Boiler installation problem. What to do?.

[propertydev83]

Just for the record, it's finally all sorted now. TBH, we didn't come off that bad in the end, fortunately, with a total bill of £2480 across both engineers. (We ended up paying the first guy in full rather than arguing over it, just to get this whole ordeal over and never have to deal with him again). The second guy who came and fixed this mess was actually really good and I will continue using him in the future. His initial prices were very high as he didn't know exactly what he was walking into, so had to give a rough price for a worst case scenario.

There was only a further delay with finishing the hole in the roof because the first guy had put the flue through in a position immediately next to both the chimney stack and ridge tiles, so we had to wait until our roofer was here carrying out some other roof repairs and could remove the ridge tiles to get the flashing slate in.

Lesson sorely learnt.

 

[Dan Robinson]

Glad you got it sorted and thank you for posting back.


We do care about cases like this and it is nice to know there was a solution.

 

[propertydev83]

No worries. Thanks to all for the advice given.

 

[JohnHarrison]

I just read this thread. Sad and disturbing reading. Very sad. The first men were Gas Safe registered with a piece of paper saying they are registered, but clearly not competent. This goes on all the time. The H&S are getting concerned at unregistered people doing work for money and poor workmanship of Gas Safe registered people.

 

[jedi]

I agree Gas safe registered means nothing IMHO!!!! It just means they can charge more.... Take my install for an example, for which the thread is now locked......But for the good advice from the people on here I have now had it rectified.....Why these gas safe plumbers did not do it 1st time round the mind boggles.....

And because of this I still stand by what I say..


Buy you own kit. That way you know you getting the right parts.

Read the install manual...

Then tell the plumber how to install it, how the pipes should be routed for best preformance, how to angle the flu should be set etc..eyc...etc

Get them to bench mark it etc..so its all legal!...(they can still fook this bit up so take note).



Gas safe what a load of $0LL0CK$

 

[nortonj]

I agree Gas safe registered means nothing IMHO!!!! It just means they can charge more.... Take my install for an example, for which the thread is now locked......But for the good advice from the people on here I have now had it rectified.....Why these gas safe plumbers did not do it 1st time round the mind boggles.....

And because of this I still stand by what I say..
Not all gas safe engineers are bad, i would say the majority are professional and good at there job, but you dont get to hear that, because nobody is going to post up on a forum how good there plumber was.

Buy you own kit. That way you know you getting the right parts.

Read the install manual...

Then tell the plumber how to install it, how the pipes should be routed for best preformance, how to angle the flu should be set etc..eyc...etc

Get them to bench mark it etc..so its all legal!...(they can still fook this bit up so take note).



Gas safe what a load of $0LL0CK$

 

[simond]

Why are you surprised that Gas Safe isn't a guarantee of good workmanship?

If you lined up 10 qualified teachers, would they all be the same standard?
Look around in your office; if it was your company, how many of them would you take with you?
Policeman, Doctors, Nurses; yes, they're all worthy people but there will always be those that are below par.

It is the way of the World, caveat emptor.

Bear in mind that very few of the public post good workmanship on here, it is all bad stories.

 

[propertydev83]

Why are you surprised that Gas Safe isn't a guarantee of good workmanship?

If you lined up 10 qualified teachers, would they all be the same standard?
Look around in your office; if it was your company, how many of them would you take with you?
Policeman, Doctors, Nurses; yes, they're all worthy people but there will always be those that are below par.

It is the way of the World, caveat emptor.

Bear in mind that very few of the public post good workmanship on here, it is all bad stories.

You are absolutely right, and I really let myself down since people usually have to gain my trust anyway, but I am very aware of those very things and have had my fair share of experience with "qualified" persons who are sub par in other areas of life like those you mention. I slipped up but I guess even the most shrewd and experienced can have a moment of weakness? Never again.

Yep, as others have said people are much more likely to share bad stories than praise. There are plenty of good tradesmen out there.

I've only ever used 5 tradesmen before. 2 of which were recommended by family and I had no real problems. Of the other 3, all gas engineers, this one was the only bad experience.

 

[simond]

Don't think of it as letting yourself down. It happens to us all once in a while. The people that surfaced my drive took one of the drain covers out saying I didn't need it. Got home to see the cast iron lid being lifted out on the end of the excavator shovel.

That was 12 years ago, my drive has had standing water all over it every time it rains since!

 

[Biggles..]

I agree Gas safe registered means nothing IMHO!!!! It just means they can charge more.... Take my install for an example, for which the thread is now locked......But for the good advice from the people on here I have now had it rectified.....Why these gas safe plumbers did not do it 1st time round the mind boggles.....

And because of this I still stand by what I say..


Buy you own kit. That way you know you getting the right parts.

Read the install manual...

Then tell the plumber how to install it, how the pipes should be routed for best preformance, how to angle the flu should be set etc..eyc...etc

Get them to bench mark it etc..so its all legal!...(they can still fook this bit up so take note).



Gas safe what a load of $0LL0CK$

How is your sh1te install, did you get an answer on why they used A TFleaky rather than worcester filter...

 

[Nige F]

Got home to see the cast iron lid being lifted out on the end of the excavator shovel.

If it had been Ductile they wouldn't have bothered - even the best drive layers have Pie.......y roots

 

[Dan Robinson]

I agree Gas safe registered means nothing IMHO!!!! It just means they can charge more.... Take my install for an example, for which the thread is now locked......But for the good advice from the people on here I have now had it rectified.....Why these gas safe plumbers did not do it 1st time round the mind boggles.....

And because of this I still stand by what I say..


Buy you own kit. That way you know you getting the right parts.

Read the install manual...

Then tell the plumber how to install it, how the pipes should be routed for best preformance, how to angle the flu should be set etc..eyc...etc

Get them to bench mark it etc..so its all legal!...(they can still fook this bit up so take note).



Gas safe what a load of $0LL0CK$

How is your sh1te install, did you get an answer on why they used A TFleaky rather than worcester filter...

They being him

 

[ecowarrior]

The bloke has made a mistake? give him the chance to put it right before throwing your toys out the pram. Have u never made one? Its all very unfortunate & the fact u have gone for the cheapest quote is irrelevant. It may even have been you fiddling with things that night or even a faulty filling loop? Luckily no major harm has been done & if it had I am sure he has liability insurance?
Its just a filling loop issue? unfortunate - yes but it doesnt mean the blokes a cowboy?

 

[propertydev83]

Irrelevant now as it's resolved. But I never touched anything.

- Faulty loop is possible but doubtful. More likely left open. Compression joints weeping.

- Gas leak.

- No PRV run. And from re-reading the original quote's description I think there was no intention to install it as it was not mentioned whilst every other part of the install was listed.

- Flue too high above the roof. No flashing slate installed leaving rain coming through the roof, running down the joists, and into one of the bedrooms. Hole through roof in location which made more work as the ridge tiles had to come off to install the flashing. Particularly long vertical flue not clamped to anything through loft.

- Pipework in boiler cupboard not fixed to wall particularly securely.

I never once said he was a cowboy, but he's clearly not at the top of his game. Nor did I direct any emotional response directly at the engineer at all. I simply stated the facts to him around what had happened and nothing more than that. Apparently, both him and his wife became ill and that is why he never returned to "finish" the flue, and why we could not make any contact.

Maybe it is true, and it is an unfortunate series of events, but I really wasn't left with much choice, was I? We were initially prepared to give him a chance, but could not contact them, and it took me a very long time seeking advice and to find someone else willing to carry out remedial work. By the time we were able to get back in contact with the first guy we had already found someone else, I had lost several days of work, and I could not afford to give up any more time to this nightmare by discussing it further with the first guy.

Add into the mix that I later found out about incidents from his "past" which is less than squeaky clean, and while people make mistakes and deserve a chance to mend their ways, I've also got to look after my own interests and it's not a path I would have gone down if I'd done my homework in the first place. It was also making my partner anxious that he might react aggressively if we were to argue over the money with him.

So, also considering that we paid the full quote for an unfinished job just to get this ordeal over and move forward with life, I'd say we were more than reasonable. Toys firmly in pram.

 

[JohnHarrison]

Why are you surprised that Gas Safe isn't a guarantee of good workmanship?

If you lined up 10 qualified teachers, would they all be the same standard?
Look around in your office; if it was your company, how many of them would you take with you?
Policeman, Doctors, Nurses; yes, they're all worthy people but there will always be those that are below par.

It is the way of the World, caveat emptor.

Bear in mind that very few of the public post good workmanship on here, it is all bad stories.

You are making excuses. Professionals must have minimum standards.
These men have pieces of paper many think magically proves competence. Competence is what you do, the result, not some meaningless piece of paper.