What is the best way to go about obtaining a quote for Central Heating?

[berks1234]

Hi, what is the best method to obtaining a quote for a full install?

eg.

I would like to get central heating put into my 1 bedroom flat.

Being a full install, Boiler, Rads, Pipes and fittings. Assume possible 2 days work for a competant installer.

E.g

Most of them have broken it down into an installation, boiler, and materials fee.

Avg £1800 - £2000 for the install, £1000 for the boiler, and most shockingly £1200-£1400 for additonal parts.

This leaves me with the risk of them slapping in poor quality parts, and leftovers from other paid jobs!!!

Meaning that they are trying to make a huge profit on the materials that they are looking to use, and it comes as no suprise that none of them have been forthcoming on my requests to provide a breakdown of the spec.

I would like to be able to spec the system myself making sure that they use Copper throughout.

What are my options?

Could I hire an installer to fit a Worcester/Vaillant CH Pack? One that comes with rads, trvs, copper, and fittings etc... It would still be cheaper than some of the prices I have been quoted for.

• At least it would give me control over what is going into my property.
• I will get the parts that I want.
• And it could save me from being over charged on parts by around £800.

Considering that some people barely take home £1600 per month. How can they grumble that they are not making anything on the instllation charge for an estimated 2 days works?? That's dam good money too!!!

Hoping you can help.

Thanks

 

[Atouchofgas]

You are seriously belittling what we as self employed people have to pay. Van, insurance, tax, vat training etc etc, these are all things that have to be paid for so stop slating people for having to pay for these things

 

[SimonG]

Glad its Sunday. I can see you getting a lot of replies but very little help.

 

[jtsplumbing]

First Heat packs only include Boiler and radiators not pipe & fittings, on top of that other things solder-flux and other consumables, Then you have the unseen costs we have to cover, insurance, Gas Safe, Training, running cost of van, Income tax & insurance all these charges & more have to be factored into the price, When you say 1 Bed flat well I have seen some very large flats, take in the time to move furniture & carpets Unless your going to do that as well, Small flat 2 men 2 days £2.500 to £3.500 but that's a rough guide without seeing it, there could be lots of other factors that would increase the costs by quite a considerable amount , + looking at your name are you located in Berkshire ? as that will reflect on costs as well

 

[Scott_D]

Take a day off work and fit all the pipework and radiators yourself. It will be exactly how you want it.
Fill, test, flush, core the flue hole and get all the other pipework and electrics ready.
You will then only need a gas guy for a day to fit the boiler

 

[kozak1968]

You should ring 3 or 4 local installers. Have a specification of what materials you require them to quote for so that the installers will be quoting alike. Cost of materials can vary a lot.

 

[clarky101]

Phone a few gs companies up, tell them what you want, how much you wanna pay & see if any come back to you.......easy peasy

 

[SimonG]

Take a day off work and fit all the pipework and radiators yourself. It will be exactly how you want it.
Fill, test, flush, core the flue hole and get all the other pipework and electrics ready.
You will then only need a gas guy for a day to fit the boiler

Have a look at his other posts on changing an immersion. It would take him a month to do the rads and pipework and then nobody in their right mind would want to connect to it.

 

[jtsplumbing]

BG will give him a price, and he can pay on HP,

 

[AMW]

:ban:

 

[Riley]

Wow just wow

 

[Dotty]

OP. Just get 4 or 5 quotes, then come back tell us what you're quoted and for what. Also give us a bit more info on your 1 bedroom flat, ie, how many rooms in total, where is the gas getting fed from and so on,

You may think you're being overcharged but there's many more factors to it. Not all the money you pay is profit. A good 70% is overheads - training, business costs, taxes, affiliations, trade memberships, insurances, fleet and so on.

A percentage would be added to the cost of materials as a handling charge.

You can go down the road of supplying the materials yourself and paying labour only. That's your right. But what if there's an issue during or after installation? That's entirely up to you to sort out. And he'll just leave until the issue is sorted. Who in their right mind would sit around not getting paid?

I'm closing the thread here. I think you have had an answer now, to allow it to carry on would invite abuse.