Installing central heating

[MovingOn2025]

ive viewed a house which surprisingly doesnt have any central heating! No radiators in any rooms and a rather old boiler/immersion heater type thing. Basically its been an older person’s house thats needed modernising. Any idea on rough costs for installing this (3bed semi)? They must have heated it using electric heaters and open fires. Wondering if its worth an offer

I'd suggest an offer about £15k, willing to up to under £12k under their asking price as it could cost you about that to install central heating, & then making good where they've dug walls out to put pipes etc in. I'd also make your offer dependent on a full survey- not just the one that the Building Society valuation survey, a full structural one. It will cost about £800, but, if they don't have any central heating there may be other issues as the property sounds old & may have other issues that have been neglected.

A lot will depend on the house and whether it facilitates easy installation, as well as whether it’s even currently connected to the gas network and has a gas meter - that alone could cost a couple of thousand depending on the distance to the main supply. Boiler installation anything from £1,500 - £3,000 as a rough benchmark depending on where it’s sited and the model you choose. You may have space for installing pipe work under floorboards or you may not. Even if there is, if you want to hide pipes nicely under floor boards you'll see a significantly higher cost than if you just fix them onto skirting boards.
Radiator cost will depend on style etc. I’d bank on it being a £10,000 - £12,000 job and be happy if quotes come in lower.

It might be worth seeing if your local council does energy efficiency grants.

Thank you! Thats really helpful

Last month we were quoted £8000 to install central heating with combi boiler and radiators in a 3 bed house.

I've just had CH put in from scratch with boiler, 5 radiators and a towel rail. It cost £6000.

It took 4 days. Day 1 boiler installation. Day 2 downstairs pipework and rads, Day 3 upstairs, Day 4 removing header tank and hot water cylinder, joining all the pipework together and flushing etc.

All pipes under floorboards.

Why not go straight to heat pump and solar hot water?

Yes, especially if it's not on gas, don't put it in now. A connection will cost money that would be better spent future proofing the home not installing old fashioned systems. Solar, battery and heat pumps are the future plus grants available at the moment.

Thanks for all replies. Thought heat pumps were crap? How much is installing those anyone know?

Like all things I am sure people have had bad experiences with heat pumps.

Talk to some installers with the options

bear in mind that they can cool as well as heat your home

Not sure on price but will be more than gas but maybe not if no gas supply to house. HP is good future proofing but you need a well insulated house. It's a different type of heating. Bigger radiators at a lower temperature for longer.

Thank you. Its worth considering i guess

If heat pumps were crap, they wouldn’t be so popular in other, colder parts of the world. In the UK, they’ve become a victim of the culture wars.

Honestly if I was starting from scratch, I’d think about forced air. Then you get air con as well as heating. And it looks neater (just vents in the ceiling).

Had it in Canada and really wish it was standard here! Far too disruptive to install when we have radiators already though.

Has it got gas? You didn't say.

Knocking money off the asking price Is a red herring unless the asking price was calculated on the assumption that it had good CH.