Replace Boiler

A question about : Replace Boiler

I've had two quotes on replacing my boiler from local firms in the West Midlands for the following work:
Supply & fit Worcester Bosch Greenstar 24RI regular condensing boiler
System to be flushed
System to be treated with corrosion inhibitor chemical
Flow and return pipes altered to connect
22mm gas pipe to be run from boiler to meter externally
Condensate pipe to be run to suitable discharge
New pump, honeywell mid position diverter valve and room thermostat to be fitted
Rubbish removed
5 year warranty on boiler
The values being Ј2395 and Ј2150 including VAT.

Do these seem reasonable or should I be looking for more quotes?

Also my existing boiler still works okay at the moment (I want to replace as it is old and noisy but no safety issues) so would I get a better price if I waited till the summer?

Thanks
Stu

Best answers:

• If two firms are quoting similar then it tends to suggest that its in the right area.
• I would get some more quotes. Son just had identical work done, exactly the same WB boiler as yours, for Ј1350, by local Corgi engineer in York. It took a full day, plus a follow up visit to double check everything. Only difference - he has a 2 year manufacturers warranty, not 5 years like yourself.
  He was quoted Ј2300 at first by B Gas and Npower, so I'd definitely shop around a bit more if I were you.
  The WB 24Ri itself costs less than Ј800, so work out how much you're being charged for labour - too much for less than 2 days work? I certainly think so!
• Thanks for the advice
  Stu
• They seem fair prices to be honest!! Maryhillgirl do you realise what it costs for a corgi reg engineer for upkeep of qualifications, van, fuel,tools,insurance,training!!!! A job costs what it costs as an engineer myself i wouldnt get out of bed for less!!!
• I was simply telling Stufar how much a Corgi registered engineer in York had charged within the last couple of weeks for an identical job. The engineer earned Ј500 gross in just over a day. Everyone in employment has to pay for travel, upkeep of vehicle, tax, insurance etc simply to get to and from work every day - none of us are exempt from these costs. I stand by my remark that an additional Ј1000 for the same job is excessive.
  Perhaps Gasbag 1602 will tell us what daily rate he would get out of bed for.
• For starters that job described at the top would take more than 1 day!!! To powerflush a system correctly will take the best part of a day and the work another day or so!!! If your son has had all this work done in just over a day expect problems in the future as i gaurentee it has not been flushed properly!! What i would not get out of bed for is not your concern, i would just ask people not to be nieve to the prices genuine tradesmen charge and deserve!!!!! If you want a poor job take the cheepest quote!!!!
• Out of interest, what does it cost to get CORGI registered?
  I had a look at a local college and from their pricing the course plus exam fee for the City and Guild Level 2 is approx Ј640, I think you need Level 3 as well, so that's the same again I imagine?
  Is there then a further charge for the CORGI bit?
• Oh dear, Gasbag. Apologies for sending you into a state of exclamatory indignation by enquiring about your daily rate. You're correct, it is of no particular interest to me as I'm not employing you, but the whole point of these discussions is surely to give advice to one another on what are reasonable rates for a job, and what are excessive. That is what I have done, no more or less. I would never employ someone who refused to provide a fully itemised bill, parts and labour clearly stated.
  The engineer we employed was an excellent, highly recommended, long-established local tradesman, the job thorough, the price competitive. Enough said.
• Supply & fit Worcester Bosch Greenstar 24RI regular condensing boiler
• System to be flushed
• System to be treated with corrosion inhibitor chemical
• Flow and return pipes altered to connect
• 22mm gas pipe to be run from boiler to meter externally
• Condensate pipe to be run to suitable discharge
• New pump, honeywell mid position diverter valve and room thermostat to be fitted
• Rubbish removed
• 5 year warranty on boiler

Mary Hill were the jobs identical?
Could you please tell me where you can buy a 24Ri, flue, 3 port, pump, thermostat, pipes, cleaner, inhibitor, fittings for under Ј800 inc VAT?
Can this identical job be done in a day including running the new supply?
Congratulations on your cheap job and I'm not going to say it wasn't done properly but there is often a compromise between money paid and quality of work done; shame is the householder doesn't know the difference as long as they're warm.
To the OP waiting until summer is an excellent idea, last year the trade was dead during the school summer holidays.

• The cost of the boiler itself was just over Ј700, which is what I originally said. "The WB 24Ri itself costs less than Ј800" The additional Ј650 included the additional parts needed to complete the job, and the labour. I've no idea where the engineer sourced his parts, but a quick internet check showed he was charging the right price for the most important component, ie the WB boiler, so we went with his quote.
  https://www.plumbnation.co.uk/site/wo...r-natural-gas/
  I'm now concerned that it's all been too cheap, and that my son has either paid for a duff job, or robbed the Corgi engineer by agreeing to let him work for next to nothing. Not having mains gas myself here in rural Lancashire, I've never had a gas boiler fitted so have no idea how long the job should take. My own oil boiler was replaced in a day and a half, so it seemed reasonable to assume similar for gas.
  Maybe someone who works in the trade will tell us the true cost of materials, the length of time a straighforward boiler swap should take, and the actual amount of money a gas engineer expects to earn for this type of job.
• Maryhillgirl you are the exact type of customer i do not do work for. Have you ever heard the saying, "if it sounds to good to be true". I was mearly telling you that the job was done to fast and thus will not of been installed correctly. I earn a good days pay for a good days work, simple. Yes this forum is for giving advice to those who need it, but its probably best if the advice was acurate. Maybe your son should of asked for some. Regards
• That's what I thought, Wii Man. If having the audacity to ask how much I'm expected to pay a workman for his labour makes me an awkward customer, then so be it. I'm sure many other readers of this forum are as "awkward" as me in this case. I thought the idea of this site was to compare and check quotes, prices, and get best value for money. The internet has given consumers access to the trade prices of goods like boilers. In the past, we had no idea of the true cost, and had to rely on whatever the "man with the spanner" told us. Now we are better informed, we want to know how much we are REALLY paying them for their time.
  As for a "good day's pay for a good day's work", I don't believe many would quibble with this. But the question remains - just what IS a day's pay?
• I guess the problem is that cheap isn't always good, but then neither is expensive. It's a fallacy to think that just because you're paying someone a few hundred pounds more that they are automatically better, all it really tells you is that they charge more.
  That could be dependant on a lot of things, for example one installer might have a a big mortgage and 3 kids, another has less outgoings so can charge less money per day because he/she needs less.
  That's where the difficulties start, because the charging is so arbitary, and you know most of the time it isn't based on the actual difficulty of the work, it's how much the particular tradesman wants to earn, and worse sometimes it's what he thinks you can afford.
  We employ tradesmen at my company, some of them are good, a lot are right wasters and yet they all earn good money - the salary isn't the measure of skill these days, as much as we would like a simple comparator.
  My dad who worked as a Clerk of Works is pretty handy and I've seen him do much better jobs than so called professionals and he does stuff for free, so according to the "payment" measure he's rubbish!
  It's really tricky finding a genuinely good, reliable and trustworthy tradesman, and in my experience one who won't give you an exact figure for a job either doesn't know how to do it or is hedging his bets (my impression is that you're simply not happy to say on a piblic forum gasbag, as opposed to anything else?).