New boiler... British Gas or someone else?

[Starrynight0]

We want to replace our boiler and also move it to a different part of the kitchen (so it will require a bit more labour than a simple replacement).

We contacted British Gas and two local plumbers for quotes. BG were easy - booked the appointment online, a very helpful man came out, explained everything, and gave us a quote there and then (£4,200 for a Worcester Bosch + all labour).

The other two plumbers have both failed to turn up twice.

I've asked friends/family for recommendations but the only suggestion we got was a company with very mixed Trust Pilot reviews which put us off.

I just searched Mumsnet and saw a company called BOXT mentioned - positive reviews but I'm not sure if they will be able to change the location too given this will require some building work. I will have to investigate!

We'd be happy to just book BG but £4,200 is a lot of money when you've not had other quotes for comparison. No idea if this is a rip-off or about what you'd expect?

Update: We can change the boiler location with BOXT and I've got a quote on their website already - pretty much exactly the same ££ as BG.

See you've already made the booking but when I changed boilers I knew I wanted a Worcester Bosch and booked a local engineer through the WB website. Much cheaper than BG and a better service. No complaints a few years in. IIRC BG are known for charging a lot more for boiler installation than the competition.

See you've already made the booking - oops, you haven't. Still might be worth trying the WB site to get someone local rather than BG.

Get some more quotes and make clear to the plumber you want them to maintain it going forward. We paid £2600 for a valiant top of the range boiler. Brilliant boiler but this was the top price. £4k is utterly ridiculous. BG often use local plumbers anyway. Mine told me he is sick of BG Clients reporting breakdowns and it being weeks for them to come out so they tell them to get a local plumber and they will pay the bill. He has doubled his charge for BG now as he says he just wants to loo, after his own clients

As PP, a few years ago I also used the Worcester boilers’ website to identify the boiler I needed and get quotes for fitting from their recommended local plumbers. Very easy and happy with the plumber and much cheaper than British Gas.

Had a boiler moved and fitted last week . Worcester with local plumber, £3100. Would have been £2600 if not moved.

Look for an installer that doesn't charge VAT. Those that accept cash, charge lesser

BG are well known for being over the top expensive

We installed a new boiler in a new location and got a similar quote from BG. Got it done for half the price by a local gas fitter who now also does our annual service. Keep asking around for recommendations.

Is that legal?

We got our new boiler installed by BOXT earlier this week. Very happy with the service and the level of communication throughout the whole process. Boiler+ installation + Google Hive was about £2700 (4 bedroom house). £4000 seems a lot. What boiler are you looking to get and what's the size of your house?

I got my boiler replaced and moved up into the loft by Boxt on the recommendation of a friend. I can't recommend them highly enough (not on commission, honest).

I was a bit sceptical about them and a little nervous about ordering online but I rang and spoke to someone to double check everything before I went ahead and they were very helpful. Their guy came the following week to do the work and he was amazing, worked solidly for two days (took longer due to moving from original position) and was very clean and tidy. I honestly can't fault them. Also they don't hassle you once it's put in either.

It depends. If the turnover is less than £85,000 per annum - but that figure will need to include all costs of materials etc. ie not just labour. Now I would be very wary of a supposedly long established business that was supposedly below the threshold. If you think boiler refit on average from above posts £3k - takes a week (not it doesnt but lets assume). 48 weeks per year (allows for holidays) - £144,000 per annum. Well above threshold. So the conclusion I think we can safely draw is that no it is not legal. The question needs to be - do you want a company that cant be bothered to follow tax rules, installing a gas boiler, when the consequences of non-compliance with safety rules will be much greater?

Meant to say mine cost around £3400 for the boiler and to move it. I got a WB

British Gas = much more expensive than a local gas engineer

I had a BG install.

Pros :

Salespeople really knew what they are doing in terms of specs.
All certification done correctly and regulatory procedure adhered to.
No messing around on booking dates, good booking system and did the job when they said they would.
Very smooth and co-ordinated installation process. Very nice looking install performed by the engineer. Electrics done by qualified electrician. All waste removed next day by BIFFA.
No final payment required til long after install. By which time I had plenty of time to check that the system worked properly.
Good aftermarket care.

Cons :

Expensive.

In comparison experience I have had with independents :

Have quoted me for work I don't need.
Hard to get them to do the job, then lots of cancelling/rebooking of install dates.
Fairly rough looking installs and shortcuts taken.
Expect immediate payment.
Lack of interest in follow up after being paid, can be lax or completely omit regulatory compliance (ie properly register the install).
Hard to find one you can trust.
Cheap.

With BG I would say you get what you pay for. I suspect BOXT are similar to BG in performance, but I have no direct experience with them.

If I was to use an independent again, I would probably go for one of the approved installers - for example Worcester Bosch have an improved installer list.

We had a new boiler fitted last year by a local heating engineer. He was £1000 cheaper than the quote we got from British gas. If I was you I'd go for a reputable local engineer.

We've just had a new boiler fitted and also moved to a different room.

The BG guy came out and quoted us in the region of £9k. He sucked his teeth a bit at the work and also insisted that they couldn't possibly work on site if we had any other workmen there at the same time. The reason was that they couldn't be certain that the other workmen were trained to the same health and safety standards. Not that the other workmen would be doing the gas - they're digging up the garden to do groundworks for an extension. But apparently the BG men must have the whole site to themselves (apart from the residing family).

So that was all a bit weird.

Then we got a second quote from a local heating engineer. He has charged us £4200 (incl VAT) for a brand new boiler, he's installed it in the other room, removed the cupboards, and he's also re-piped the house for us. It's an ex-council property where the piping was done the easiest way, rather than the least visible.

That was about two months ago. If you're in the Gloucester region, I can give you his details. Failing that, we found him on the local Gas Safe register.

We also had problems getting quotes from others, absolute nuisance. This guy was great though - he's now our go-to for any other heating or gas work in the house.

We are getting a new WB boiler as soon as they come from the factory (there’s shortage issues) and also getting it moved from back bedroom to downstairs and it’s costing us £2500. Local independent guy who is an accredited installer of WB.

maybe depends where you are in the country but your price seems very high.

I can't fault Worcester Bosch. I'd go to them directly & get their care plan as well. £17.95 a month & includes your annual service, repairs up to £1500 (from memory) & a bunch of other stuff.

I'd avoid BG like the plague these days. That are not what they once were.

Not really weird.

One person is installing the boiler doing the electrics having switched them off, only to have another person come in from another contractor who decides they want to switch the electrics back on to operate their power tools and does it without checking, because they have not been trained up to take reasonable care.

They do thousands of installs a year, so the probability that something like this will crop up, along with many other possibilities of conflict is much higher.

They were about £1K higher than the independent (who didn't add in the extra work) for me. Double the price sounds a bit excessive. They must have justified that in the quote. I got a full breakdown of the work needed and itemised cost for each, so there must have been some reason why they cost a lot more ?

Thanks everyone. We found some accredited WB installers on the WB website as suggested by PPs here, contacted at the weekend and had 2 different plumbers over already - now just awaiting their quotes.

We are currently doing the same. Our two local plumbers were £1800 (although i didnt get the greatest vibe from this one) and £2500. BG were £4000+. Def worth persevering to find some local firms to quote.

Vaillant are a good boiler make,
We used a Vaillant installer in 2017 and very happy, they were cheaper than British Gas and Homeserve

Hmmm, not sure about that, I find it a bit unnecessary. No other qualified tradesmen are demanding the same conditions.

Somehow lots of other workmen manage to work in the same property together without an issue. The things the BG engineer referenced was other workmen not knowing to watch out for trailing cables or not being careful where they walked. He said - and I quote - "they've not had the same health and safety training as us so won't be up to our level".

I can understand not wanting other big jobs at the same time - like the electrics - because maybe they would want the power supply turned off at different times, but he said we couldn't even have men in the garden digging. Honestly, I think it's ridiculous and precious - none of the other registered, highly qualified tradesmen have demanded this.

And as for justifying the cost - same boiler, same work. Actually less work as they didn't quote for redoing the piping upstairs. The bloke that came round from BG was just a bit of an arse all round. Do you watch The Boys? If you do, he had strong Homelander vibes 😅 He wasn't impressed about having to move the boiler from one side of the house to the other and muttered about how much work that would be, and how expensive it was to move a boiler that far.

The other thing was that he said that the extension work would all have to be finished up before they'd come in. So not just an empty house - he said the gas would have to be the last thing done. So potentially that would mean knocking through the plastering to put gas pipes in, and then having to get the plastering re-done which is a total waste of money.

Maybe I just got a bit of a rubbish BG guy. But he was awful. Attitude from hell and bloody expensive.