Help! I need advice on my boiler

hannahjaynexo

Hi everyone, I bought my house in 2019. It’s 100+ years old and was bought with the knowledge there was a problem with the boiler. The house had a lot of potential and we bought it as a fixer upper. We have increased the value by £60,000 and are desperate to sell as we want to have another baby and we have outgrown this house however we have a major issue with the boiler that we can’t seem to fix. It drops pressure multiple times a day and so we have to go into the attic to put the pressure back up and then it is fine and works as normal. The more we use it the more often it drops, in the summer we can go days without needing to put it up. Not ideal when the weather is so cold and we have a 2 year old whose bedroom gets freezing throughout the night if the heating is not on regularly. We have had many plumbers out, ones we have paid/ones who are family members/ones who are friends doing a favour just to give their opinion and try and see if they can fix the problem with no luck. My partner has dealt with them when they have been here so I can’t remember exactly what the plumbers have tried but what I do know is that they’re all baffled as to why it’s doing this. Now I know there could possibly be a leak causing the pressure to drop but there is no sign of a leak around the house or pipework in the attic so it would only be under the floor boards. I just don’t know what to do, if we replace the boiler and it carries on happening we are back to square one with the added cost. If we rip up the tiled flooring in the kitchen etc and it’s not a leak then that’s not ideal. I can’t see our house being desirable if we try and sell with the problem existing even with it being newly renovated. Has anyone got any advice? Thank you!

Rodders53

That you've had multiple plumbers in and paid is a sad indictment of their competency (lack of).

It's very basic plumbing detective work to determine if:

The boiler pressure vessel is adequately sized (if an extra external one is needed) and holding pressure / not failed.

The boiler pressure is exceeding the set pressure relief valve (PRV) setting and water is escaping as a consequence (for safety reasons)  Also if that PRV is now 'letting water' due to not resealing / reseating and needs replacement.

Also do a test of isolating the boiler to see if water / pressure is lost internal to boiler and out the condensate pipe.  Or if the circulating water is losing water by monitoring the pressure when boiler is then reconnected.

Most likely is the lack of expansion vessel capacity so the beast dumps water as it over-pressures...

tacpot12

If you are honest with the potential buyers, you will get a lower offer, but someone might underestimate the cost and difficulty of getting the problem fixed and make you an offer than is just few thousand pounds lower than what they would otherwise offer. If so, you should accept the offer promptly! Hiding the issue isn't fair, and might cause you problems down the line. 

The only other option is to persevere with finding the cause. It's going to be expensive, but the alternative is also going to cost you between £3-5000 on your sale price.