Boiler replacement

Mickygg

I've had a few quotes to replace my standard non combi boiler with a WB.Reading several posts on here I was expecting quotes of near £1,500. However 2 quotes have come in, one at £2,800 (incl vat) and one at £2,450 (no vat).
The quotes include a flush, magniclean tool and a boiler retailing at £700 incl Vat.
Come someone please tell me how people can get quotes around £1,500?? Or are these quotes 'reasonable'.
The work should take a day, the boiler is in the same place.
I'm just amazed at these prices. One was from an accredited WB company and another a one man band independent.
Thanks all.

gas4you

You may be lucky to get a quote for around £1500-£1600 + VAT, but I doubt a decent installer fitting a decent boiler and offering a decent warranty could go any lower than this for a straight swap even.

I quoted a straight swap combi this week and that was £1695 + VAT with a 5 year warranty, flush, Magnaclean and wireless room stat.

Mickygg

Looking at the prices I would be happy with £1,695 plus VAT but noone my way comes near that, especially as you also quoted for a wireless room stat in that price.
One of the boiler people called me back to say they would 'throw in' the magnaclean to get my business, but that only saves £174.

I'll keep looking, at least my boiler still works so unless I get an ok price I'll sit tight. I wont be parting with £2,500.

alleycat`

Mickygg wrote: »

Looking at the prices I would be happy with £1,695 plus VAT but noone my way comes near that, especially as you also quoted for a wireless room stat in that price.
One of the boiler people called me back to say they would 'throw in' the magnaclean to get my business, but that only saves £174.

I'll keep looking, at least my boiler still works so unless I get an ok price I'll sit tight. I wont be parting with £2,500.

Not sure how it saves £174 since all of the "common models" of magnaclean can be had for around about or just under £100.

I would assume Trade might be able to beat that price as well.

I suppose including fitting you could make a case for £174 if it was a standalone modification but as he is quoting for the whole job i don't really see the additional cost assuming it isn't a pig space to work in.

Is the house over 3 storeys or is there any difficult access / uprated gas works you haven't mentioned?

Edit:- I'd have expected on or around £2K to be a fair price for a reasonably easy swapout based on my own experience just this year.

Mickygg

The boiler guy quoted separately for the magnaclean £174 incl fitting.

I think now £1,500 was out of reach but thanks for confirming alleycat as I too think I must be able to get it done for £2k. It's a straight swap with easy access. All quotes have said its a straightforward job. No extra works required or quoted for.


The search continues!

PaulF81

http://www.plumbworld.co.uk/magnaclean-central-heating-1374-15134?utm_source=GoogleBase&utm_medium=GB&utm_campaign=GoogleBase

We bought our boiler ourselves and got it fitted by a local gas man (straight off the gas safe website). This way, you can guarantee not getting ripped off for materials.

macman

One day to install including a power flush? Removal of old, install of new, flue change, condensate pipe install, commissioning and testing, doing the bench mark documentation?
How many corners do you expect them to cut if doing all that in one day?

alleycat`

In my case it took from 8am until about 7pm.
He'd actually booked it for a day and a half but he had his apprentice available to do some of the works, including pipe bending, soldering, etc. so he decided to work later.

I was also at home so i helped do a few bits with regards to isolating the water moving stuff out of the way, fetching and carrying odds and ends (and probably most importantly plying him with tea and coffee).

The fact the boiler was in the integral garage, on an outside wall with everything "right there" made it a very simple operation.

I'd spent a lot of time clearing things out of the way prior to the engineers arrival to make life as simple as possible and he'd trusted me to do so.

I also was with him whilst he did the commissioning work and he spent quite a while explaining it all to me.

I resent the fact you think someone quoting a competitive price is somehow a bodge merchant.
I had 3 quotes from different, known to me, RGI's and none of them differed by more than £90 (boilers were either Vaillant or WB and all are accredited installers for the particular brand they quoted for).

I didn't even try haggle any of them as i thought they were straight up with me.

My quote didn't include a replacement "stat" as my existing stuff works perfectly ok and my costs are not much different to Gas4You.

Ronnie22_2

I bought a vailant combi last year for about £1000, I was going to relocate it and fit it myself then get sign off by a mate, letting him do the final gas connection.

Another mate was out of work so he fitted it for £400, took a day and a half. I fitted the flue through the roof and did lots of little bits to help (get in the way).

Ended up being a mare of a job, boiler went in fine, but when the boiler called for gas it kept cutting out after a few seconds.

Bit of head scratching and a few hours, and I traced it back to gas supply pressure, the incomming gas main was partially blocked.

Two days later the gas company had moled in a new gas main for us and bingo boiler all working fine, no charge from gas company. Next door shared a gas stop !!!! with us so they had to have their main done too, they ended up with four big holes in the garden where the mole went awol.

You never know whether there may be additional unforseen costs.

Dam good boiler...

gas4you

I always allow 2 days for a straight swap, if I am lucky maybe only 1 1/2 days.

First day, removing old boiler, fitting new plus any 'accessories', 2nd day flushing and commissioning.