Replace Boiler

maryhillgirl

As I am obviously the person who has, quite unwittingly, opened up the debate into a wider discussion of labour and parts costs, and "hijacked" the thread as a result, I must now apologise for any offence which I have caused to the professionals who offer advice on this forum.
My original reply to Stufar was simply stating the price paid for our work, which, on the job sheet, read exactly the same. If the professionals say they were two totally different jobs, then I stand corrected.
The experts here have also implied that I paid too little, and that it must be a botched job, which alarmed me, I must say, and prompted me to request how much I should have paid for a straightforward boiler replacement and associated completion of the job to building reg standards. Not an unreasonable request, I thought, but maybe I was wrong there, too, for which I also apologise.
As for my advice to customers on asking for a breakdown of charges, I concur with The Governor's view that all we want, really, is to check whether we are getting value for money, the whole point of these forums. I don't suppose many people would take their van to a garage for, say, a couple of new parts, without expecting to see on their bill how the final figure had been arrived at.

"I don't think it does anyone any harm to be carefully cynical about any quotation they get (for anything!), there's othing wrong with trying to make sure your money goes as far as possible and as long as you don't turn that into trying to screw the other side it's all fine.

Personally, I'm a realist, I know people have bills to pay and I don't mind someone making money off me, it's simply the scale of the profit and comparison to others I check on. The deifference between "profit" and "profiteering" I suppose...

Ultimately I decide can I afford it and is it fair (considering materials, time, effort etc"

I happily pay my own plumber £35 an hour, and my joiner £175 a day. That is what they charge, I rate their work, take their advice, pay promptly, keep out of their way and provide plenty tea. Hardly the customer from hell, am I?
Incidentally, I checked with my own plumber how much my son's job should cost and he quoted me, unseen, about £1450, give or take. He checked the Yorkshire firm's Corgi reg for us and said everything seemed in order, so I passed his advice to my son and the job was duly completed to everyone's satisfaction.
So again, apologise for upsetting people. Perhaps I should resisted the temptation to ask Gasbag how much he would get out of bed for ( a genuine enquiry ) then the debate would not have escalated as it has done.

glitter123

We had almost the same work carried out three years ago including a new programmer. Our price was in the same region as your quotes so sound pretty good to me.

NikeAir

I live in Croydon and over Christmas my boiler stopped working. I called British Gas and they said the boiler was knackered and it would cost over a £1000 to fix. Parts were corroded and water had got into the printed circuit board for the controls. They asked if the boiler had been leaking, however until the night before it stopped working, i had never experienced any leaks and i had only turned a valve the night before following the instructions manual to increase the pressure and that was the first time i had leaks. So not too sure that there was any corrosion. I am a transport engineer so i think i'd know idf something was corroded. Anyways it was cler that pipes and the PCB definitely needed replacing. It's a Vokera boiler (I only just moved into the flat 5 months ago).

I called British gas for a quote and they have said it would cost £4,295 to replace with a Worcester Greenstar 24i Junior, however scaffolding would be needed as i live on the second floor of my block. I get a homecare discount of £100 and another discount for signing on before the end of today(7th january) £300. So the real price without discounts=£4695!!!:mad:

Please i need advice from anyone that knows about Boilers especially on

1.Why i cant replace with the same cheaper Boiler (Vokera) i had before

2. if this is a reasonable price as there is scaffolding and a labour costs involved.

3.Told that it could be done in a day by British gas consultant

4.Please can anyone also let me know if this scaffolding is needed as i have been told that all that would be done is replacing the boiler in the flat.

5.Would it more advisable to get a local CORGI registered engineer to fix it /replace and what the advantages / disadvantges of going with British Gas.

I have replied to this thread rather than creating a new one as i see there are quite a few knowledgable people (Engineers) and i would much rather prefer people in the know to respond to this post.

PLEASE HELP !!!! I would appreciate a response asap.

Canucklehead

Good afternoon: Your Vokera must be replaced by a condensing boiler except under extremely limited circumstances (although I wouldn't recommend another Vokera;)). Take at look at this guide from the Energy Saving Trust for more info on installation and specification.

Get in an independent RGI , preferably one recommended to you by a source you trust, to give you a quote( or find one here )

HTH

Canucklehead

givememoney

Well it's all got very nasty here hasn't here.

Anyway, you are all paying too much.

It is stated in the Daily Mail(so it must be true) this week that the cost for supplying and fitting a new boiler is £400!!! They are doing some articles this week on saving money and they reckon by coughing up this £400 on a new boiler you will be quids in by greater efficiency.

Canucklehead

givememoney wrote: »

Well it's all got very nasty here hasn't here.

Anyway, you are all paying too much.

It is stated in the Daily Mail(so it must be true) this week that the cost for supplying and fitting a new boiler is £400!!! They are doing some articles this week on saving money and they reckon by coughing up this £400 on a new boiler you will be quids in by greater efficiency.

You've made my day....for those who don't partake of the Mail here you go.:eek: I know the DM is in a bit of a time warp but really:D

Canucklehead

The_Governor

I don't get it, why would they think it would cost £400 to supply and fit a new boiler?

Magnolia

I wonder if they have used the wrong word here - someone might have been talking about a new kettle - we call ours 'the boiler'

To get a decent condensing boiler would cost between 600 and 800 quid and more if a higher flow rate was needed.

Maybe they missed a 0 of the end :rotfl:

Oh forgot to say - colleague of mine had combi boiler replaced with condensing boiler. The needed a bit of re jiggin with the pipework and flue as it wasn't like for like. Flush system with nasty kemikuls and include inhibitor in final fill - de scaler and thing to catch big bits

All works costing £1800 from a local tradesman. - gotta love 'em - when you can get one that is:rolleyes:

nwph

Hello i'm new here but i am a gas enegineer /plumber with 20yrs experience ,my old man is also in the trade he is a resident corgi inspector for a large local installer who employ over 200 plumbers/gas engineers.

May i just say to the op top perhaps maybe get one more quote ,i myself tend to quote over the phone for certain jobs saves wasting fuel and time .

If the other quote comes in around the same price you know that is the going rate for that particular job ,if it is vastly under i would suggest there maybe something amiss ,some unscrupulous tradesmen do actually use someone qualified to sign off there work.

And to wii man 1 may suggest you are not suitably qualified to give an opinion on any or facet of the plumbing and heating trade .

Just another point if for instance your boiler swap costs you £2000 and lasts you ten yrs the cost of having instant hot water and heat for your house has cost you around £3.80 a week ,which actually sounds quiet cheap .

And there also seems to be a myth that a device that gives heating and hot water is supposed to somehow last forever ,its not ,businesses would go bust if they manufactured a boiler that lasted forever.

May i just say aswell that the profit on a business has to be worked out over the 12 month period ,running any business comtains lots of work that actually goes unseen by the customer.

Any business class ,seminar ,advisor will tell you that any work actually undertaked both unseen and seen is chargeable ,hrs spent on receipts ,books ,paperwork ,travelling ,training ,fuel ,qualifications ,tools ,stock etc.

Many customers do not appreciate this normally due to ingnorance on how a business is run .

May i remind some that the actual profit is whats left over at the end after all running costs and overheads have been deducted.Its not about bills to pay its about making a living ,god forbid anyone is allowed to do this in this country .


Just remember gettting 5 or 6 different quotes also means you have wasted a business mans time in doing this and overall costs will go up to cover this .

The_Governor

nwph wrote: »

Just remember gettting 5 or 6 different quotes also means you have wasted a business mans time in doing this and overall costs will go up to cover this .

That is a problem - trouble is these days there are a lot of unscrupulous tradesmen, and wild variations in costs so you have to get more than a few quotations to make sure you get a good spread. Maybe if the industry was a bit more self-regulatory that would change?

You're right, when people look at quotes they don't consider overheads, mostly because that isn't really their problem - the primary question a customer should ask first is "can I afford it?" followed by "Is it fair and reasonable taking into account the effort and cost of materials".

As I think I said above, I have no problem with someone making a profit at all, that's fair enough, I simply make sure my wallet isn't getting raped

Overheads are difficult for people, but there are many of us who run businesses so know exactly how long administration takes (or doesn't take!!) - some customers have stronger business skills than others I guess