Reply to: Central heating

[chicane]

Sorry for Chicane.

Don't worry about it. Diversity of all kinds makes the world go around - just ask CD.

[Chugnut]

didn't google it - remebered from my childhood - i can remember every second of every saturday morning sat in front of the TV with it on quiet so my parents didn't get up.

Sorry for Chicane.

Good memory. Why did they always have to ruin cartoons with the inclusion of a tedious cutesy character?

Godzuki, Snarf (I think he was from Thundercats), Scrappy Do, Keyop from Battle of the Planets - tossers one and all.

[fzbucks]

I can't believe you Googled Godzilla's bloodline. Gah!

I would have got away with it too if it wasn't for you kids. Oops sorry, wrong cartoon.

didn't google it - remebered from my childhood - i can remember every second of every saturday morning sat in front of the TV with it on quiet so my parents didn't get up.

[Chugnut]

wasn't godzuki the nephew?

I can't believe you Googled Godzilla's bloodline. Gah!

I would have got away with it too if it wasn't for you kids. Oops sorry, wrong cartoon.

[fzbucks]

Your parents? Are you Godzuki then?

wasn't godzuki the nephew?

[Ardesco]

I asked the BG guy on the phone whether it would be a BG employee or a contractor doing the install. He assured me that it would be an employee. I agree that there's limited value in using BG if it gets farmed out to a contractor anyway.

He's talking bollocks. If they have no "employee's" available they will sub-contract instead and you will get a local fully competant fitter instead. If you had done it through them in the first place you would prolly have saved a packet and the standard of work will be identical (it being the same person).

Most CORGI fitters do contract work for BG as it is an easy way to get some custom and build your reputation when you are starting up. Also means that you are guaranteed work with minimal advertising your own business.

[Chugnut]

Employee my arse... it'll be a contractor.

My parents ch system was installed by a contractor back in 1982... he used newspaper around the balanced flue to fill the space...

Guy who changed the boiler in 2006 was a contractor too.

The people who "serviced" the boiler over the years appeared to be BG employees.

Your parents? Are you Godzuki then?

[chicane]

One thing to bear in mind is that BG are no better than the rest, no matter what they say. Approx 40% of the time you will not get BG employee's but a local CORGI registered sole trader who BG have contracted to do the work for them. Also BG get as many complaints for shoddy work as the others (I've seen a case where a BG employee tried to fit a boiler in an unsuitable location that was then approved by another BG employee who went to check the work. It was picked up by a random CORGI inspection).

The big positive in having BG do the work is the after sales package where they will fix it if it goes wrong, but lets face it, done properly it shouldn't go wrong in the first place. My advice would be find a local guy who lives very close to you. He is less likely to screw you around if you can walk down the road and bang on his door should anything go wrong.

I asked the BG guy on the phone whether it would be a BG employee or a contractor doing the install. He assured me that it would be an employee. I agree that there's limited value in using BG if it gets farmed out to a contractor anyway.

Regarding the post-installation support, I tend to find with tradesmen that going to their house and knocking the door is the easy bit - the hard bit is getting them to come back to yours as they've already got their money!! Although not ideal, I can live with a suboptimal standard of work as long as it's quickly rectified. My previous experience of BG has shown that once you've got the mobile numbers of significant people (rather than call centre monkeys), it's reasonably easy to get things done.

chicane in "more confused by the minute" mode

[Ardesco]

Your advice is most welcome and appreciated... however...

I've had enough headaches with dodgy tradesmen in the past that I'm tempted to pay up to a grand over the odds just to get the reassurance that I'm dealing with an organisation that is willing to turn up at the agreed time, do a good job, and show accountability for anything which goes wrong afterwards.

All this due diligence you speak of is clearly necessary (a sad fact in itself), but it takes a lot of time and energy, and I can't escape from the fact that even after all the effort, there will still be doubts in my mind about my choice of supplier in the event that I don't go with BG.

On the assumption that the BG quote will be perhaps a grand over the alternatives, the peace of mind and lack of stress is well worth it for somebody like me who is clueless about anything trade related.

One thing to bear in mind is that BG are no better than the rest, no matter what they say. Approx 40% of the time you will not get BG employee's but a local CORGI registered sole trader who BG have contracted to do the work for them. Also BG get as many complaints for shoddy work as the others (I've seen a case where a BG employee tried to fit a boiler in an unsuitable location that was then approved by another BG employee who went to check the work. It was picked up by a random CORGI inspection).

The big positive in having BG do the work is the after sales package where they will fix it if it goes wrong, but lets face it, done properly it shouldn't go wrong in the first place. My advice would be find a local guy who lives very close to you. He is less likely to screw you around if you can walk down the road and bang on his door should anything go wrong.

[chicane]

Your advice is most welcome and appreciated... however...

I've had enough headaches with dodgy tradesmen in the past that I'm tempted to pay up to a grand over the odds just to get the reassurance that I'm dealing with an organisation that is willing to turn up at the agreed time, do a good job, and show accountability for anything which goes wrong afterwards.

All this due diligence you speak of is clearly necessary (a sad fact in itself), but it takes a lot of time and energy, and I can't escape from the fact that even after all the effort, there will still be doubts in my mind about my choice of supplier in the event that I don't go with BG.

On the assumption that the BG quote will be perhaps a grand over the alternatives, the peace of mind and lack of stress is well worth it for somebody like me who is clueless about anything trade related.

Chicane,

I'm in the process of sourcing the installation of central heating as well and I've done a fair bit of forum reading and I would have to say stay away from BG...their prices are way too high...

One way to go is to source all the materials yourself...I'm looking at a Worcester 30Si boiler for ~£850 and radiators for ~£40 each. The Corgi guy needs to install the plumbing under the floor and fit the new boiler so we're really paying for labour (mainly).

I would second (and third) Ardesco's point about using a Corgi registered engineer...if anything goes wrong you might not get the chance to rectify it (if you're living in the house with the gas leak)...

Try www.moneysavingexpert.com and go to the In my home forum and search for central heating, loads of good advice there...

Use www.trustcorgi.com to find registered engineers in your area...you can also check the Yellow Pages. Companies/people advertising here must have a valid address that is visited by the Yellow Pages people; gives a bit more peace of mind than some bloke's mobile number. I always investigate the websites and get a feel for what they do before calling them up.

I check their registration (at trustcorgi.com) and also Companies House to see how long they've been running under that name and whether they've been filing their accounts on time.

Of course, none of this means they will do a good job so if you don't have any personal recommendations, investigate 10, pick 3 for quotes and check their references...

HTH

[Rocket]

Chicane,

I'm in the process of sourcing the installation of central heating as well and I've done a fair bit of forum reading and I would have to say stay away from BG...their prices are way too high...

One way to go is to source all the materials yourself...I'm looking at a Worcester 30Si boiler for ~£850 and radiators for ~£40 each. The Corgi guy needs to install the plumbing under the floor and fit the new boiler so we're really paying for labour (mainly).

I would second (and third) Ardesco's point about using a Corgi registered engineer...if anything goes wrong you might not get the chance to rectify it (if you're living in the house with the gas leak)...

Try www.moneysavingexpert.com and go to the In my home forum and search for central heating, loads of good advice there...

Use www.trustcorgi.com to find registered engineers in your area...you can also check the Yellow Pages. Companies/people advertising here must have a valid address that is visited by the Yellow Pages people; gives a bit more peace of mind than some bloke's mobile number. I always investigate the websites and get a feel for what they do before calling them up.

I check their registration (at trustcorgi.com) and also Companies House to see how long they've been running under that name and whether they've been filing their accounts on time.

Of course, none of this means they will do a good job so if you don't have any personal recommendations, investigate 10, pick 3 for quotes and check their references...

HTH

[chicane]

Back on the subject of central heating...

The "geezer" called me the other day to find out if I'm ready to go ahead with the install. I asked him if he is Corgi registered, to which he replied "no". "However", he continued, "I'll fit it for you and my mate will approve it and do all the Corgi paperwork and approval" (an additional £150 apparently).

Turns out that him and his mate are both employed that does central heating installations, amongst other work, but what he's proposing sounds a bit fishy to me, like they're going to fill in the Corgi-related paperwork as if it was their employer that did the work, so to speak.

British Gas guy is coming to quote next week, but further discussion, insults, advice, changes of topic etc most welcome in the meantime.

[xoggoth]

I have not been able to think of an appropriate comment involving saucers of jam for wasps. Think yourself lucky.

[Chugnut]

Thanks for that TheFaqqer. Good to know.

And that's all we've got time for on DIYSOS tonight. Next week, power drills!

[TheFaQQer]

No - the boiler has some stupidly high throughput, so I've not noticed any difference.

Haven't tried running the bath at the same time as the shower though. With the old heating, you had to run the cold tap on the bath, so that there wasn't enough water anywhere else and all you could get was hot out of the shower. That was to get it up to "tepid", so what we have now was well worth the expenditure!

Should add, it also depends on the size of the gas pipes into the boiler. At some stage on my old system, the pipes narrowed, so that neither boiler got enough gas through to heat anything, if they ran at the same time. So the idea of hot water and heating was out!