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Old 14-11-19, 08:10 AM   #1
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Default Plumbing quotations

My house needs the c/heating to be re-piped. I sought out 3 quotes but only two responded, inspected the property and provided quotations. The property is a semi-detached dormer bungalow, 8 radiators downstairs the 2 upstairs rads are not affected.

Quote A is for £3400 which is a bit lower than I anticipated
Quote B is for £5500!


I've never had such disparity between quotes before, I'm going to call the first company to make sure there's no mistake although their emailed quote seems accurate.
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Old 14-11-19, 08:57 AM   #2
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

When I moved into my house 4 years ago the prehistoric boiler that was there was part of the worktop (4 bed detached). It was condemned during the survey. We knew this before buying so got the same person back who fitted our other boiler into our previous house. Friend of missus's sister since they were kids. He quoted about £3500 for the new boiler - I can't remember the exact amount.
Anyhow he came to do that work and discovered our house was only the second one he had ever come across in 20 years that was a single pipe system.

The bill rocketed to £7500, for a full new system, boiler, pipework and rads. 6 upstairs, 5 down.
Downstairs in our house is all concrete floors, so all downstairs rads were creatively routed.

I think your quote B is quite high if it's not including boiler or rads.
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Old 14-11-19, 10:00 AM   #3
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

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Originally Posted by shiftin_gear98 View Post
I think your quote B is quite high if it's not including boiler or rads.
It includes 1 new radiator to replace an old one in an awkward location. No boiler replacement.

Maybe it's not connected but the guy (from B) who quoted does trackdays in Portugal on his Ducati Panigale and the company sponsors a race team.
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Old 14-11-19, 12:40 PM   #4
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

Just worth knowing that radiators are pretty cheap these days. I had one leak and inspecting the other 30yr old rads I decided to replace the whole lot. I fitted Kudox rads from Screwfix, less than £150 for 5 rads including TRVs and valves.
I'm sure someone will come on and say they are a pile of sh**, but I've seen a lot of rads and these are perfectly good quality, all threads are clean and correct and the coating is good, so at that price I'm more than happy.
OK so it takes a while to fit new rads if the brackets need to be changed and possible pipe re-alignment, but it shouldn't break the bank.

Being aware of what they cost is just a useful tool in assessing any quote. Getting told a 1000x600 K1 costs £120 for example is taking the proverbial.
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Old 14-11-19, 02:39 PM   #5
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

These fitters get trade discount as well on parts, which brings price of parts down a lot, but when we ( Joe public ) goes to a plumbers merchant we get charged extra .... they have to balance the books somehow.
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Old 15-11-19, 12:28 PM   #6
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

i dont get it.... even £3400 for £100 in materials and a days work is taking the pizz.
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Old 15-11-19, 12:56 PM   #7
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

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i dont get it.... even £3400 for £100 in materials and a days work is taking the pizz.
They've quoted 3 days work for 2 people. Each radiator has to have a drop feed from the attic and the attic is split by the dormer - so I have two attics which aren't connected (any more). I would have never bought a dormer they seem to have so many disadvantages.

I'm emptying the largest attic now but carpets have to be taken up (by me) and floor boards/panels will need to be lifted or cut so the pipework can be linked from front to back of the house. My (combi) boiler is in the kitchen and sits below the smaller attic which has little clearance and a confusing (to me) array of pipes/valves courtesy of the original owner (a pipefitter).

All this started because I was aware of a bump in the floor and I intended to re-carpet so investigated the bump. There was a leak (which must have been leaking for a long time) and all the buried pipework is covered with thick verdiris. It hadn't been wrapped (by Mr Pipefitter) when he installed it and it looks like the cement's acidity has attacked the copper, still it has lasted 45-50 years.
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Old 15-11-19, 02:53 PM   #8
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

My experience of working on plumbing / central heating is that you discover some horror stories when you take on even some small job. Did some work replacing a three port mid position valve for sister in law earlier in this week. Found that the gate valve to isolate pump had seized and to get three way valve out of the pipework had to take a pipe off hot water cylinder heat exchanger, which the threaded bit was in bad shape. Also to partially drain system had to use one of the drain ports on a downstairs radiator ( drain point was only on radiator not outboard as usual, and had a threaded cap not a hose tail, so to get cap off without flooding kitchen had to turn both radiator valves off ) and the valves had not been turned for decades, as soon as I turned them they started to leak through the gland. The central heating header tank was full of sludge caused by adding a bottle of inhibitor every year for decades and the stuff staying in the tank - had to drain and scoop out the last 3 inches of toxic sludge ( to stop sediment getting into heating system the take off pipe is about 3 inches from bottom of tank ). When I filled system back up water leaked from dodgy connection on hot water heat exchanger, so had to partially drain system again. Rather than removing the radiator valves which would mean entirely draining system I managed to fix the leaking radiator valves by closing them off, removing gland nuts and wrapping PTFE tape around the spindle and poking it down and then replace gland nuts ( the PTFE tape compresses and extruded around spindle and forms a new seal.

I can feel a certain empathy for plumbers who take on a job and find that lots goes wrong on systems that also needs fixing...most people totally neglect their plumbing and heating for decades and then expect it all to be like new after the plumber visits to fix just a small thing...
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Old 15-11-19, 08:41 PM   #9
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

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Originally Posted by Seeker View Post
They've quoted 3 days work for 2 people.

if it takes a suposed professional company 3 days to do a simple job then they are in the wrong line of buisness hence the high quotes.



seriously its a days work. dont care what type of house it is.



whole house with concreate floors and repositioned boiller with new flue hole in external wall was 10hrs, new boiller, radiators pipework etc.etc.


look elsewhere.......
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Old 15-11-19, 09:37 PM   #10
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Default Re: Plumbing quotations

I'd say the first quote is closer to the mark, the second is ridiculous. The system needs to be drained, there is a lot to do, as SV650rules says, there will be a contingency in there for the unknown, it needs recommissioning afterwards which is time-consuming. We have a big house and we had to re-pipe the heating, changed some rads but kept the boiler and unvented tank. There are now two zones and a total of 7 rads downstairs and 8 upstairs, and there was a fair bit of mucking about. 2 guys for nearly 2 weeks. This was a professional company, the guys did work for it, and it is a PITA of a house to do anything in. I'd still see if you can get another quote. If you're unsure about any rad then change it, they cost peanuts but the system will be better for it.
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