Hot water but cold radiators

Help! After the summer months I turned on my gas fired central heating yesterday. I get hot water but the radiators are all stone cold. I have read much advice here about bleeding radiators (and I mean bleeding them of water rather than me swearing about them!) and power flushing. I admit immediately to having the Midas touch in reverse when it comes to DIY. So far what I have read fills me with fear at the thought of me mucking about with my heating system. I know a very good corgi heating engineer who doesn\\\'t rip off his customers. So my question is this. Being someone who is rather nervous about attempting DIY is there any chance that I can cause real damage by simply bleeding my radiators without knowing all about plumbing etc? There seem to be a lot of knowledgable people on this site so I would really appreciate any advice you can give. Basically, should I simply call in the expert and ask him to sort it out as I certainly dont want to get it wrong and end up either drowning myself or blowing myself up! In other words is bleeding radiators a job even a DIY idiot like myself can take on or should I err on the side of caution and call in the professionals? By the way, if I decide not to do this myself is it likely to be a very expensive job to get my heating back on, assuming either the rads need bleeding or power flushing? Thanks a lot! Max

You are unlikely to do any serious damage, except for soaking some flooring if you can't get things done up after you've undone them.

If you have an engineer you trust, then save yourself the trauma, and get him in to go over your system and ask what sort of things you can do as a routine check (like bleeding). He'll charge you for his time but you'll know what to do, what to look for, when to call him in, and have the benefit of a reliable system.

As for expense, you can look at as an investment, and a lesson from someone with the knowledge.

Many systems I see, have suffered years of neglect. I get them running, then when people ring me up with a query, often it's a bit of advice over the phone.

Hi, Oilman. Thank you very much for your reply. Much appreciated. Your advice seems like a very good idea to me and has helped me make up my mind. I will indeed now get a professional in and ask him for his advice on routine maintenance whilst he checks over my system. I think spending a few quid now is, as you say, an investment for the future. Much better than me going at it like a bull in a china shop and possibly ending up with a huge repair bill after I've really fouled things up! And believe me, Oilman,when it comes to DIY I am the living proof of that old saying, making a mountain out of a mole hill. I'm the kind of bloke who is great with computers but when it comes to DIY I can put a shelf up and it stays up...except the rest of the wall will then collapse around the shelf! Oh dear.

Thanks. Max.

Max said:

when it comes to DIY I can put a shelf up and it stays up...except the rest of the wall will then collapse around the shelf! Oh dear.

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Some mothers do 'ave them

Your name not Frank Spencer is it ?

Hi, Masona. No, my name is not Frank Spencer. However, based on my DIY skills, or lack of, it probably should have been! Believe me, Masona, whenever I conduct DIY projects I do believe that a general Government health warning should be issued to those in the immediate area.

Thanks for the thought, and I do appreciate the humour. Believe me, if I couldnt laugh at my own lack of DIY expertise I would no doubt be in floods of tears. Let us just hope my rads dont end up in the same condition, eh!

Best Regards

Max

whenever I conduct DIY projects I do believe that a general Government health warning should be issued to those in the immediate area.

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I know the feeling, I'm just lucky, when I've finished my projects I can go home