No heating in tenant's living and dining room

MarkBargain

A good starting point is to contact some local Gas Safe Registered plumbers to ask how much they charge to service a boiler and provide the gas safety certificates. The local company I use charges £60 including VAT to service both a boiler and gas fire, and they do a thorough job taking over an hour for two of them.

As Zephyr wrote, build up some good local relationships and you're unlikely to go wrong. It's good to keep the money in the local community too rather than funding the shareholders of the big firms.

penny_crayon

xylophone wrote: »

You have bled the radiators?

Checked any thermostatic valves on the radiators and that the radiators have not been turned off?

Checked that the pump isn't faulty?

I can't check any of thee things, it's a fully managed rental property that is miles away from where I live. I would assume an engineer being called out would check this first? As it costs the least to them

G_M

penny_crayon wrote: »

I can't check any of thee things, it's a fully managed rental property that is miles away from where I live. I would assume an engineer being called out would check this first? As it costs the least to them

You'd hope so.

But getting you to pay for a Powerflush costs them even less...........

Cynical? Me??

penny_crayon

MarkBargain wrote: »

A 2kw heater would cost about 26p an hour to run.

Thank you - doesn't seem that expensive

Do you need a maintenence contract, or could you just call out a local tradesman when there is a problem? (especially if you know any good ones). It doesn't seem your contract is working very well, and if you paid a local person to do a specific job they are more likely to help you so they get paid and so you give them future work.

I don't like surprises, and we had issues with the boiler before we got the contract that cost over £600 to sort out. It's in London so it's more expensive I think.

Have you spoken to your tenants personally or is it all through the agency?

All through the agency. They sent out their recommended lumber for the power flush though

G_M

penny_crayon wrote: »

All through the agency. They sent out their recommended lumber for the power flush though

Well if they sent out lumber you can't be surprised by a woodenheaded response.

penny_crayon

G_M wrote: »

You'd hope so.

But getting you to pay for a Powerflush costs them even less...........

Cynical? Me??

But getting another plumber out would also cost money as an alternative to the maintenance one. I appreciate where your coming from and if I could manage the property myself I would but it's miles away on the wrong side of London and a nightmare to drive to.

We have had problems with heating before (hence the contract) but have never been told to get the power flush before. I'm annoyed because we have heating cover including pipes so I assumed something like a power flush would be covered. More fool me.

Pixie5740

Ask the tenants to bleed the radiators and check the radiator thermostats, or since you're paying for a fully managed service from the LA ask (tell) them to do it.

agarnett

I can't believe this thread has become so long on such a trifling matter as the need to simply bleed the air out of the top of the offending radiators. (Water heats radiators not air and air also interrupts the flow!). When radiators aren't used for some time, the weight of the water in the top of the radiators can, in less than perfectly maintained systems, cause any air in the system to collect at the top of the radiators. It is just a natural phenomenon. I am not a plumber, but every house with central heating radiators should have a square key to bleed radiators, not the number of a plumber who can't believe his luck when you don't have a clue how easy it is to fix!

There is a little square headed screw on one side of the top of every radiator. With luck whoever carefully turns it open by a half turn or so (not taking it right out) will be able to use a normal flat headed screwdriver or even a coin or similar if it also has a typical screw head notch across the square. You just turn the key carefully until you hear a hiss of escaping air and get ready to tighten it as soon as the water reaches the top. That's why you should be patient and open the screw only a little so you can hear the hiss but quickly stop it again. If the heating is on, you can even feel the hot water (heat) rising in the radiator as you let the air out. Best to wrap an old towel around the area around the screw in case the water inside is a bit black (it will stain if spilled on carpets). Presto! 99/100 problems like this will be solved in minutes.

Otherwise a very inexpensive square-headed key can be obtained in a hardware store, or borrowed from a neighbour with a more practical idea of the problems of the real world!

I appreciate we all have to learn sometimes, but what a palava over something so simple!

The clue is in the fact that all the other radiators in the house work fine.

G_M

agarnett wrote: »

I can't believe this thread has become so long on such a trifling matter as the need to simply bleed the air out ...

The clue is in the fact that all the other radiators in the house work fine.

Air is one possible cause, but it is not established.

As the OP said earlier:

I would assume an engineer being called out would check this first?

I would assume this too. But given the on-going problem, I would now check.

rosyw

xylophone wrote: »

Checked that the pump isn't faulty?

I had this happen at my old place, got conned into the powerflush which did nothing at all, replacing the pump did the trick though