Gas/Heating Regulations

[ollski]

Can anyone tell me which bit is difficult?

joe

I found selling my house to fund my retraining quite difficult and also the training for the first time of core gas safety was quite tricky. Since then the years of trying to gain experience on all appliances have been a slog, but the most difficult bit is having to deal with customers like yourself. Bit of a nonsense not paying over 40 an hour, a first time engineer will probably take about 3 hours to change a diverter valve on a 24cdi, wheras I know a couple of guys who can clear it in 20 mins, but they will still charge 60.

 

[Softus]

Any competent DIYer can install a boiler - you just follow the instructions.

It certainly isn't rocket science. Can anyone tell me which bit is difficult?

... the little solenoid that allows water into the boiler / I don't know what it is called ... blather .... small disc shaped job on the water inlet pipe ... waffle ...

 

[griffta1]

wow wow wow!

this is getting a bit heated!(pardon the pun!) I didn't' mean to come across as offensive to any professional CORGI installers... I think i was merely p**sed off with the how expensive CORGI is rather than the installer's charge.

Joe, although i do agree that in general that the TCO of gas appliances is expensive, i don't agree that you should go on the cheep and pay bare minimum for an installer... after all this is gas and can quite easily kill.

Safety was the main reason i posted this topic.

 

[Softus]

... although i do agree that in general that the TCO of gas appliances is expensive...

I can't agree with this generalisation - the most familiar appliance to me is my own boiler, which, apart from a yearly check that no soot or rust has formed on the burners (and it never does), the only repair it has needed in 10+ years was the addition of some paste to a dry 'O' ring on the pilot valve gland. I've seen many more RS and non-RS boilers that are hardly any more effort and/or cost to maintain.

If a system is installed correctly, which entails more than following the manufacturer's instructions, then TCO need not be high. Having said that, I'm sensitive to the fact that the PCBs on many modern appliances are about as reliable as a 1978 British Leyland Rover.

 

[ChrisR]

SOftus you're right - I think! I was replaying an answer to a question which I was asked recently which was rather different..

But Joe you're wrong. I suggest you look at the annual income of a consultant surgeon - a private one of course, so running his own business. You can't take what anyone charges for doing a particular job and extrapolate that to earnings, there's the small matter of the difference between gross and net profits. Ask BG, who might be making three to four times the gross profit on the same job!

Slipperyr4
"his trade discount is part of his markup, part of his fee, so if i got the boiler he'd need to make the money up elsewhere- cos it makes no odds to him really. "
He's sold you a line. There is no trade discount. You can get 40% off rrp same as he can. It's ALL "fee", it isn't done on time!

 

[Softus]

Jeepers Chris! I don't mind you telling me that I'm [probably] right, but excuse me if go and stand on the other side of the lake and watch all the fireworks now that you've lit the blue touchpaper on the "Joe is wrong" Catherine Wheel

 

[ollski]

Don't worry about it, the initial point was wrong. A consultant surgeon gets a salary of around 150k for a 30 hour week, work it out........now if he had said a junior surgeon

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Here we go again, just fit the fekin lot yourself, nobody is watching nobody cares particularly corgi, they are only interested in money, if you can get a fekkin consultant surgeon to fit your boiler fine who cares, while he is there ask him if he needs a waste carriers licence to carry body parts in his car, ask him if he has my boolllokkks in his boot, not sure if Mr Prescott recieved mine yet.

 

[joe-90]

Well you think you know it all Joe but I seem to remember you had to call someone in to fix your own boiler, it's not rocket science either.

It's under guarantee. It took them 5 weeks to find the fault. Then again when it was commisioned it simply fired up and worked first time - bit of a doddle really.


joe

 

[joe-90]

A consultant surgeo earns between £85K and £120K. It takes at least 12 years to qualify.

A GP earns £100K and it takes 11 years to qualify. That works out at around £50 per hour.

A Corgi fitter needs a bit of experience and can qualify in a few weeks.

Chris charges £100 per hour for fitting a couple of pipes to a boiler and a couple of wires. Switching on and getting the air out of the system.

A surgeon earns less doing a triple bypass.

Commisioning a boiler is a matter of following a few simple instructions. It's a DIY job.



joe

 

[slippyr4]

Others - Remember that if your plumber is vat registered, he can get the vat back on the boiler, so it certainly isn't worth you buying it.

I'm confused by this Chris - how does that work? Surely even if the plumber gets the VAT back then he still has to charge VAT to the customer, so how does the customer gain?

Because if your plumber is NOT vat registered, he doesn't get the VAT back, but he still has to charge the customer VAT.

It amazes me how many people and threads there on on these forums, and others, who don't realise that they actually have to charge VAT on all their work irrespective of their total annual turnover. There are many complaints of the form "now i'm taking over the threshold and I have to charge VAT, I can't be competitive". These people have previously been committing VAT fraud. VAT registration is actually beneficial to a small business, and you can VAT register before the threshold.

 

[*rab*]

Others - Remember that if your plumber is vat registered, he can get the vat back on the boiler, so it certainly isn't worth you buying it.

I'm confused by this Chris - how does that work? Surely even if the plumber gets the VAT back then he still has to charge VAT to the customer, so how does the customer gain?

I was going to mention this, but didn't want to sound like a pedant

 

[joe-90]

I think we can all see the flaw in the logic - but daren't mention it.


joe

 

[Paul Barker]

PV man should I have a waste carriers license? Not another thing to keep me in the high income bracket.

Wish I was earning what these guys think.

As Ive said before I earned more when I was a paediatric nurse. And I'm jolly sure that I didn't come anywhere near a ward doctors salary then leta alone a consultant.

This talk is all rubbish based on myths.

I ring a number and all my scrap is removed by some right dodgy looking characters who probably don't have a license either, but it saves me half a day on every job.

Not saying I don't get a few shillings for the dhw cylinders complete idiots ask me to take out. But I'm very benevolent and buy my trainee lunch out of it.

Of course he's one of these idiots who looks at the money that passes through my hands and thinks I'm earning a fortune. I don't bother educating him either, he'll learn.

Only trouble with this talk is it gets more hapless idiots follwing in our wake. Not like I care because most of them soon as they find out you're only paid for results and it takes hard work and determination to get results they jump off the merrygoround and look for a helter skelter.

 

[Softus]

Because if your plumber is NOT vat registered, he doesn't get the VAT back, but he still has to charge the customer VAT.

It amazes me how many people and threads there on on these forums, and others, who don't realise that they actually have to charge VAT on all their work irrespective of their total annual turnover.

It amazes me how wrong you are.

There are many complaints of the form "now i'm taking over the threshold and I have to charge VAT, I can't be competitive". These people have previously been committing VAT fraud.

No they haven't.

VAT registration is actually beneficial to a small business...

In what way?

....and you can VAT register before the threshold.

Yes, but so what?