Survey advice wanted

G_M

Star999 wrote: »

The report states it was built approx 1950.
Not sure about the age of the central heating, but the report states the following:

"Central heating and hot water is provided by the back boiler to the living room gas fire. The back boiler is likely to be is an old unit and will therefore require more frequent repair than a modern one. There may also be difficulty in obtaining spares. Where visible, the distribution pipework is copper.

The radiators are of the steel panel type and these are of some age. The radiators are not fitted with thermostatic valve controls which aid heating efficiency. The expansion tank to the
installation is situated in the roof void and this is plastic. Because of its age increasing maintenance costs should be anticipated and it will not be as efficient as a modern installation."

And from the surveyors report, it sounds like it was on as he says it was "operating."

My advice is to save yourself the cost of a heating engineer's inspection.

It's clearly a dated and inefficient system and rather than mess around flushing, replacing a rad here and there etc, I would ripout and start again.

New, efficient boiler, new plumbing and rads, new tank.

Whether you can negotiate a cost reduction on the basis of this is uncertain.

You buy an older property, with a clearly dated system, you take it 'as seen'. ie needing updating. So the sellers might well say "we've agreed a price based on the the age/condition, so will not reduce further".

Equally, you might persuade them you had not realised the system was so old, you are disappointed by the survey, and need a reduction to allow you to replace the system.

You may be lucky.

Star999

G_M wrote: »

My advice is to save yourself the cost of a heating engineer's inspection.

It's clearly a dated and inefficient system and rather than mess around flushing, replacing a rad here and there etc, I would ripout and start again.

New, efficient boiler, new plumbing and rads, new tank.

Whether you can negotiate a cost reduction on the basis of this is uncertain.

You buy an older property, with a clearly dated system, you take it 'as seen'. ie needing updating. So the sellers might well say "we've agreed a price based on the the age/condition, so will not reduce further".

Equally, you might persuade them you had not realised the system was so old, you are disappointed by the survey, and need a reduction to allow you to replace the system.

You may be lucky.

Hi

The property does need some updating and we were of that when we made the offer.

i.e. new kitchen, new bathroom, new doors, new carpets/laminates. We recognised the central heating and boiler was old but was going to leave it for now until we could afford to replace the whole thing maybe about a year later.
But as a few radiators are not working, we feel it's best to replace the whole thing now before we move in as we have a baby.

I wouldn't ask the seller to pay for all this as we saw the radiators were old, so was just going to ask them to reduce the price by however much it would cost to just replace the affected radiators.

I was thinking maybe £200 per radiator and £500 for the water tank? Does this seem reasonable?

jimmy_cricket

Star999 wrote: »

Hi
Any idea how much this cost?

Can't remember exactly butvunder £500 and that was having to chage a couple of pipes

jimmy_cricket

G_M wrote: »

My advice is to save yourself the cost of a heating engineer's inspection.

It's clearly a dated and inefficient system and rather than mess around flushing, replacing a rad here and there etc, I would ripout and start again.

New, efficient boiler, new plumbing and rads, new tank.

Whether you can negotiate a cost reduction on the basis of this is uncertain.

You buy an older property, with a clearly dated system, you take it 'as seen'. ie needing updating. So the sellers might well say "we've agreed a price based on the the age/condition, so will not reduce further".

Equally, you might persuade them you had not realised the system was so old, you are disappointed by the survey, and need a reduction to allow you to replace the system.

You may be lucky.

But if one of those old baxi back boilers I would leave alone. Mines 20 years old and friend's is nearly 30 and both going strong. Those new boilers don't last nearly as long

pmlindyloo

jimmy_cricket wrote: »

But if one of those old baxi back boilers I would leave alone. Mines 20 years old and friend's is nearly 30 and both going strong. Those new boilers don't last nearly as long

I absolutely agree with this. We have an old baxi back boiler with a gas fire in front (60s house) and when we moved in a couple of the radiators were not working.

We called out a gas engineer and he quickly fixed the problem. I am not sure that a surveyor is the correct person to comment on these things.

The valuation has been done in full knowledge of the 'old system'. As you say, the property needs updating.

Personally I wouldn't be asking for a reduction in price (well, by all means ask but go ahead if the answer is 'no')

You can either get a gas engineer in to give you their expert opinion and then rearrange your order of work to the house (remember installing a new heating system means this needs to be done before most other things) or leave it until you move.

It could be something really simple especially if the vendors haven't had it serviced regularly.

Our gas engineer's advice was to keep the old baxi back boiler until it breaks - not as efficient as the new boilers, super ugly but the gas fire is wonderfully cosy and it will take years to make up the difference in price between installing new and leaving it until it has to be replaced. They are extremely long lasting so if the gas engineer says it is safe and can deal with the radiator problem then you can leave it until you are ready to replace it.

Doozergirl

I agree with G_M. The system is clearly outdated and inefficient. Replace the whole heating and hot water systems, not just radiators.

If the house isn't huge then if you have a combi boiler, you won't need a water tank at all.

If you do this piecemeal, you will end up spending more.

Also, as said, these things need to be done before everything else. You don't want to wreck new work by doing things backwards.

Lord_Baltimore

Star999 wrote: »

My mortgage lender paid for the basic valuation report and we had to pay £144 for the Homebuyers report.

Do you think the report is value for money or might you have saved that £144 for remedial works? Let's consider the advice given:

Central heating and hot water is provided by the back boiler to the living room gas fire.

Gettaway.

The back boiler is likely to be is an old unit and will therefore require more frequent repair than a modern one.

Gettaway.

There may also be difficulty in obtaining spares. Where visible, the distribution pipework is copper.

There may be, there may not be difficulty in obtaining spares. As others have said Baxi boilers seem to last forever.

The radiators are of the steel panel type and these are of some age.

Well spotted. Everything is of "some age".

The radiators are not fitted with thermostatic valve controls which aid heating efficiency.

Nope. That's because they probably didn't exist when the system was installed. Not everyone, even today, has thermostatic valve controls.

The expansion tank to the installation is situated in the roof void and this is plastic.

Well it won't rust then. This is a positive the surveyor didn't mention.

Because of its age increasing maintenance costs should be anticipated and it will not be as efficient as a modern installation

.

This statement could apply to anything from your car to your dishwasher to your roof joists and front door.


Money for old rope imho.

Doozergirl

It might be money for old rope for some, but for others, like the OP, the survey has helped them understand that the is a cost coming up that they haven't anticipated.

That sort of thing is obvious to me, but I'm also the sort that has to buy a car in warranty because I don't know how it works and I'm petrified of paying for remedial work because I bought incorrectly.

Information is power.

Star999

Doozergirl wrote: »

It might be money for old rope for some, but for others, like the OP, the survey has helped them understand that the is a cost coming up that they haven't anticipated.

That sort of thing is obvious to me, but I'm also the sort that has to buy a car in warranty because I don't know how it works and I'm petrified of paying for remedial work because I bought incorrectly.

Information is power.

The report was of use to as it highlighted issues we weren't aware of.
Also as we're ftb, it helps to have a third pair of eyes look at the property and write down what they see as we get to see it from a different perspective.

G_M

jimmy_cricket wrote: »

But if one of those old baxi back boilers I would leave alone. Mines 20 years old and friend's is nearly 30 and both going strong. Those new boilers don't last nearly as long

Agree these old boilers were built tolast longer, but...

a 20 year old Baxi back boiler may have another good 5, even 10 years life.

a new, modern boiler will last at least 15, maybe 20 years.

But meantime it will use considerably less fuel each year.

and as doozergirl says, replacing piecemeal will always costmore, so doing rads this year, then tank next, then boiler a bit later....... bad plan.

Plus you'll almost certainly need todopipe-work, which means floorboards up.

Do it all at once, up front, then forget about it and reap the benefits each and every year.

(You'll also have no breakdowns to worry about, or if it does breakdown, it'll be under warranty.)