Help - boiler installed incorrectly - what do we do?

[chocolateteabag]

We had a new Worcestor Bosch Oil boiler installed 2 years ago on the same place that the previous boiler was located.
It went wrong last week and turns out that it was installed incorrectly/illegally. Flue length is 7 metres and should not be over 5, needs to be relocated and new flue fitted.
New boiler man also noticed a missing screw inside and tape fixings which shouldn't be there.

The original plumber was corgi registered - what do we do? Get him to fix it for free ( not keen) or sur him through small claims for the £1k it's going to cost to put right.

Not going to be fixed til Jan so extended Christmas stay with in-laws

[Sam100]

I would phone up the gas safe register people. I think corgi was a few years ago and now they have to be gas safe registered. Did you check his details on the website www.gassaferegister.co.uk?

If he is on there then you should report the issues to them and ask their advice.

Also check out office of fair trade guidance on problems when buying services.

It may be that you have to give him the opportunity to remedy matters. But with something as critical as gas I would be reluctant to let someone who had already messed up once anywhere near it again.

You should also report to trading standards. If he is holding himself out as registered and he is not then they may be interested.

What an awful thing to happen at this time of the year.

[LIZS]

Is it possible that regulations have changed in the interim ?

[digerd]

Contact Trading Standards. I did and was told if a boiler goes wrong within 6 years, the person who sold it to you, is responsible for repairing it free of charge. TS will explain the process of contacting him.

[chocolateteabag]

Thank you for your replies, really helpful advice

We will need to wait til after Christmas to call TS/ gas safe but in the meantime will also get a second opinion on the boiler

[redlac]

It might be that the regs have changed re flue - we used to have British gas cover for our old boiler and every annual service they would say something different wasn't up to regs

[PigletJohn]

Oil boiler here, so Corgi/Gas-Safe does not apply. There is some other process.

Oil heating engineers are thinner on the ground and seem more quirky.

[chocolateteabag]

Hi PigletJohn - DH has been talking to more people and getting someone else to look next week. We are North Yorkshire and lots of oil boilers round where we are so there are a few more people, but not many.

The original guy was registered for oil boilers ( not sure what but DH knows), but looks like he just fitted the new boiler where the old one was and made the flue fit

[bureni]

what is the exact model of your boiler and how many bends are on the flue pipe if any? Modern oil boilers can run a flue up to 8 metres without any trouble.

[digerd]

OP
Out of interest, where is your oil boiler situated and the oil tanks.? In Germany we had them all in the basement, but saw no flu pipes or fumes on the outside of house.

[digerd]

ps
"flue pipes"

[chocolateteabag]

Hi, the flue is 7 m and has one bend. It's on the ground floor of our dormer bungalow with flue coming out of the roof.
I think the second plumber wants to move it next to the outside wall and have the flue coming out if the wall. Oil tank is at the back of the house but near to the road so that it's easy to fill up.

[digerd]

Thanks for replying. Our german house was a chalet bungalow as most are, but with added basement/cellar . Don't know how the tanks in the cellar were filled as was always in UK when they were done 2x yearly, but the cellar had small windows above the ground, so imagine they filled through them. Dh organised that. Still don't know where the exhaust pipes were as never saw any ?
Sounds like a major relocation works to move the flue to outside wall.
Good luck

[PigletJohn]

In Switzerland a lot of boilers (mostly gas) seemed to be in basements with the flue going up the chimney

However in the UK joints in flues have long had to be accessible for inspection in case they leak, and I hear new regulations (don't know effective date) require flues to be accessible for inspection along the entire length.

My (German) boiler will support a 10 metre flue and has various installation options including up a chimey, but as far as I can see some of the options would not be permitted in the UK.

I am not a heating engineer.

[digerd]

Thanks Piglet
I Have been trying to remember, but have to assume that our german oil boiler flue must have been up the chimney. And as the boiler is placed in the basement room under the kitchen, where the previous to 1978 wood burning boiler was, the flue must have been built in the wall going up to roof. The loft was all bedrooms and saw no chimney breast.

[chocolateteabag]

Well - very glad we had a second opinion. Turns out our boiler has a 4.5m flue and could have up to a 7m one per Mftr's guidance. The gas cowboy before Christmas had not cleaned our boiler properly either.
The guy who came was the MD of a bolier company that DH has done some work for and woUld only accept cups of tea as payment for his 4 hours of work yesterday so inclined to believe him.

So our heating is back on and we will not be paying the call out charge of the first guy who would have had us pay him £1000 to unnecessarily move a boiler. Either he is a crook or an idiot who cannot use a tape measure.

Lesson learnt to always get a second opinion!