to be delivered on site and on production of invoice. That way, he isn't paying for materials to go into the builder's stock.

Some good friends of ours recently had their drive block-paved by a local, reputable company. But they'd paid a 20% deposit and then were fobbed off about when the job was actually going to start! First it was this week, then it was next week...eventually an excellent job was done, they're very pleased with it, but there was incredible hassle before any of the team arrived, THEN they had to wait for the materials to be delivered!!

We've been pretty lucky. Our roofing contractor is always busy although he never advertises. We were assuming a couple of months from when we first agreed his estimate. However, one Saturday morning he phoned and said 2 jobs had been delayed and his lads would be sitting around - would we like them to start on the Tuesday morning? Of course we said 'yes'. 4 of them were here before 8 am on the Tuesday and they worked like Trojans. DH paid for the tiles when they were delivered on the Thursday, paid cash on production of invoice (not so easy to get £1400 in cash - all sorts of questions are asked, suspicions of money-laundering etc!) then paid by cheque for the rest of the job when it was completed.

Darren the builder did some work for us last year when we were doing the bedroom - I wanted the light fitting moved to the centre instead of near the window, which was a stupid old-fashioned idea. He re-boarded and skimmed the ceiling for us and fitted the loft ladder - again, he'd been delayed on another job and arrived at 8 am one morning saying 'did we mind?' Of course we were delighted. He's another one who never advertises but is always busy, so it's word-of-mouth recommendation.

We've now decided not to apply for the Smile loan - DH is right, we don't want to get into debt again, not even for the shortest period. With savings we have and money that will be coming in over the next few weeks, we think we'll have the £3K or so scraped together, without too much difficulty, by about the end of the year, and we'll go for the combi boiler in the loft. Darren will do an industrial light-fitting in the loft space for us, plus floor-boarding where the boiler is to go, but to do all that he'll have to liaise with the heating installer Richard, when the system is drained and the pipes are removed. The more I think about it, it makes no sense to have a 40-gallon tank of water sitting up there and having to be kept hot 24/7. It would make sense if we were a family with children, washing always on, baths etc, but we shower every morning and apart from a bit of washing-up and washing maybe twice a week, that's it.

But we are lucky - I know that. I'm lucky having DH with his background - he's so used to acting as project co-ordinator and getting a good deal, he does it almost instinctively nowadays. We're lucky because we have a decent income and not living on state pension alone - I can hardly imagine what that must be like. And yet we're not rich enough to have to worry about IHT - I think we're in the best possible 'happy medium'.

Best wishes

Margaret Clare

Jake'sGran wrote:

My benefit is not means tested and last year we had a new boiler fitted. I think it would have been repaired except that there was a faint gas smell and the gas engineer from Transco condemned it. As far as I know, we can also have cavity wall insulation and loft insulation but have not brought ourselves round to facing the disruption yet. It is worth remembering that if a person has a new boiler it has to be a condensing one. They do not last as long as the one they took out and which we had had for 30 years but still, very nice to have except for the racket in the morning and the unsightly pipe work.

Hi Jake's Gran

You're likely to live in Scotland where they offer these things on age and not on means-tested or disability-related benefits - is that right?

Yes, we know that when we change the boiler it's got to be condensing. What we want is a condensing combi boiler which has no storage tank - the water is heated as it's required. It's making less and less sense to me to have 40 gallons of hot water sitting up there in the loft all the time. We want to put the boiler in the loft.

Could you please explain the racket in the morning - why? And the unsightly pipe-work - why is it unsightly?

You'd probably find that the insulation you've been offered would make a huge difference to the cost of the gas you're using. This really has to be an important consideration the way gas prices are escalating.

We were offered cavity wall insulation only we haven't got cavity walls - this is a 1930s bungalow with single-skin brick walls, no cavities! The insulation we have in the loft already is adequate. It was one of the first things that my late husband did when we moved here in 1990. We need more floor-boards in the loft and better lighting.

Best wishes

Margaret Clare

Hi Jake's Gran

I relayed the information you gave to my DH, and here's what he says:

If the boiler is making a noise i.e. a 'clang' there is something wrong with it, because these boilers are virtually silent in operation. We've seen the ones that the young couples on either side of us have - one has been fitted only a few weeks ago - and there's no noise at all, either when they start in the mornings or any other time. DH says you need to get back to the installer or the company, whoever it was who fitted this for you, because it shouldn't be making a 'clang'.

'Because of where they said the boiler had to go' - I am more and more convinced that we'll be better served getting it organised ourselves, that way we might stand a chance of getting it where we want and as we want. Your engineer said 'it would cost a fortune' - we're looking at probably £2,600 - £2,800, is that a 'fortune'? Plus, we can get it done by local craftsmen that we know in the area we live in.

We got some quotes from different installers a year ago, we were thinking of it then, and we kicked one of them into touch because he said the boiler 'had to' go on the kitchen wall. What, and mess up my picture-tiles? No way!

DH is going into hospital for further knee surgery on 21st September. He wants to be able to 'climb up that bl***y ladder' as he said just now, meaning the loft-ladder, and that will take a month or two of recovery time. In the meantime we'll have got the money together so we'll probably look at getting it done the early part of next year.

Best wishes

Margaret Clare

:j I noticed this thread a while ago, and registered my dads interest in the Warmfront scheme in early Jan 2006.
It took them a while getting the paperwork done but eventually they sent an inspector out 4 weeks ago.

My dad is 69, retired owns his own home and he gets DLA. He had gas central heating and had always wanted to change it to oil. The warmfront guys agreed that his heating system was on its last legs. They came 8am on Thursday 3rd Aug and had the new oil central heating system all installed by friday at 2pm.

Next week they are coming out to do the cavity walls, insulate the loft and are giving him energy efficent bulbs.

He is absolutely delighted, so thank you to whoever posted all the info about warmfront/ warm homes and eaga.

And to anyone afraid that there may be lots of forms to fill in, don't be they do it all for u.
Go for it, u have nothing to lose, and in Dad's case it saved him approx £2,500.