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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

New Central heating or move house?

66 replies

Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 20:47

AIBU to think that it would be easier to move house than have an entire new central heating system installed? Boiler, radiators, pipes, tanks etc.

My DH thinks not, I think yes, it would be easier and cheaper to just sell up and buy somewhere with a decent system in place.

We have a small 3 bed house on an old one pipe system. Apparently it needs converting to a two pipe system which means concrete floors dug up and floorboards/carpets taken up.

Has anyone done this and still lived in the house whilst work took place?
How long did it take, how much was it? Did you have to replace all carpets/hard flooring?

Talk me down. I’m panicking!

OP posts:
1Morewineplease · 05/05/2021 20:49

Maybe price up the cost of updating then compare it to the cost of moving.
The difference could be considerable.

maslinpan · 05/05/2021 20:52

Read a good few Property threads about the various stresses of selling your house, that might help put it into perspective.

monkeysox · 05/05/2021 20:53

Yabu put the heating in.

Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 20:53

I think it’s the inconvenience and the cost.
Having to pack everything away and then having to completely re-carpet rooms and buy new wooden flooring, redecorate afterwards... I feel like the house will be trashed.

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Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 20:54

@monkeysox

Yabu put the heating in.
Why do you say that? Have you had it done?
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LBOCS2 · 05/05/2021 20:54

I have sold houses and I've put new heating in. Get the heating. It's much much much much much much much less stressful.

It's easiest if you don't have fixed floors, or are prepared for a level of disruption. Personally I'd go on a week or a fortnight's local-ish UK holiday this summer and get it done while I'm gone. We had a new system put in our large 4 bed; it was £5.5k including all radiators and a new boiler.

Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 20:56

@maslinpan

Read a good few Property threads about the various stresses of selling your house, that might help put it into perspective.
I know... I have dreams of buying the perfect house... one where nothing ever goes wrong or needs repairing! Haha!!
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Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 20:57

Thank you LBOCS2 I was thinking 5K and our house is quite small. 3 beds.

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cakefanatic · 05/05/2021 20:57

New heating system is not such a big deal. You don’t need to dig up the concrete floors unless you especially want to. We have a period property with original oak parquet, no way was I disturbing that, so we dropped heating pipes from upstairs. Painted in to the wall colour they’re not that obtrusive.

Upstairs is much easier, roll the carpet back and lift the boards. You might need to re-do the carpet but not immediately in any case. It took a week to do our house - 18 rads, pretty big place. Definitely less expensive and traumatic than moving house!

Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 20:58

Just to add, was your house empty or full of stuff- nice carpets/flooring?

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Beebumble2 · 05/05/2021 20:59

We put completely new CH in current house. The old system was microbore situated within the walls. Everything was new and the boiler re sited. Although no floors were dug up, it was quite an undertaking., the engineers were quite used to lifting and refitting carpets and floorboards. Our house is old with solid floors, so some pipe work is exposed, but very little and easily concealed.
Worth it and much cheaper than moving house. It was only a few days work

Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:00

@cakefanatic

New heating system is not such a big deal. You don’t need to dig up the concrete floors unless you especially want to. We have a period property with original oak parquet, no way was I disturbing that, so we dropped heating pipes from upstairs. Painted in to the wall colour they’re not that obtrusive.

Upstairs is much easier, roll the carpet back and lift the boards. You might need to re-do the carpet but not immediately in any case. It took a week to do our house - 18 rads, pretty big place. Definitely less expensive and traumatic than moving house!

Thank you. Good to hear about not having to dig out concrete floors necessarily... downstairs is all concrete.
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Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:00

@Beebumble2

We put completely new CH in current house. The old system was microbore situated within the walls. Everything was new and the boiler re sited. Although no floors were dug up, it was quite an undertaking., the engineers were quite used to lifting and refitting carpets and floorboards. Our house is old with solid floors, so some pipe work is exposed, but very little and easily concealed. Worth it and much cheaper than moving house. It was only a few days work
Did you move out? I guess no water for the duration?
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Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:02

Also Bee, do you mind telling me what it cost and how big your house is?

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cakefanatic · 05/05/2021 21:04

Yeah, so, if you have a suspended wooden floor downstairs the preference would be to drop just one pipe, and then run pipes below the floor, but for a concrete floor it’s common to just drop multiple pipes. It would be nice to have no exposed pipework, but it’s not such a big deal. We were able to put some rads back to back, so then only dropping pipe on one side of the wall and in a more discreet location.

It won’t interrupt your water supply at all - the rads won’t be connected until they have all been fitted and pipes. No issue with living there whilst it’s being done. In fact, I personally wouldn’t leave them to it. I worked from home because there were a surprising number of questions about exact position of things through the week.

Hothammock · 05/05/2021 21:08

I would leave all buried pipework and start fresh with a new system, pipes boxed in as needed. It's much less hassle to put in a heating system than it is to move house. Plus you will be adding value to your house. I agree with pps who say book yourself a trip while the worst of it is done and just accept it will be a short term disruption.

Solina · 05/05/2021 21:09

New heating is much less hassle and cheaper than moving house. Ours was 5k for a brand new heating installed (pipes, boiler, radiators) and took about 8 days. We were here during the work and it was fine.
There are ways around concrete, it does not need to be dug up, the pipes can just be dropped down from upstairs. If you have carpets upstairs they can be lifted and put back.

Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:10

Thanks cake - that’s really helpful!
I don’t understand how the water can still be on though- do they cut off the pipe work from the boiler but leave it connected for hot water? And only cut the hot water off when they actually put in the new boiler?

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Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:11

I hadn’t even thought about boxed in pipes!
I honestly didn’t know you could.
So they literally abandon the old pipes and start afresh?

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Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:15

Hothammock Plus you will be adding value to your house.

DH said this. I think we would get less for ours atm with such an old system...

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Tangledtresses · 05/05/2021 21:15

It's not that bad tbh.... you'll still have water just not hot water for a few days
We had the whole house done recently
Boiler first.... hot water connected in day 2! Then the heating which took another 5 days
If you do it in the summer your not going to miss the heating!
Cold water still is in all taps/dishwasher etc as that's a different system....

We had concrete floor in the kitchen, they just cut it and lay the pipes in it's not as bad as having a new kitchen fitted

Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:17

If you do it in the summer your not going to miss the heating!

That would be the plan if we went ahead.
Thank you for telling me it’s not that bad.
I’m panicking -can you tell?!

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Slippy78 · 05/05/2021 21:18

Surely just the buying/selling costs and stamp duty would come to far more than the cost of a new heating system?

Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:20

@Slippy78

Surely just the buying/selling costs and stamp duty would come to far more than the cost of a new heating system?
It’s more the upheaval. I am imagining an absolutely trashed house. If I have to pack up every room and re-floor/ re-decorate everywhere (which is what I imagined)...
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Original poster
Heatingsystemwoes · 05/05/2021 21:20

I might as well start again in a new house.

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