Boiler problems - is my builder at fault?

iwilldoitthistime

Hi

A couple of days ago my hot water went off and my heating wouldnt switch off. i rang npower (as I have boiler cover) and the engineer who came out said the problem was that when the boiler was installed by the builder (the house is 4 years old), it wasnt flushed out. The debris left behind was now causing the boiler to fail and I need to have it flushed out.

The engineer also said that the outlet pipe was not correctly attached to another pipe, which was giving us a potential carbon monoxide problem.

My question is - are the builder at fault, or is there nothing I can do except pay to have this 'flush' of the system? I had cover for the first two years after I moved in, but now that we are outside that timeframe, is there anything the builder is obliged to do? My main concern is obviously the carbon monoxide which potentially could have effected my family! Also - if they havent done what they should have (i.e the original flush of the system), should they be liable for the repercussions?

Any views would be helpful.:beer:

Myser

I have seen the same sort of response from British Gas.

Even if you have their full cover, if the system isn't installed properly i.e. flushed before comissioning and the outlet pipes going correctly to the drain, they will drop you down to their reduced cover package and not put the issues right.

Your best bet is to have an assessment of the items that need correcting and contact your installer to correct them.

These big companies like British Gas and nPower will charge a lot of money to do a power flush. You're better off finding a local company if it needs to be done.

DVardysShadow

iwilldoitthistime wrote: »

My main concern is obviously the carbon monoxide which potentially could have effected my family!

Get a Carbon Monoxide alarm. Good idea anyway, which will tell you one way or the other.

iwilldoitthistime

thanks. As it happens I already have an alarm in the garage and it has never gone off, but the potential is there, which is worrying. I will get on to the builder next week and explain what the engineer has said.

thanks for the advice.

bungle4by4

sounds like a lot of rubbish to sell a power flush to me.

ormus

i wouldnt trust BG to walk my dog.

phill99

But how do you know the builder didn't flush it and did install all the pipe work correctly?

There is no way you (or any court) can hold the original installer liable after 4 years.

ukjoel

Ask them to put everything in writing for you so you can show it to the housebuilder.
Bet you they wont. They are probably trying to sell up a powerflush at £600 a shot.

Local company will do them for £200 to £300.

foreversummer

But if the house is 4 years old and the boiler was installed by the builder you had a new system!!! What was there to be powerflushed?

iwilldoitthistime

the npower engineer seemed to be saying that when the new system was installed, it should have been power flushed. He didnt do any type of sales pitch for npower, he just said it would keep on happening if it wasnt flushed.

Ive never heard of power flushing a system - and have lived in houses for up to 12 years at a time. Is this a common problem??

Myser

You only need to power flush a system if you are comissioning a new boiler with existing pipework and radiators. If you don't powerflush, it will invalidate the warranty of the new boiler.

Powerflushing may also be required on existing systems that suffer from radiators not heating up fully i.e. sludge build up. This usually happens over many years with old radiators.