Getting a new boiler fitted (quickly)?

[.]

where are you ?

[David Pashley]

Hi,

As a follow on from my earlier "faulty boiler" post, we are now in the worst possible situation, as we have no heating or HW, a small baby in the house, and so need a new boiler quickly.

We just had a local firm out who have quoted =A32,000. Now I can obtain a Vaillant EcotecPlus 831 boiler for under =A3950 including flue kit and VAT, so basically it's =A31,000 for fitting.

I think that's a ripoff, but I'm beginning to run out of options.

What do the experts here think is a reasonable charge for replacing a floor-mounted boiler with a wall mounted unit nearby?

TIA David

[David Pashley]

Sorry, should have mentioned. Stratford-on-Avon.

David

[Ed Sirett]

Why don't you do it yourself - or are you currently lacking some of the tools or skills?

How much would you want (over and above your normal rate of pay) to make space in your personal and/or working life for an important job taking a few days that you don't absolutely have to do?

With time to plan the work and with a fairly straight forward install you could well pay less. In the middle of winter you should be thankful they are not asking what _some_ people might be prepared to pay.

I would say 1000 for this job is fair, in winter, if done well.

[John Stumbles]

£1000

:-)

[.]

mate's going to ring tonight, I'll let you know if he's interested.

[David Pashley]

I lack some of the plumbing skills (one in particular - confidence).

In my line of work my customers are companies, not individuals or households. Having said that, I will go to considerable time and lengths to help people who I like and respect.

If I were providing a service to individuals, I would feel bound to take into account their circumstances and my values would not allow me to take advantage of a customer in a tough situation (e.g. little children + no heating/hw), or to charge more because others were facing hardship.

I've seen elsewhere in the group that it's a few hours' work. I respect your opinion, but I'm also quite surprised by it. And in my 10th year on uk.d-i-y that's rather unusual.

Many Thanks David

[Jim Alexander]

Fraid there is no easy answer but where did the idea that the gas valve was

*definately* faulty come from? Maybe repair is an option after all.

A couple of other comments which unfortunately doesn't help you may may help others. Losing everything is just one of several downsides to having a Combi and if you chose not to have a maintenace contract you need a Plan B.

Jim A

[Andy]

Confidence is the worst one to lack. We can talk you through fitting a boiler if you can't afford the money, since it's a short move not a complete relocation it wouldn't be that difficult. Two downsides: if you do it yourself you are unlikely to get your heat back more quickly than if you get a CORGI man in, since there is always the faffing around around element when you do something new.

Secondly, there is always a question mark over the guarantee's validity - if something goes wrong. I don't think fitting it yourself invalidates the guarantee, but the jobsworths trying to wriggle out of any commitments might argue.

I was in just your situation, with a knackered boiler and not much heat and no hot water. The gas engineer came around once then kept breaking promises to come around again. I eventually told him I would start the pipework myself and he got a strop on and that was the last I saw of him. I did a complete move/replacement of a boiler from a bedroom to an outbuilding though and that was fairly complicated to do in the end.

Meantime I used an electric oil-filled radiator and a log fire to keep warm.

Hot water was at a premium, and was supplied by boiling up water in the kettle and on the stove in big pots. I reckon a bath took 3/4 hour to fill. Not surprisingly I only did that once a week. Warm water for washing in the morning etc was via a kettle and a big bowl. It was just like the old days really, I was only missing the big copper bath in front of the fire! Have you any folks in the area who will let you use their baths?

Seriously, this shows the drawbacks of a combi, which you can only get around by having back up gas/electric fires and a hot water cylinder with an immersion heater.

Andy.

[Clive George]

FWIW I wouldn't be pushing the small baby thing too hard in this group (you did mention it as a reason to get a discount later). There are quite a lot of older readers who raised kids before CH was the norm.

cheers, clive

[Tony Bryer]

Floor to wall is definitely going to be more than a few hours work, especially if you do a proper job of flushing out the system and spend a bit of time doing a neat job on the pipework.

I had to do a similar job for my mother a few years back (old boiler sprung a leak the week before Christmas) and it ended up as three solid days work - though obviously I would not claim to work as fast as a pro.

[David Pashley]

Your assumptions about my age and child-rearing experience are 100% wrong, as it happens. Anyway, it's the lack of HW that's the main problem, and I doubt any of us are ancient enough to predate that amenity.

Also, I didn't raise the fact that we have a baby in order to engender sympathy or some sort of discount, but initially to emphasize the urgency of the situation, and subsequently to point out that I will not be exploited by "professionals" who think it's OK to charge more because of this vulnerability.

In practice, we will get by for as long as it takes to find a fairly-priced solution. My main objective in posting was to find out what the experienced people here think is fair.

David

[Clive George]

Erm - what assumptions? Try not to take offence where none was intended, it makes for a much happier life. (are you the grandparent by any chance?)

It's pretty common business practice to charge more for a job completed earlier - ie an 'urgent' one. And in the business we're currently discussing there will be plenty of work around at the moment (ie fixing people's boilers), so there's definitely scope for paying to jump queues.

Good.

With that in mind, you can afford to be more relaxed in front of the people pricing work - ie you have time to look around the market (ie the competition) a little more. If they can see you don't have time for that, they've got no reason to drop their prices - you're a captive market. And if you push the small baby thing, it could well work against you.

cheers, clive

[Jim Alexander]

perhaps the slightly unsympathetic hearing is because you had a vulnerability to single point failure, no maintenance contract and no plan B

I'm no friend of installers but where is the evidence of your assertion? You only have one quote, which the consensus here thinks is probably reasonable - because its winter and others have a need for urgent repair services - and not because it exploits your vulnerability.

Jim A

[John Stumbles]

aye: when I were a lad ....

BSF a few electric convectors, oil filled rads & fan heaters plus any open fireplaces you have and some skipdiving, coupled with warm woolies should see you right for space heating. If you can lay your hands on a serviceable Fortic (scrap merchants or friendly plumbers) that would do you for HW too, otherwise it's kettles and neighbours. Then you don't need to be panicked into a hasty boiler replacement and can shop around for a good price and/or maybe do some/all of the work yourself.

[John Rumm]

Depends on what you mena by predate... As a kid our house had no CH (did not get it until the mid 80's). HW was from an immersion heater that was very expensive to run in a huge uninsulated cylinder. Hence it was switched on for only one or two nights a week to provide bathing facilities. The following day warm water was available, other days it was cold. At the time it did not seem unusual or a big hardship, although I would not want to go back to not having hot water on demand, lack of it is hardly life threatening.

ISTM that babies are not so much of a problem - they are easy to dress warm, and to bath them does not take much hot water.

No offennce intended, but It sounds to me as if you prefessional quoted you a resonable price for the work. Perhaps you have been mislead into believeing that doing this job is somehow quick and easy.

I would expect the work will amount to several days if done well and carefully.

In your situation, and doing a good job I would expect something like 4 man days worth of work. You can probably convert that to a currency amount for you local area.

[Dave Fawthrop]

|Your assumptions about my age and child-rearing experience are 100% |wrong, as it happens. Anyway, it's the lack of HW that's the main |problem, and I doubt any of us are ancient enough to predate that |amenity.

We evacuated ourselves away from Hull and the wartime bombing into an old cottage without running Domestic Hot Water and lived there till 1951ish, We had to light the kitchen fire and use an old tin bath in front of the fire.

[Ed Sirett]

Then, you may have noticed that I am not one of those who say that boilers can be changed in a few hours.

I take it that there are TRVs on most radiators and in good order?

[Dave Plowman (News)]

It's something that annoys me greatly when a person obviously not familiar with or capable of doing a particular job knows exactly how long it should take others they just happen to be paying to do it. I have a fairly wide range of DIY skills and can never estimate exactly how long a job will take me in my own place - let alone a strange one. If it were a straightforward boiler swop it might be easier for a pro to give a guide, but this job isn't.

[Stuart Noble]

One can't help noticing that ex gas board fitters are better than the newer crop of CORGIs. I've found a couple of good ones by getting the list off the Corgi website and ringing them all. The last couple I've used have said they didn't normally do "private work" and were surprised I'd found their details. These are the sort of blokes who prefer regular work from builders, don't want to advertise, and probably don't like the public very much. Both were 50 ish and their pipework was pure artistry.