How stupid am i??

von

I decided to change my boiler as central heating system was noisy and loud. Had a quote for £3000.00 ish including a couple of other jobs i.e. new towel radiator in bathroom etc. Anyway, I checked with the Gas Safe Register that the engineer was registered with them which he was and he duly came and put it in the boiler. This was in August so when he finished he said it was all working fine and we paid him. It wasn't working and hasn't worked yet, the downstairs radiators have never worked yet and he now he says that he needs to change all the pipework as the water is not reaching the rads downstairs. I am kicking myself for paying him but don't know what to do now - any advice??

david29dpo

Has he said you need to pay more?

von

When we told him the rads downstairs weren't working he said he needed to find the manifold which was probably blocked. This was probably under the floorboards upstairs so he came back to look for the manifold but said he couldn't find it but instead changed a join in one of the pipes under the floorboards. He then put a chemical in the system and told us he would come back in 2 weeks as that was the maximum time the chemical would take to work. He came back yesterday (although he told us he would be back on Wednesday but when we contacted him on Wednesday he insisted he had told us Thursday), and flushed out the system again but the rads still don't work so he says now he needs to change all the pipework. He has told us that we owe him £247.00 for the work he did prior to yesterdays work and is waiting to hear from us to decide if we want all the pipework changed, he hasn't told us the bill for yesterday yet.

Jem8472

Just from what you have posted I get the feeling he is ripping you off. I would suggest that he gets the heating working properly before any more money is handed over. Also I dont know if contacting gas safe might be an idea.

gas4you

What boiler did you replace?

von

It was a Baxi boiler about 30 years old, replaced it with a Vaillant.

gas4you

IF it was a back boiler on a gravity hot water system, then I would put my money on an anti gravity valve fitted on the old ch circuit pipes and the water to the downstairs rads is now going the wrong way so the valve will be kept shut, so the rads will not get hot.

Quite often they would be fitted in the pipe work next to the BBU chimney breast, near to the ceiling.

Shouldn't need much re-piping to sort out.

I've been caught out by these before, when hidden in an unusual place, and no doubt I will again sometime in the future

von

Thanks for that gas4u, yes it was a back boiler on a gravity hot water system. We have one radiator in the hall downstairs which is still working but the ones in the kitchen are living room are not getting hot?

Does this makes sense with your theory?

Do you think the original gas engineer should have thought about that before telling us we needed to change all the pipework?

unclebulgaria

spot on G4Y. Tell your installer to follow the piping from the back boiler up into the void beneath upstairs flooring. Its usually right where G4Y has mentioned. Whether he charges for this work is open to debate but if the heating circuit was working, getting hot, before he came then I think he's got to take it on the chin and sort the problem. Calling Gas Safe wont fix the problem unless he's made a mistake on the installation of the boiler and its affecting the boilers safe operation. They wouldn't get involved with the wet side of the heating as its not in their remit. You could try Trading Standards but you still have to give the guy every opportunity to put things right before you go down any legal route.
Whether he should have thought of it depends if he's familiar with it.

von

Thanks again, could you just clarify then why the radiator in the downstairs hall is working when the others downstairs are not? Surely none of them should be working downstairs if what you have said is correct?

I don't think he's made a mistake on the installation of the boiler as far as I know as he called out the man from Vaillant to check whether it was the boiler itself which wasn't working correctly so I would have thought he would have checked that it had been installed correctly?

gas4you

Can't answer that one without seeing it, but there is a possibility it is piped from a different place on the pipe work.

Still worth getting him to check for the valve though.