Friday 26 January 2007

Diary - New heating system is needed

When we bought the house we negotiated £10,000 off the price to pay for the new heating system. We knew it wouldn’t last - The survey said so, the plumber we got to check it over said so and, to the sellers credit, he said so. But we thought it would last until we started the renovation so that we could plan the installation into the build plan and prevent extra costs of multiple visits from the plumbers.

Unfortunately the boiler died yesterday. No heating, no hot water and to add salt to the wound – it started to snow. We called in our trusted plumbers, Abbey Boilers, and they gave it the final rights. We’ve used Abbey Boilers in the past to sort leaks and replacements of hot water tanks etc. You know you are on to a winning company when they advise you on ways to get things done cheaper without compromising quality or safety and advised us not to throw money after bad hardware.

We have been quoted £2300 to install the new boiler, emersion heater and pumps. The boss is paying a visit on Thursday to talk through the possibility of installing the entire system before the renovation starts. Luckily we know the new layout of the house and the configuration of the first floor. This should make planning the new system easier. We can provisionary install the plumbing to the first floor ready for it to be plumbed in when the building starts and still have the new system working for the ground floor. We know where the new boiler can go as we know where the utility room will be.

So until the 12th of February we will live in a very cold house with no hot running water…joy.