Anyone know about boilers etc?

pepsilol

pepsilol

pepsilol

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Fitted a new boiler and the guy cleaned the radiators etc, agreed £1600 ish.

He rang yesterday and said the gas pressure is not strong enough to the boiler, so solution is run a separate pipe from the gas meter to the boiler, he wants £1500 ish.

Don't know much about this stuff, does this sound right?
 
Not to me, the gas supply comes of the gas main which will be regulated for your street.

From you meter to your devices there may be further isolations but id be surprised if there were pressure reducing valves and if there is they should be adjustable

Running a new line from your meter to the boiler wouldn't increase the pressure unless the existing pipework was leaking :eek:

Could he mean flow? not pressure. Or water as Ruckus says?
 
Do you have old cast iron pipework? where does it run, we had our boiler replaced and the old cast iron pipework was weeping gas under the floorboards, it was a lot of work to replace and cut out floorboards about a days work for two plumbers.
 
If he fitted it he should have quoted for it in the price. (He's taking the ****)

Boilers need a decent flow, the std 15mm just isn't up to it in many cases. When we had ours installed, fitter just looked at it and said what will need a 28mm feed. went to his van and got a couple of lengths, never even mentioned it costing more.
 
We had to have a new, larger gas pipe run to the boiler when it was installed. I have no idea why, but trust the installer 100%

£1.5k for just that bit sounds like a huge amount to me. I paid less than that for the entire job.
 
Don't really know anything about boilers but what would reduce the gas pressure from the meter? I assume to raise the pressure you would use smaller diameter piping?

Also I had a new boiler which had a new gas pipe run from meter outside the front door to airing cupboard upstairs, also all the water pipework sorted as it was replacing a back boiler from downstairs, 7 new Rads installed all for 2800.

Always get a few quotes.
 
I just put a worcester bosch 28i junior in the house replaced 6 radiators and renewed all the pipe work. As part of that I had to change the gas pipe to the boiler as the old one was run in 15mm pipe which was not allowing enough gas to the new boiler and the cooker at the same time. It was re run in 22mm pipe which fixed the problem. It cost me £1200 for all of the above..... so I would not pay £1500 just to have the pipe re-run
 
gizmoy2k said:
Not to me, the gas supply comes of the gas main which will be regulated for your street.

From you meter to your devices there may be further isolations but id be surprised if there were pressure reducing valves and if there is they should be adjustable

Running a new line from your meter to the boiler wouldn't increase the pressure unless the existing pipework was leaking :eek:

Could he mean flow? not pressure. Or water as Ruckus says?
Click to expand...

Too many elbows and a small bore pipe will reduce pressure and flow.

Op, what the plumber is saying is entirely plausible and the boiler won't be getting sufficient gas to work efficiently. This means they can't sign the boiler off with building control so it's not optional. £1500 sounds a bit steep though unless the pipe takes a very difficult route. I've just paid around £400 to have mine done, it took 2 guys just under a day.

Ask him how long it's going to take. Plumber rates are around £150-200 a day. Materials are £100-200 tops.
 
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If he fitted a new boiler, he should know most new boilers recommend a minimum 22mm feed as standard.

Present price of 22mm x 3m Copper Pipe is around £15 inc vat, so your looking at three or four lengths from 1st floor to cellar,maybe a few 22mm copper elbows, @ 84p & 22mm coupler straight @ 48p all each (all based on my Plumbase prices inc vat) each so he is ripping you off, to put it politely.

And copper tube 3m length 28mm is £ 19:50p per length, & fittings are usually nearly double the price.
 
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I work for southern electric and sell boiler installs. Do not pay this man a penny more. Get a gas safe guy out from the yellow pages and get an opinion for £75.
 
I think he's pulling your chain. If he's charged you for the installation of a new working boiler that should be what you end up with. All boilers come with installation books, templates for mounting, minimum clearances, etc, etc. They nearly always say what the minimum feed pipe diameter should be. (He should know this anyway if he's registered)

If it's straight up out of the cellar.

It sounds like it's going to be a 5-8m run of pipe, a few unions, and possibly a half days work.

£1500 I think not.

Do the maths 28mm copper pipe is £6/m tops.
So 6X8= £48
Fitting are £1 each, bends £2.50. Even if he used 10 each, (which he won't) that £35-40.
Chuck in £30 for consumables.
Whithout labour = £120 ish..
Half a days labour??? (dunno if you live in rip off London, but round here £100-200 tops)

So maybe £300 ish at a push.

But I don't think you should be paying a penny extra. (Report him)
 
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Sounds to me like he has quoted for a simple replace of the boiler and a pressure wash of the systems which would be standard practice.

Then when he has come to do the job he has discovered the gas pressure isn't upto it which is probably because your old boiler had been plumbed in with a lower diameter pipe feeding it from the boiler. He may well have had no way of knowing this upfront as the final length to the boiler might well be 22mm as required the narrow section could be hidden under a cupboard or floor.

The quote for running a new pipe seems excessive but that depends on where it is run from and the level of work involved to fit it out of site and make good any walls/floors etc.

You are doing the right thing by getting a second opinion and a second quote for comparison but I would ignore all the people saying you should pay no extra blah blah blah because the work needs doing is in excess of the origional quoted works so will need to be paid for.
 
So what you are saying basically, is he charged £1600 to do the work, didn't finish the job, then decided to try and get an extra £1500 out of you to finish the work, and you didn't tell him to ******* do one straight up?
 
£1500 to install a length of 22mm copper pipe? Is he connecting directly to an offshore rig or something ?
 
he should be checking the working pressure at the gas meter before he quotes for a new gas run

if he for example only has 16mb at the boiler then checks working pressure at the meter and its 16-17mb then theres your problem (the regulator on the meter)

hes within his rights to fit boiler under an agreed quote only to then find gas run isnt up to the job but 1500 does sound escessive.

simply saying oh its only down to the cellar doesnt really tell us a lot when there could be all manner of issues to overcome.

just get a 2nd opinion but make sure they check the working pressure at the gas meter

p.s what boiler did he fit you?

if you come back with biasi/ferroli/ariston then all the best!!
 
Had the same issue when they fitted our WB, can't remember if we forked out any extra but it would have been around £2-300 if so.

I remember being slightly miffed that pressure wasn't something they had anticipated, given that 15mm was never going to work and they must have installed loads of these boilers.

Tip.
Don't let him run the outflow pipe outside for any distance, it will freeze and your boiler will just stop.
 
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