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Long post alert: help please?
The plumber who serviced my 92 year old mother's boiler last year said it had a small leak and needed replacing. It was a very old floor standing boiler and the system never worked correctly, because if the heating was required, the hot water also had to be turned on, so we agreed to get it replaced before the next winter.
The Plumber quoted £3,350 to:-
Remove existing floor standing boiler.
Remove internal metal flue pipe and make good.
External flue to remain in situ as it may continue asbestos.
Supply and fit Worcester Bosch 24kw heat only boiler.
Fit magnetic filter as per building regulations.
Chemically cleanse heating system as per manufacturer instructions.
Alter Pipework as necessary.
My mother accepted the quote and the plumber was supposed to start the job last Wednesday morning. I travelled 15 miles to be there on Wednesday morning, but he didn't show up and later said he would come on Thursday instead. The same happened on Thursday and he assured us he would definitely be there on Friday. When I arrived on Friday, he and his mate were draining down the system and preparing to install the new boiler. I pointed out that the downstairs radiators had always struggled to get properly hot and asked how he was going to flush the system. He explained they would do that after installing the boiler and they would be finishing the job that day. I remembered reading about manufacturers warranty requirements for systems to be flushed before installation, and when I asked him if that would invalidate the warranty, he didn't reply and went back to his business.
At that point, I started worrying that he was intentionally cutting corners to be in and out as quickly as possible. Then I noticed the box containing the new boiler was labelled "15kw" and when I said "this boiler is smaller than the one you should be installing", he said "oh ####". I went to explain to my mother that things were amiss and a few minutes later the plumber came in and said "okay, we'll put the chemicals in today and come back to fit the correct boiler on Monday'. My suspiscions about him trying to avoid flushing were confirmed when they had to go and buy a bottle of X800. They came back, mostly refilled the system and left. I managed to bleed the radiators and instructed my mother to keep the heating and radiators on for as long as possible.
The correct boiler hadn't arrived by Monday, so they came instead on Tuesday (yesterday), when I was unable to be there. I had left him a note explaining that I had closed the TRVs on all the upstairs radiators to force the chemicals round the problematic ground floor circuit. At 1:30pm the plumber phoned me to say that he wouldn't be able to fit the new programmer until a 5 core cable had been run between the upstairs airing cupboard and the controls by the downstairs boiler. He said that this was my responsibility and he would come back and fit the programmer after the cable had been installed. I had no idea what he was talking about and said I would come over so he could show me. He said I would have to get there quickly, because they would be finishing in an hour and a half, so for the 6th day out of the last 7, I drove over to my mother's to be confronted by another headache: they had fitted the boiler at an inaccessibly low level with the flue terminating just 5ft above ground level pointing straight into the washing line. My mother and sister both verified him confirming he would fit a new programmer when he originally identified that the old system was wired wrong and eventually he said he would sort the cable out. I asked him what the water was like when the system was flushed and he said it looked fine and the new magnetic filter was still clean. He was refitting the old programmer and firing up the new boiler and I was suspicious that they hadn't even drained the system properly, because previous experience suggested it took ages to empty. I went upstairs to find all the TRVs closed and all the radiators full, which really got the alarm bells ringing and I asked the mate how they managed to drain the rads with all the TRVs closed. He told me "they just drain down from the other side" and when I asked how they managed to get the air out when refilling, he said "it all goes round in a circuit and out through the expansion tank". I'm an engineer not a plumber, but I believe you have to open a bleed screw to drain a rad, otherwise the vacuum will prevent water coming out. Furthermore, surely when filling a drained system, the air that ends up in the highest radiators can only escape via top bleed valves - not through the bottom valves? I told him I didn't believe they had even drained out the X800. Unknown to the plumbers, my mother's lodger had been working from home in his room upstairs and he later confirmed that nobody had been upstairs.
The plumber wanted me to fill in some warranty paperwork for the boiler, but I told him that he must complete the job first and flush the pipework properly. At about 3:30pm, when they were in a hurry to leave, he said they would come back on Friday to remove the problematic kitchen radiator and see if that was blocked - in which case he would quote for fitting a new radiator. I protested that fitting a new kitchen radiator would do nothing to help the other downstairs radiators get hot and that he should try using the valves that had been fitted years ago by another plumber to isolate the upstairs and downstairs heating pipes to facilitate flushing. He said "I don't have a power flushing machine".
This is now a huge worry for my mother (and me) and we don't really know what to do or how to approach this. I was going to call CAB for advice, but by the time I got home yesterday, they were closed. I don't really understand the full extent of the plumber's responsibility, but surely he should have identified what was required when he serviced the boiler and quoted for the job.
Please can anyone advise how we should proceed?
Many thanks
The plumber who serviced my 92 year old mother's boiler last year said it had a small leak and needed replacing. It was a very old floor standing boiler and the system never worked correctly, because if the heating was required, the hot water also had to be turned on, so we agreed to get it replaced before the next winter.
The Plumber quoted £3,350 to:-
Remove existing floor standing boiler.
Remove internal metal flue pipe and make good.
External flue to remain in situ as it may continue asbestos.
Supply and fit Worcester Bosch 24kw heat only boiler.
Fit magnetic filter as per building regulations.
Chemically cleanse heating system as per manufacturer instructions.
Alter Pipework as necessary.
My mother accepted the quote and the plumber was supposed to start the job last Wednesday morning. I travelled 15 miles to be there on Wednesday morning, but he didn't show up and later said he would come on Thursday instead. The same happened on Thursday and he assured us he would definitely be there on Friday. When I arrived on Friday, he and his mate were draining down the system and preparing to install the new boiler. I pointed out that the downstairs radiators had always struggled to get properly hot and asked how he was going to flush the system. He explained they would do that after installing the boiler and they would be finishing the job that day. I remembered reading about manufacturers warranty requirements for systems to be flushed before installation, and when I asked him if that would invalidate the warranty, he didn't reply and went back to his business.
At that point, I started worrying that he was intentionally cutting corners to be in and out as quickly as possible. Then I noticed the box containing the new boiler was labelled "15kw" and when I said "this boiler is smaller than the one you should be installing", he said "oh ####". I went to explain to my mother that things were amiss and a few minutes later the plumber came in and said "okay, we'll put the chemicals in today and come back to fit the correct boiler on Monday'. My suspiscions about him trying to avoid flushing were confirmed when they had to go and buy a bottle of X800. They came back, mostly refilled the system and left. I managed to bleed the radiators and instructed my mother to keep the heating and radiators on for as long as possible.
The correct boiler hadn't arrived by Monday, so they came instead on Tuesday (yesterday), when I was unable to be there. I had left him a note explaining that I had closed the TRVs on all the upstairs radiators to force the chemicals round the problematic ground floor circuit. At 1:30pm the plumber phoned me to say that he wouldn't be able to fit the new programmer until a 5 core cable had been run between the upstairs airing cupboard and the controls by the downstairs boiler. He said that this was my responsibility and he would come back and fit the programmer after the cable had been installed. I had no idea what he was talking about and said I would come over so he could show me. He said I would have to get there quickly, because they would be finishing in an hour and a half, so for the 6th day out of the last 7, I drove over to my mother's to be confronted by another headache: they had fitted the boiler at an inaccessibly low level with the flue terminating just 5ft above ground level pointing straight into the washing line. My mother and sister both verified him confirming he would fit a new programmer when he originally identified that the old system was wired wrong and eventually he said he would sort the cable out. I asked him what the water was like when the system was flushed and he said it looked fine and the new magnetic filter was still clean. He was refitting the old programmer and firing up the new boiler and I was suspicious that they hadn't even drained the system properly, because previous experience suggested it took ages to empty. I went upstairs to find all the TRVs closed and all the radiators full, which really got the alarm bells ringing and I asked the mate how they managed to drain the rads with all the TRVs closed. He told me "they just drain down from the other side" and when I asked how they managed to get the air out when refilling, he said "it all goes round in a circuit and out through the expansion tank". I'm an engineer not a plumber, but I believe you have to open a bleed screw to drain a rad, otherwise the vacuum will prevent water coming out. Furthermore, surely when filling a drained system, the air that ends up in the highest radiators can only escape via top bleed valves - not through the bottom valves? I told him I didn't believe they had even drained out the X800. Unknown to the plumbers, my mother's lodger had been working from home in his room upstairs and he later confirmed that nobody had been upstairs.
The plumber wanted me to fill in some warranty paperwork for the boiler, but I told him that he must complete the job first and flush the pipework properly. At about 3:30pm, when they were in a hurry to leave, he said they would come back on Friday to remove the problematic kitchen radiator and see if that was blocked - in which case he would quote for fitting a new radiator. I protested that fitting a new kitchen radiator would do nothing to help the other downstairs radiators get hot and that he should try using the valves that had been fitted years ago by another plumber to isolate the upstairs and downstairs heating pipes to facilitate flushing. He said "I don't have a power flushing machine".
This is now a huge worry for my mother (and me) and we don't really know what to do or how to approach this. I was going to call CAB for advice, but by the time I got home yesterday, they were closed. I don't really understand the full extent of the plumber's responsibility, but surely he should have identified what was required when he serviced the boiler and quoted for the job.
Please can anyone advise how we should proceed?
Many thanks
