Moving boiler: how much disruption?

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The boiler is currently in DD2's bedroom. We had always planned to move the boiler (or rather, get a new one installed) to the kitchen when we had it re-done ASAP, but finances got in the way and we have completely given up on the idea of a new kitchen.

Recently we have got a bit of cash to spend, it will be enough to pay for moving the boiler (but not enough for a kitchen refurbishment).

So my question is: How much destruction of the kitchen is likely to result from moving the boiler, and its pipework to reconnect to centre heating/hot water? Is it going to involve pulling down the ceiling and wall plasterboards, ripping up all kitchen floor tiles etc? In other words, is this do-able without rendering the kitchen even more of an unusable shit-tip?

It might not be possible to move it. I believe if it's moved it will have to be brought up to current building standards, so will need to be a condensing boiler and the fatter gas pipes.

The actual boiler tends to be a small part of the cost of getting a new one though AIRC,

Think about where the plumber would run all the pipes for the new location. If they need to travel to a different floor and across the house, it’ll cause tons of disruption. Also depends on your finishes, eg a carpet is easy to pull up and put back but if you need to go unde tiles, you might rip out the ceiling below.

Re actual boiler prices and other labour - we couldn’t even get a boiler replaced for 3k as we needed a big powerful unit.

Several years ago we removed a floor standing boiler and replaced it with a wall mounted one in the garage. ( this was an integrated garage and in a 4 bed house) It involved a lot of pipe work down stairs and upstairs.
We used BG they were great and did all the tidying up etc. It took about 4 days, but the last one was mainly commissioning and inspecting. Then it cost about £4000 but did include long guarantees, home are and servicing.
We are now in a smaller house and are about to have the old central heating completely removed and replaced by a new one. The old boiler is being removed from the spare bedroom and put in the loft.it will take 5 days. Again BG’s price was competitive and precise ( no extras or ifs and buts!), with long guarantees.

Thanks, yes we guessed the work would be in the £3-5K ballpark.

Bedroom is carpeted so that is the "easy" part.

The kitchen is directly under the bedroom. All walls and ceiling are, I think, plasterboarded and the floor has large square tiles. And obviously there is a fitted kitchen in situ. So to connect up to the central heating/hot water could be very problematic without ripping up tiles or kitchen units?

That's why we had originally intended to move the boiler as part of the kitchen refurb .

Also just to clarify, we realise that the actual boiler isn't going to move (not worth moving an old one), but rather the changed location of a new boiler is what we're thinking about.

Your best bet is probably to get someone in to quote for the job. It would depend how the pipe work gets up to the existing boiler and then where it goes from there.

It sounds relatively ok with the bedroom being above the kitchen. When someone comes to quote make sure there's clear communication about things such as who sorts out the plastering, painting, tiling etc afterwards. If some of the walls get ripped to put pipes in, the whole room will need reprinting for example.

Your best bet is probably to get someone in to quote for the job.

We've been saying we'll get quotes when the weather starts to warm up, because we don't want to be sans central heating when it's still cold. And so the winter just keeps going ...

We've had our boiler moved twice. First time we had a new combi put in the loft as there was only a water heater in the bathroom (also no central heating) and the second time a new combi was put in one of the small bedrooms as we had our loft converted.
Not much trouble either times at all, go for it 👍🏻

We are having a new boiler fitted this weekend. Did consider moving but chose not to because we weren’t going to gain much by doing it. We’re paying £1.5 for a Baxi boiler (boiler £600 rest is fitting cost to give you a rough idea). Plumber did say if we moved it straight up or down (i.e into the loft above where it is now) then it would be relatively straightforward to do

I had my boiler moved from the kitchen to the bathroom and a roof vent fitted. Very minimal disruption and no rooting up of floors or anything. I think as long as the areas you are already moved by to has water pipes then there is not too much disruption.
Cost about £3000 inc roof work.

Very minimal disruption and no rooting up of floors or anything.

Oh, that sounds very reassuring thank you! (Hope it will be similar here).

We had our boiler moved from a bedroom to the kitchen directly below. Can’t comment on cost as a family member did it for us, but in terms of distruption, it was minimal, no pulling up floors except maybe a few boards under the carpet. Was abit messy in the kitchen but nothing that couldn’t be cleaned up. Obviously depends where your pipes are erc I suppose but hopefully you will be lucky!

Etc not erc!

It may depend on what sort of boiler you want to put in and how far the kitchen is from where the gas comes into the house. The fatter gas pipes can be quite an issue. They were for us. Even though the boiler stayed in the same place the piping had to go through the house and up two storeys. (This season's new decorative feature is copper pipes framing a room.) Ditto if you need new ventilation on the outside of the house, and you are not on the ground floor, or the boiler is close to a window.

Get the quotes and see what they say. And dont be too surprised if they say different things. It is not unusual, as a landlord, to have a boiler installed, only to have another gas engineer come in a year later to do a check and say that the fitting does not meet regs. I am becomming quite cynical.

Can I ask why you are moving it? Out of interest really, as we are thinking of moving ours from the kitchen up to the airing cupboard in DD's room. I'm fed up of it taking up room in the kitchen (and its a bit old and ugly), I asked a plumber about a wall mounted one and he suggested moving it upstairs.

I think on the quote is said it could take 3 days and I am assuming we will be without heat/hot water for some of this!

moresleep It may depend on what sort of boiler you want to put in and how far the kitchen is from where the gas comes into the house.

Fingers crossed that part is straightforward, the gas meter is right outside the kitchen back wall. We are intending to get another combi boiler, probably.

lala Can I ask why you are moving it?

We really don't like the idea of the boiler in a bedroom, even though we have a CO monitor.

Also it makes noise during operation and if it fires up while DD2 is trying to get to sleep, it wakes her up (is fine if she's properly asleep).

And finally, it is a small bedroom and we could really do with the storage space. By contrast, the kitchen is a generously-sized room.

To the poster asking why move the boiler.

Boilers in bedrooms terrify me. I dismissed several house's near the top of our budget simply on the basis of having a boiler in the bedroom and knowing we would be stuck with it there until we found the funds to move it. It's your house and Home so livr by what suits your needs but just be aware boilers in bedrooms can put buyers off.

Our boiler is currently on our fully boarded attic. I love thst it's out the way and frees up house space but it's a pain for servicing, checking etc. Our boiler man is not a fan of it's location. If we were to relocate ours I think I might look into our integral garage.