Prices for Installing New Combi Boiler as a Straight Swap

cwcw

We are thinking of getting a new combi boiler as the current one is about 9 years old and keeps having problems at £50 - £100 a time. I've been looking at boilers and was pleasantly surprised to find decent Vaillant boilers with remote timers for around the £1,000 mark.

However, from reading various other forums and websites I get the impression that Gas Safe engineers charge around £1,000 - £1,500 to just install a new boiler, which in a straight swap situation would be a day's work at most.

How can these sort of prices be justified? I needn't have bothered getting straight As and studying for years for a professional job had I known I could do only one day a week and still be on nearly twice the salary fitting boilers.

HappyMJ

cwcw wrote: »

We are thinking of getting a new combi boiler as the current one is about 9 years old and keeps having problems at £50 - £100 a time. I've been looking at boilers and was pleasantly surprised to find decent Vaillant boilers with remote timers for around the £1,000 mark.

However, from reading various other forums and websites I get the impression that Gas Safe engineers charge around £1,000 - £1,500 to just install a new boiler, which in a straight swap situation would be a day's work at most.

How can these sort of prices be justified? I needn't have bothered getting straight As and studying for years for a professional job had I known I could do only one day a week and still be on nearly twice the salary fitting boilers.

If you think it's so easy installing a boiler then why don't you go through the training, hire a van for a day and install it yourself. Any RGI can fit a boiler so train yourself up and do it yourself. You'll find the cost of the course to be in the thousands.

gas4you

Usually 1-2 days by the time you have flushed the system.

Straight swap with a new Vaillant 831, powerflush, new wireless room stat, magnaclean filter or similar, chemicals etc etc, would cost around £2000 + VAT, that is if it really is a straight swap. Not many are that easy.

cwcw

HappyMJ wrote: »

If you think it's so easy installing a boiler then why don't you go through the training, hire a van for a day and install it yourself. Any RGI can fit a boiler so train yourself up and do it yourself. You'll find the cost of the course to be in the thousands.

I might just do that, I'd be able to pay back the course fees in 2 days of labour charges. My solicitor literally has a lower daily rate. Seriously, how can this be right?

booty40uk

And what do you do for a living?

diywhynot

booty40uk wrote: »

And what do you do for a living?

Educated guess....

cwcw

booty40uk wrote: »

And what do you do for a living?

Nothing that has any relevance to how much[STRIKE] plumbers[/STRIKE] "engineers" can get away with charging for a day's work. Even a solicitor doesn't get away with £1,500 a day.

southcoastrgi

the last solicitor i went to was a partner in the firm & he charged me £500 per hour to sit in a warm office keeping his hands clean

booler

Why on earth did you want to pay him for that?

jimi_man

cwcw wrote: »

We are thinking of getting a new combi boiler as the current one is about 9 years old and keeps having problems at £50 - £100 a time. I've been looking at boilers and was pleasantly surprised to find decent Vaillant boilers with remote timers for around the £1,000 mark.

However, from reading various other forums and websites I get the impression that Gas Safe engineers charge around £1,000 - £1,500 to just install a new boiler, which in a straight swap situation would be a day's work at most.

How can these sort of prices be justified? I needn't have bothered getting straight As and studying for years for a professional job had I known I could do only one day a week and still be on nearly twice the salary fitting boilers.

To be fair there is nothing stopping you doing that!

The reward for a particular job has never been based around the length of time spent training; there are thousands of anomalies out there from research fellows/university lecturers/nurses/teachers etc etc.

The advantage that gas fitters have is that the law requires them to connect stuff to the gas supply and that generally individuals are not allowed to do it. Consequently that means they technically can charge what they want, and if you contact British Gas for a quote you'll find that they do just that!

But they are not all like that, with a bit of searching around you can find people to do it for a reasonable price. I'm considering changing my boiler also, I have a Baxi Solo which has been in for 24 years; had the odd breakdown over the last couple of years so thinking about a replacement over the summer. But even in the South East, the prices I have been suggested are less than what you have stated. So search around.

It's one of the few things in the house that you can't legally do yourself, so I just look at it as a one off expense.

Ok, so technically electrics are regulated by law but I don't actually know anyone who abides by those rules to the letter, and people who previously did their own electrics prior to Part P, have continued to do them now. It now seems that the rules are being relaxed in April as well reducing the amount of notifiable work.

NVRAM

CWCW where are you based mate?