Plumber's estimate

[Pollo]

Finally persuaded one local plumber to quote for a) servicing the central heating & hot water + b)installing one new radiator. Have a small, 3 bedroom house. Estimate was £700. Seems stratospheric but maybe is par for the course. Don't live in London. HELP!

Seems very high - I would expect to pay about #400-500 (assuming that the pipework was reasonably accessible, not buried in concrete floor for instance) and I do live in London.

Sounds VERY high! Am convinced they do this sometimes if they don't actually want the work, but don't want to say so. (DH works for a firm of builders and has come across that attitude)

This seems really high. That should only take a couple of hours really so that's an astonisghing rate per hour. That said, is it a new radiator or a changeover? Will there be a lot of new pipework, floor boards up etc? Is it a fancy radiator?

I paid £115 recently to have my boiler serviced and £90 to have a radiator replaced, so that was one out and a new one in. I'm just outside of London.

It might be worth asking how long the whole job will take. Eg, servicing my boiler only took 40 minutes.

I have just had some boiler/plumbing work done

• remove expansion vessel from boiler & replace with new external (to boiler) expansion vessel
• replace pressure release seal
• replace TVR on new radiator which had been fitted with the one-way directional valve the wrong way round)
• put anti-rust liquid (whatever it is?) into the radiator system.

Total - £300

He also quoted me for putting a new rad in, which would involve some pipe work (moving it further along the wall from the existing one) and that would have been about £120.

I would pay under £100 for a boiler service (oil-fired boiler).

On that basis I would have thought your quote was high.

Husband who is a plumbing and heating eng says £300 MAX - hope this helps. Yes, mary is right it is not unknown for any trade to put in a high quote if they don't want the job!!!