Rough cost on boiler and putting in radiators

[Mollyeyes]

Hello

Can you please help. Looking into a house we like but it has electric heater and gas fire in living room. It has a hot water tank.

What is the cost to install a boiler probably combi one with 5 radiators, 2 downstairs and 3 upstairs in 2 bed house and is it worth removing the tank? Putting pipes under floorboards. Is this a headache and easy to put boards back? Anyone done this, looking in Hertfordshire.

Thank you!

For a 4 bed house we’ve just been quoted £7k

My old house was £3.5k; Worcester combi boiler and 7 radiators in Feb 2016 Welling, SE London

We paid ~£3000 for a new baxi boiler (higher rated than Worcester Bosch these days), 6 radiators and all plumbing between in 2014 in the Northeast.

My combi was about £4k a few years ago. That included removing old water tanks (previous boiler wasn't a combi). One of the biggest parts of the cost was the hire of scaffolding to put the vent through the roof (it's a top floor flat). No changes to radiators though.
I would definitely remove the tank, if it's only a 2 bed house then there's no point heating a tank full of hot water for a couple of showers a day. a good combi should easily keep up with your demand. Also means you gain cupboard or loft space!

Around 4k for similar work here. Some of the cost will depend on if you want simple white radiators/TRVs, and what boiler you choose. Worcester Bosch is probably the most well-known. ATAG is lesser known but also very good (quiet, highly efficient, 10 years warranty).

The tank won't be needed anymore if you get a combi boiler, as it will heat the water up when it's required. Pipes can run under floorboards; they may have to cut some and/or remove skirting. The boards should then get screwed down again if they are under carpet, or nailed if you have exposed floorboards.

Thank you all for your valuable feedback, is Valliant not as good boiler? Is it best to look ourselves for radiators ? would like some nice looking ones, traditional looking if we can.

We have just replaced the boiler and DH did a lot of research as well as a few quotes. We settled on the Valiant Ecotec plus. It is a stainless steel heat exchanger as opposed to others which are aluminium (which is less tolerant of muck in the system). The gas engineer said he was currently fitting nearly all vallaints as the quality and realisability is really high

We also had a new system filter fitted. Depending on the set up and using an approved Valiant fitter you can have either an 8 or 10 year warranty (depends on the filter).

Ours has taken some getting used to. It is incredibly high tec and for example the pump speed and even the output is fully automated so the engineer doesn't even have to reduce operating capacity if the load is low. We are finding the heating taking a little longer to get warm as the water is set to a cooler temp to what the old boiler was, again all about efficiency but it is incredibly quiet.

Make sure it is a pressurised system and get rid of the header tank. If nothing else you know if you get a leak!

We didn't opt for the combi because of the size of house and demands but love having a hot water cylinder anyway as we have fully pumped showers.

We're in Hertfordshire and were quoted £4,800 earlier this week, but that includes some additional work removing an existing back boiler from a fireplace and removing an en-suite. Boiler quoted was an Ideal combi boiler (30kw) for a 3 bed semi, but I'm not too sure if that's a good option to go for or how this boiler compares to others like Worcester Bosch and Valliant?

google mr central heating and look up heat packs which will show what boiler you can buy with how many radiators as a package

You will then have the plumbers wages on top I would have keep the tank but change to a pressurised tank like a 175 litre megaflo with a system boiler which will give you better water flow for showers etc and the boiler will be slightly cheaper

Vailliant eco tec Plus 630 boiler and tank with everything you need is showing at £2200

I would then allow £1k for all of your radiators and valves and pipe

Or you could go down the combi route but wouldnt be as efficient or good as a pressurised cylinder

Labour on top approx £2k depnding on who and where

Wow really impressed and grateful for all your detailed advice. Thank you

Just out of interest, if we just installed plug in electric radiators instead do you think they keep rooms warm and is heating with electric more expensive than gas? Thanks

Heating with electricity is 4 times as expensive. Don't even think about it

Oh and just got first gas bill since it was installed. Doesn't cover the full period and it has been far colder than the month before....reduction of 15% on last month so I reckon I will be looking at least 20% reduction...last boiler was very old.

By my reckoning that will be saving us approx £200 per annum plus we are ditching the British Gas contract...as last two years they have been utterly rubbish in coming out to breakdowns and now have the boiler under warranty. Saving PA £500

One thing you may find is it could need pipework down the walls. We are lucky that we have a large kitchen pantry directly below the airing cupboard so the pipes run down the wall and into the ground floor. We wanted to knock through to make a full length hallway but rerouting/hiding the pipes would be a nightmare.
Fil’s house has pipes running down the dining room wall, in conduit and down the middle of the hall that are boxed in but have an access panel for the stopcock and feed valves.
If the ground floor is concrete rather than floorboards, that is yet more work, our hall floor is uneven due to this.

Thank you everyone

Hi everyone, I presume boiler will need to be installed in kitchen with access to a external wall and then there is all the flooring and plastering to do downstairs and upstairs? How are the pipes taken to the bedrooms? Are they hidden in walls too? Have to take into consideration of all the cost of replastering, repainting and perhaps new flooring and carpets is that right?

The in,y time I've seen the pipes hidden in walls was in my friends new build when they were micro bore type pipes hidden behind the plaster board. We took pictures of all the walls before they out the boarding over as there were so many pipes and wires in places your wouldn't expect that it was inevitable someone would out a nail through one!

Usually pipes up the walls and under the floor boards. One to discuss with the plumber who you decide will do the install as my experience is many will take the easiest and quickest route which might not be the most aesthetically pleasing. We previously had our new boiler in the attached garage which worked well.

If you are not familiar with central heating and pipes suggest you get a friend who is to be with you when you discuss things.

The earlier point about the boilers...stick with the brand like Valiant or Bosch ..as my plumber says..he wants to install the most reliable and with excellent parts availability so he isn't always getting called back a d currently that's Valiant but does change

Depends on size of house. Where you live in the country and the type of system you want.

Avoid woster bosch (sp??) like the plague. Horrible boilers lots of plumbers hate them for maintenance access and needing special tools to dismantle. But they wear a fancy posh frock that's why customers like them.

Ask for a boiler with a stainless steel heat exchanger. ( non stainless ones rot very quickly due to the acidic components in the condensate) and you want to also make sure internal components are brass. Plastic gust goes brittle and leaks after a few years.

A guy called Alan hart does boiler videos on YouTube and looks at the pros and cons of different models if you want to learn more.

We had our new boiler ( vaillant combi) put in the airing cupboard, the old one was on the kitchen wall.
We needed a new gas pipe from the meter under the stairs, it goes up the outside wall into the loft then across and down into the airing cupboard. There was existing pipework from the old hot water tank and cold feed in the loft they could use.
Our boiler, condensate pump and pipework, new gas pipework and trvs on the radiators cost £2400, 3 years ago.

Thank you all for all your help and advice, will have a think whether it’s worth it with all the options. X