warmfront weirdness

[gazz]

parents in law recieve pension credit, so eligeable for a full warm fron grant,

they had the bod round a few weeks ago, who agreed it was time to replace the 60's style flueless gas fire, backboiler and 1 radiator in the kitchen, told them to empty the loft for insulation and so on,

said they'd get the full £3500 for it all, the house has no cavity walls, so they cant have that, and the loft insulation is minumal to say the least,

Some bloke rang them to say he'd be round to measure up, and they were getting a boiler, one radiator in the bedroom, pipework will be run around the celing of the living room then upto the bedroom, all exposed, and no they can't lift the floor boards them selves and have him put it hidden, and they are getting no loft insulation, it's a boiler or insulation. WTF?

Warmfronts homepage says you get a combi boiler, upto 5 rads, valves and pipework, i'd read that a 6th radiator was allowable for a big room, which the living room is... was 2 rooms, now knocked into 1 that runs the length of the house,

The house isnt large, 2 bedrooms and a box room, the only heating upstairs is one of those open element light heaters in the bathroom, and their own plug in oil rads,

anyone know if it's normal for a full warm front grant to provide a half arsed system, they say loft insulation is the best thing you can do, and they wont do it,

[DIY]

Warmfront is notorious for this (just Google). Cowboys and bargepole spring to mind.

[Colin Wilson]

My mother in law had them check out her house, having had ongoing=20 problems with her warm air system for ages (she had to pull the fuse=20 every time she wanted it to light up, and told them about it)

As it was "working" on the day of the inspection, she was not eligible=20 for a replacement, and when it finally failed completely about two=20 weeks later she was told the rules say you can only have work done=20 free every 5 years (they did some minor draughtproofing) around doors.

We went to the local MP over it, but "rules are rules" !

She was in her late 60s and had recently lost her husband, and lived=20 for over 12 months without any heating or hot water while she saved=20 up, then paid British Gas over =A35k...

[Dave Liquorice]

Hear hear.

Do the job as quick as possible and vamouse. This means surface pipework as lifting boards and drilling joists takes time.

[NT]

Get what you can: if they fit the boiler and controls you can add the extra rad & redo some of the pipework later

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

bargepole

That's fine if you are capable of doing such work. However Warmfront is targeted at the elderly general public, most of whom do not have the required skills and/or physical capabilty to do such work.

The scheme is a good idea but the implimentation leaves an awful lot to be desired. Neighbours of ours had them in to fit boiler rads etc, took 3 visits by the fitters before they started work, for some strange reason the "surveyor" didn't notice that the building had thick rubble filled stone walls, the "fitters"(*) didn't have long drills in their van.

When it was finally installed, sans room stat, as they wet fitters weren't sparks. The spark comes along and drills hole through one of the new pipes, ruining sofa and carpet. *Much* argument about who pays, sub-contracted spark, Warmfront or their insurance. Warmfront really did not want to know.

(*) The fitters were travelling from 50+ miles away so didn't arrive 'till well past 1000 and left about 1500. They were only allocated 2 days to do the work *including* travel... So if a "day" involves 4 hrs travel that eats into the time available to do the work, resulting in every corner possible being hacked off let alone cut.

Also bear in mind that if the sub contractors doing the work are any good why are they having to take not particulary well paid Warmfront work?

[dennis]

I was told by the warm front inspector that all the pipe work would be surface mounted, etc. We decided that was OK as it was necessary to have decent heating for my dad to continue to live there.

When the heating engineer turned up they took the floor boards up and concealed everything they could.

He said I don't work like that. So full marks to him.

[ARWadsworth]

bargepole

That's fine if you are capable of doing such work. However Warmfront is targeted at the elderly general public, most of whom do not have the required skills and/or physical capabilty to do such work.

The scheme is a good idea but the implimentation leaves an awful lot to be desired. Neighbours of ours had them in to fit boiler rads etc, took 3 visits by the fitters before they started work, for some strange reason the "surveyor" didn't notice that the building had thick rubble filled stone walls, the "fitters"(*) didn't have long drills in their van.

When it was finally installed, sans room stat, as they wet fitters weren't sparks. The spark comes along and drills hole through one of the new pipes, ruining sofa and carpet. *Much* argument about who pays, sub-contracted spark, Warmfront or their insurance. Warmfront really did not want to know.

(*) The fitters were travelling from 50+ miles away so didn't arrive 'till well past 1000 and left about 1500. They were only allocated 2 days to do the work *including* travel... So if a "day" involves 4 hrs travel that eats into the time available to do the work, resulting in every corner possible being hacked off let alone cut.

Also bear in mind that if the sub contractors doing the work are any good why are they having to take not particulary well paid Warmfront work?

[Rory]

How long did it take after applying to get the job done? I've seen comments that it can take many months and am wondering whether to apply for elderly GodMother. She has CH but it's extemely old and has no controls other than boiler stat and an on/off switch!

[dennis]

The sequence was something like.. Sun, fill in form on web site.. Mon AM, get phone call "can i come and do an inspection?" Mon PM get inspection and confirmation of what could be done

Wait two weeks the get heating engineer visit to decide what's being done

Wait two/three weeks for work to start. Work takes three days.

[David]

Yup, they also mostly fit crap Ideal boilers.

[NT]

usually when people want pipework done they get a plumber in

NT

[gazz]

~Yup, they also mostly fit crap Ideal boilers.

aye, they arent expecting owt good, but any centeral heating will be better than what they have now, tho a single rad is debatable as being better in my books.

they wanted to get centeral heating in asap, but would have had to save up for ages to get it, so this warm front thing seemed ideal, get a system in, then they can save up whilst warm for a better boiler etc.

they knew the pipes would be run externaly as our place has had a warmfront system fitted, and the pipe runs are from the boiler straight up to the attic, then accross and down into the rooms, so all we see are 2 vertical pipes in the corner of a room to the rads.

but the bloke who rang PIL, said he'd be running the pipes along the celing of the downstairs rooms from the boiler to the rad going up thru the celing/bedroom floor.

[Dave Liquorice]

But doesn't that also mean paying said people? Some what defeating the object of getting a Warmfront grant in the first place? May as well forget the grant and pay proper installers to do the job properly in one hit.

[Rory]

That's way faster than I thought. I'm sure I read in their literature that it takes 6-8mths. Horrible thing to say, but I was thinking there wasn't time!

[jim.arnold]

as metioned the service is very variable

Initial visit was gfood and quick; the planner was crap but the installer was very good - he even left tails for me to install 2 extra rads - he agreed that the Warmfront charge of £400 each extra rad was a ripoff

He put all the upstaors piping under the floor and did a v good job even though it took him longer than planned. He was paid flat rate so no extra mioney for him

It took over 4 months from filling in form to finish partly due to lack of communication with the Gas installation people

So new gas supply + big boiler + 4 rads (now got 7) cost me £500

British Gas had quoted over £6.5k !

[Tim W]

[e-mail] wibbled on Thursday 03 December 2009 23:01

That's a very good deal :)

Well, that's BG for you... They'd probably have buggered it up too.

Wonder what a normal plumber plus gas chap would have charged?