Completely new Heating System quote. Help!

admiral9

Hi

Hope you can all help. Grateful for any views!

I have had a national company come in and quote (will hopefully get some more quotes but not easy for this job) to completely replace my heating system (boiler plus ALL piping across a 4 double bedroomed house – 15 radiators). I would love some people’s opinions as to how the quote looks. I’m in the South West.

Quote:
Combi Boiler £870 (stupidly don’t know details yet but I know he said it had an A rating and a 32kw. I think it’s a Worcester but checking.)
Boiler Instillation/wiring/connections etc (i.e. it’s a combi-combi replacement) £870
All necessary system water treatments plus Magnaclean filter £280
Fitting Wireless Thermostat and 14 new TRV’s £940 (I think I have 15 radiators)
Replace all 8mm plastic microbore piping with copper piping (14 radiators, 4 double bedrooms/ensuite/large hall & lounge): £2,700

Total £5,600

I therefore see this in two parts. Firstly the Combi boiler replacement plus valves etc etc. £2,900. And then all the piping work for £2,700.

The background to all the piping work is that I have lived with a microbore system failing on me for years. And having spent a very very hard 2 days trying to flush out one (of 4) manifold with a plumber friend only to find it blocking up again 12 months later then its at my request to replace the whole system, I’ve had it once and for all with Microbor). It’s going to be a big job and it’s probably more difficult to judge whether this part of the quote is right. Currently most of the upstairs radiators are virtually stone cold.

That leaves £2,900 of the quote for the boiler, TVR’s thermostat etc etc. I’m thinking that the boiler price (depending on what it is) and the installation is not daft but that the £940 for the TVR’s and thermostat fitting etc look a bit steep.
Any views?!

Cheers

bosseyed

I might be out of touch here, but 15 radiators? Thats seems a huge amount! In my 3 bed I had the central heating installed (there wasn't any....brrr) and I've ended up with 7 in total including a heated towel rail in the bathroom, so either you have tons of rooms that I'm not thinking of, or you just love radiators!

Anyway, quotewise, it seems a teeny bit high - however copper pipework is a longer and more expensive job than the grey plastic stuff - is there any reason it absolutely has to be copper? Might be worth checking out the pros and cons of the modern flexi plastic stuff.

Find out what boiler it is. Worcester Combis are generally well regarded, but armed with a model number you can trawl for prices and see if the quote is fair.

The wireless thermostat is literally just a plastic box to be affixed to the wall - takes 5 minutes, so check they're not ripping you off by hiding a big chunk of cost for this under the TRV install.

I'm not entirely sure why you need to pay for a water system treatment - I can perhaps just about see the logic of a filter, but £280 seems a little expensive.

Also check the brand of radiators - Stelrads are good. You might find they just give you cheap B&Q jobs which aren't great if you don't confirm the radiator brands.

For a vague comparison, I'm in the southwest and I had a very good local company fit the entire system, all radiators, towel rail, Worcester 28i greenstar combi and the cheaper flex plastic pipework (copper for the boiler tails and all radiator tails though) for £3,300

taker920

Not sure about a combi/combi replacement but we've just had our back boiler replaced with a £750 combi and it included 2 new radiators/new piping/water treatment/TRV's on 7 old radiators for £1830. This is in poverty stricken Wales though

Dan_S_3

bosseyed wrote: »

For a vague comparison, I'm in the southwest and I had a very good local company fit the entire system, all radiators, towel rail, Worcester 28i greenstar combi and the cheaper flex plastic pipework (copper for the boiler tails and all radiator tails though) for £3,300

Was that all in? Parts & labour etc?

albionrovers

Got 14 radiators and a new Baxi combi for 2,300 cash in Scotland. Lovely. And they (obviously) still made a decent mark up.

albionrovers

Above - all fitted and all old stuff taken away too.

bosseyed

Dan_S wrote: »

Was that all in? Parts & labour etc?

Yep, that was all in, parts labour, the whole shindig. They're a 'property services' company, so they dealt with all manner of housey things. They did a good job too. In fact we ended up using them for a fair chunk of the work on the house and I happily did them a testimonial when they applied to join the federation of master builders.

Antric

bosseyed wrote: »

I might be out of touch here, but 15 radiators? Thats seems a huge amount! In my 3 bed I had the central heating installed (there wasn't any....brrr) and I've ended up with 7 in total including a heated towel rail in the bathroom, so either you have tons of rooms that I'm not thinking of, or you just love radiators!

Anyway, quotewise, it seems a teeny bit high - however copper pipework is a longer and more expensive job than the grey plastic stuff - is there any reason it absolutely has to be copper? Might be worth checking out the pros and cons of the modern flexi plastic stuff.

Find out what boiler it is. Worcester Combis are generally well regarded, but armed with a model number you can trawl for prices and see if the quote is fair.

The wireless thermostat is literally just a plastic box to be affixed to the wall - takes 5 minutes, so check they're not ripping you off by hiding a big chunk of cost for this under the TRV install.

I'm not entirely sure why you need to pay for a water system treatment - I can perhaps just about see the logic of a filter, but £280 seems a little expensive.

Also check the brand of radiators - Stelrads are good. You might find they just give you cheap B&Q jobs which aren't great if you don't confirm the radiator brands.

For a vague comparison, I'm in the southwest and I had a very good local company fit the entire system, all radiators, towel rail, Worcester 28i greenstar combi and the cheaper flex plastic pipework (copper for the boiler tails and all radiator tails though) for £3,300

I would actually say the oppsite to this response I am an Installer Fully register Gas/ unvented hot water / water regs/ engery efficency/ quailfied

Il start by saying if i had a £1 for every worcester thats broken down and ive had to go fix (which may i add are the most complicated boiler to fix and service) and im talking within the first 3 yrs of the install. i never have and never would install one.

as far as using plastic pipe over copper there isnt much price difference tbh the fittings for plastic can be very costly.

A Wireless thermostat may take 5 mins to fix to the wall what about wiring it into the zone valve setting up the reciver specailly if theres more than one zone not a 5min job trust me im an installer i know

The water treatment is a must or the warranty will be completey void and if you dont have it done then the new boiler wont last 5 mins before you start getting parts go.

also if you have more than two bathrooms i wouldnt go for a combi or more than 2 of you in the household you should be looking at a system boiler with stored water

EliteHeat

Antric wrote: »

Il start by saying if i had a £1 for every worcester thats broken down and ive had to go fix (which may i add are the most complicated boiler to fix and service) and im talking within the first 3 yrs of the install. i never have and never would install one.

Oh dear Antric, after such a promising start and in the midst of sound advice, you've gone and committed a cardinal sin around these parts - you have had the temerity to suggest that a Worcester-Bosch boiler will not in fact last forever with just a yearly inspection, accomplished with a duster and a can of Mr Sheen.

Just to put you straight, many here are expecting their grand children to inherit their WB Juniors and there is at least one poster who claims that they cost less than Ravenheats but sadly won't tell us where we can buy them from.

If you make any other gaffes, especially concerning rip-off prices or you claiming to be anything other than a glorified labourer, I will let you know

bosseyed

Antric wrote: »

I would actually say the oppsite to this response I am an Installer Fully register Gas/ unvented hot water / water regs/ engery efficency/ quailfied

Il start by saying if i had a £1 for every worcester thats broken down and ive had to go fix (which may i add are the most complicated boiler to fix and service) and im talking within the first 3 yrs of the install. i never have and never would install one.

as far as using plastic pipe over copper there isnt much price difference tbh the fittings for plastic can be very costly.

A Wireless thermostat may take 5 mins to fix to the wall what about wiring it into the zone valve setting up the reciver specailly if theres more than one zone not a 5min job trust me im an installer i know

The water treatment is a must or the warranty will be completey void and if you dont have it done then the new boiler wont last 5 mins before you start getting parts go.

also if you have more than two bathrooms i wouldnt go for a combi or more than 2 of you in the household you should be looking at a system boiler with stored water

Thats interesting, and what EliteHeat says above. I can't possibly disagree with either of you as I'm not an installer, so ultimately I'm only repeating what all the various installers told me when I got quotes in - every single one of them recommended Vaillant first off, but then said as they were generally more expensive then a Worcester was the next best thing being apparently bombproof and easy to fix with a high part availability if they ever (rarely) did go wrong.

Perhaps its just a Southwest thing oo-arrr.

__Chocolate__

Hi, was going to post a separate thread, but I'm looking for something very similar to the OP. I'm intending on replacing the existing conventional system in our house, boiler pipes et al. At the moment we have a storage tank on the 1st floor, which due to re-jigging of the bedrooms we would ideally need to get rid of. We will also have two showers upstairs, 1 for the main bathroom and 1 ensuite that we'd love to be able to chuck out high pressure h2o simultaneously. We're modernising so intend to replace all the radiators, approx 15 and thermostats. 1 main bathroom, ensuite and a downstairs toilet/sink need fitting as well. We also need the pipework introduced into the extension.

After some preliminary research it would seem that a megaflow system would be the preferred option system wise, with pumps for the showers. I'm a novice at these matters so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Also a ballpark figure for cost would be really helpful. Getting 1st quote today and will be getting more over the next couple of weeks. Will update when I have a figure. Thanks.