Central heating system quote!

[ljhilditch]

I have just received a quote to install a cental heating system for a large 5 bed semi. There is currently no heating system in place. Our first quote is more than £8000 !!! This was much higher than we expected, does this sound reasonable? Were our expectations (approx £6000!) that far out?

Thanks

Laura

 

[Gervase]

much depends on what sort of walls you've got, whether or not your floorboards can easily be lifted, whether you're going for a combi or an unvented system, pressed steel or cast radiators, copper or polybutyl piping...£8000 could in some circumstances be very reasonable, and extortionate in others.

 

[Gervase]

Oops. seem to have posted twice there...

 

[ljhilditch]

Thanks. The house has solid parquet flooring throughout the ground floor so that could be where some of the "extra" cost comes in?? However the quote assumed the pipes would be run over the surface and not chased into the walls so I was assuming the added cost wouldn't be too high.

Thanks Again. Laura

 

[skier-hughes]

As Gervase has said a lot depends on what is being quoted for in the way of hardware.... We have a big 3 bedroom house and as we don't have mains gas a new Rayburn to run the central heating alone would be £8k, a GSHP would be £7k plus fitting and we have radiators already!!!!

Graham

 

[alice]

For what it's worth, we have two unheated 750sqft (total) rooms we are remodeling here in Texas and have just got a quote for heating and air conditioning at £2000. Price includes labor, ducts, wiring, a heating unit and a heat pump. The walls are unfinished in the rooms and so are easily accessed. We got 3 quotes before we settled on one company.

£8000 (heat, no AC) for a five bedroom house without easy access for the ducts and no prior heat doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

alice

 

[another_richard]

Not sure if this helps but here we have a 4 bed house over 3 floors and my plan is to:

Get the boiler installed and one rad and whilst the plumber is installing this grill them as to the best way to install the rest myself.
(book from shops on it too)

I have noticed the easy to bend etc 'white' piping and plan to run them along the inside of the skirting board and connect it all up and test joints etc.

Also as I have less than no money I plan to do one room at a time so it will take at least a year.

Perhaps this is worth considering? Concentrate on the rooms you use the most first and do some of it yourself?

 

[Pford75]

As Gervase says, it really does depend on many factors. For us to be able to comment, it would be helpful to know the following:

How many radiators?
Steel or cast?
Vented/unvented system?
What size (BTU's) boiler?
Copper or plastic pipes
Apx. size of house
Work required to lay pipework - You mention that there will be no chasing...but I would assume that on the 1st floor you will run pipes under boards?

Anyway....£8,000 may well be very reasonable...I'd always recommend several quotes.....we had a complete re-plumb and installation of central heating...our lowest quote was £12,000....our highest was £48,000!!!!!!!!!

So, always worth shopping around...but don't assume cheapest is best

 

[Penners]

our highest was £48,000

May we infer that the plumber was already very busy?!

 

[Nemesis]

Or saw the place and assumed you were made of money!

It happens!

 

[plumbers mate]

>> Or saw the place and assumed you were made of money!

Should get mine done for free then :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

 

[ljhilditch]

Thanks to all. The quote assumes a new water main, boilder, hot water cylinder, 50 gallon coffin water tank, 11 radiators & 2 towel warmers plus associated pipework and instalation (under floor boards in 1st & 2nd floor, surface fitted on ground floor). There is no heating system today so there is nothing to be removed before work can begin.

Laura

 

[Pford75]

Thanks for the info - so, you have installation across 3 floors, (which is slightly more work than an average house)...but the system overall is not that large....you didn't say if the rads are cast iron or pressed steel...so if we assume that they are steel (it's difficult without BTU's/rad), I would take a rough figure of £100/rad (for plain design and including TRVs)..but this could rise to as much as £250/rad for more 'designer' styles and nicer TRV's. If the towel warmers are to be on the primaries, they could be as much as £250/each. So....the rads/warmers could be between £1600 - £3250 (more if they are in cast iron).

Boiler - Taking as an example, the Worcester Greenstar 30Kw(small/medum house)...this will cost apx £850.
50gal tank - £77
Cylinder - apx. £200
Programmer/thermostat - Assume you will want 2 or 3 zones...£100-150
Pipework - Difficult to assess materials....is it copper or plastic?
Electrical work (bonding pipework, supply for prgrammer etc.)- £100ish

So, the total above is £3000-4500 for materials (excluding pipework)...but to be honest you can spend less/more depending on the choice of rads/TRVs/boiler. Some plumbers will charge a mark-up of 10-15% on materials (since they have to find the cash to purchase in the first place.

If you then allow for the labour of fitting...not sure where in the country you are...but I'd assume that a plumber wants to earn £150/day for labour (at least). Find out how large the team will be (just him or others as well) and how long they expect it to take.

Nemesis Posted: Tue 1st May, 2007 3:33 Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Or saw the place and assumed you were made of money!

It happens!


Penners Posted: Tue 1st May, 2007 3:18 Post subject:

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pford75 wrote:
our highest was £48,000

May we infer that the plumber was already very busy?!

Well...i think a combination of the 2...but the system did involve 58 rads..2 boilers....pressurised system....long, long pipe runs...fancy TRV's..etc and u/f heating for 6 bathrooms.....so not quite as crazy as it sounds. The company we awarded the tender to, assumed 5-6 weeks....and took 13. So perhaps they underquoted a little ;-)

 

[shelli]

Quote : - Some plumbers will charge a mark-up of 10-15% on materials (since they have to find the cash to purchase in the first place.

If you're in business - you can open your own trade accounts at local plumb centre, builders merchants etc - this saves mark up and you can get VAT back.

We had to fire a joiner that was working for us - he marked up £100.00 on £350.00 worth of timber!! - Apparently "everybody Does it" means it's okay - we disagreed!

Michele
[/quote]

 

[plumbers mate]

Oooh, that must the brother of the brother of the man who knows someone who gave me a price for heating once. He gave me leaflets about the boiler (which so long as it did the job properly I didn't need to know) but nothing for radiators - he would use "the usual" (ie Wickes bog standard, OK for a modern house but nothing I'd want to see in my house style) When asked about a tall heated towel rail for the bathroom he quoted £300 for one when I knew that Wickes price even for me was under the £100.
He also wanted to put the pipes up in the corner of the wall by the lobby door where they would be visible to all and sundry.
He didn't get the job and I've shivered ever since :-(

 

[Pford75]

So, I think one of the key points raised by all on this thread is that you need to be very clear about the specification.

It's not sufficient to ask for 'x radiators, y towel rails, a boiler etc. etc.'

You need to specify which radiators, exact positions, what kind of TRV, Do you want things 'zoned', will the towel rails be on the primaries (ie. come on when the hot water is on, not just when central heating is on), size and type of boiler....and so on.

Only then can you assess if the quote is reasonable

 

[Penners]

Some plumbers will charge a mark-up of 10-15% on materials (since they have to find the cash to purchase in the first place.

And because it takes time for them to place the order, pick up the bits (if not delivered), invoice you for them and so on. Seems reasonable to me.

 

[bower1]

Some plumbers will charge a mark-up of 10-15% on materials (since they have to find the cash to purchase in the first place.

And because it takes time for them to place the order, pick up the bits (if not delivered), invoice you for them and so on. Seems reasonable to me.

And in case the product goes wrong. If the plumber buys it, they are responsible to replace it. If you buy and give to plumber to install, then you are responsible. Is that right?

 

[Penners]

I should imagine so. The Sale of Goods Act says that the contract in any transaction exists between the seller and the purchaser.

 

[shelli]

Hi Penners - of course a 10-15% mark up on materials is acceptable - I was merely making the point that unscrupulous tradesmen can add £100's to a bill by marking up on materials - they rely on the relative ignorance of the customer - the questioner had doubts about the quote he'd received - I assumed he thought he was being overcharged (perhaps that's just me) - knowing approximately what things cost is a good way to check whether your quote is honest.

Re: our situation - our bad-boy joiner was unaware that we are in the property business and have our own trade accounts so he got caught out trying to mark up timber by 30% - the cheeky blighter even asked our builder to pick it up from the lumber yard for him - as he was sooo busy - (probably generating invoices!)

best regards :wink:

Michele