Replacing central heating

unclebulgaria

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

I stated the boiler should be fitted by a Gas safe engineer and that should include any gas pipe work. When I said pipework and radiators I did only mean the water pipes. Of course an unqualified person cannot touch gas pipes. I said nothing which is unsafe, you only misinterpreted what I said to protect your job. I only stated the water system/radiators which anyone has a right to do themselves.

Nice to see people trying to protect their jobs and then claiming that any money saving is unsafe.

Getting quotes as to the recommended boiler and then checking prices to see if it could be purchased separately and a saving made providing that a qualified engineer is willing to fit it.

Check the price of parts.

I think you'll find the annoying part of your advice was the patronising insinuation that we self employed engineers are out to make a profit! Silly us, how dare we make a profit. Any discounts given to a self employed heating/plumbing engineer are usually given due to loyalty to that supplier, whether he passes them on is his concern and they then can't complain if they don't get the work due to overpricing.

Canucklehead

Microbore can be powerflushed successfully if the operative knows what he/she is doing, has the correct equipment and spends the time investigating the source of the problem and completing any remedial works. A Magnetic filter is a must.

Radio silence from the OP.;)

Canucklehead

fishybusiness

Getting quotes as to the recommended boiler and then checking prices to see if it could be purchased separately and a saving made providing that a qualified engineer is willing to fit it.

I used to really detest jobs like this - different industry, same idea.

Walking in to someones home knowing each small part of a job may be up for money saving on the part of the customer is just the worst possible situation. Take your boiler for example, you source your own, ask an engineer to fit it and certify it safe. Six months later a leak downstairs causes an issue and boiler refuses to fire up. Leak fixed, boiler still refuses. Your problem? Engineers problem? Who is liable for warranties that are an undefined problem? Engineer agrees to come out, but for a fee, you refuse, he comes out to be helpful, finds the boiler panel needs a reset, charges you £35 for the privilege, do you pay?

It just goes on and on, let the experts supply and fit, they make a profit, yeah more than you may like but they also lose some of that in return visits and warranty claims that they deal with. Their time is not free, nor is the maintenance of their skills and qualifications.

Pincher

Why did they fit microbore is the first place?

Poor people who can't afford to maintain their houses should be repossessed and the house put into foster care. House abuse is on the increase, and we must prevent this tragedy from spreading further. Please send cheques to my charity:

Campaign for
Abused &
Suffering
Houses

david29dpo

A.Penny.Saved wrote: »

I stated the boiler should be fitted by a Gas safe engineer and that should include any gas pipe work. When I said pipework and radiators I did only mean the water pipes. Of course an unqualified person cannot touch gas pipes. I said nothing which is unsafe, you only misinterpreted what I said to protect your job. I only stated the water system/radiators which anyone has a right to do themselves.

Nice to see people trying to protect their jobs and then claiming that any money saving is unsafe.

Getting quotes as to the recommended boiler and then checking prices to see if it could be purchased separately and a saving made providing that a qualified engineer is willing to fit it.

Check the price of parts.

I have seen plenty poor workmanship from gas safe experts, some of which should never be allowed to handle any form of tool!

Minute

No intention of doing any of this myself. Although, they did quote us for filling the hole (with bricks obviously) that would be left at the back of the house where the old boiler is for £300! to put like, 7 bricks in?? Which really makes me think B. Gas wants to rip us off. I did think the whole job should cost perhaps 3 to 3.5K.... I will get quotes from local people. Thanks everyone

unclebulgaria

Canucklehead wrote: »

Microbore can be powerflushed successfully if the operative knows what he/she is doing, has the correct equipment and spends the time investigating the source of the problem and completing any remedial works. A Magnetic filter is a must.

Radio silence from the OP.;)

Canucklehead

Let me clarify! You cannot successfully powerflush 8mm microbore piping. That came from IPHE, it is not advised to powerflush anything below 10mm as per my powerflushing machines manufacturers advice. Remedial work can be likened to "how long is a piece of string!"
Ive lost count of how many times I've had this arguement.

But, thanks for that link CH found it very interesting. I still wouldn't powerflush 8mm microbore. I'd be more inclined to advise regular maintenance on the wet side, ESPECIALLY on 8mm microbore. Agree to disagree.

Ben84

My experience as a user of microbore systems is that they're basically useless and don't deliver heating very well. I've had these pipes replaced on an old system with thicker ones, but kept the existing boiler and radiators, resulting in a fairly inexpensive but significant improvement to the performance of the whole system. If your boiler works well and the radiators are still good condition, I wouldn't replace them. Of course, if some radiators needed resizing/relocating or you wanted thermostatic valves (well worth the money while you have a plumber available at little extra cost), then it would be a good time to do that. It would be a lasting improvement and if needed in the future a new boiler could be attached to the system.