DIY Central heating installation

[frediaz]

Can anybody advice if it possible to hire a central heating company to design and specify a central heating system for my home? They would have to tell me exactly what to do and I would do the donkey work with help from my father-in-law, who is dying to come and stay with us for some time.

The idea is to save money on the expensive installation and prevent the installers from ruining the quality decoration of my place. Can this plan work? Has anybody done it like this?

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Why would you assume proffesional installers would ruin your decoration ? and if your father in law has a terminal illness will he be fit enough to help with such a physical job, rads and boilers are heavy and so is shifting furniture to get floors up, this can be quite a heavy task itself !
Oh yea, dont personally know of any firms which do what your asking.

 

[oilman]

It's as quick for them to do the job as it is for them to mess about telling you how to do it. You don't have to be clever to do heating installations, but it's better if you have made mistakes on someone elses house, which is why professionals are useful.

If you think they'll ruin your decorations, just look at the place after you have finished, and you'll wonder how you managed to make such a mess. Putting in heating is a destructive process, and you'll have to redecorate to some extent afterwards.

If you are clever enough to put it in, you are clever enough to read some books, and the building regs which will tell you all you need to know. If you can't find out that way, let someone else do it.

 

[PaulAH]

As one who's done this very thing, I can endorse everything Oilman says. We had to do a great deal of research - helped enormously by the contributors to this forum - before feeling ready even to remove the old system. And even then numerous queries arose along the way. Good information is hard to come by.

One of my biggest grumbles is that, while central heating equipment is easier than ever for the diy-er to buy, solid advice is rare as rocking horse sh*t.

On the plus side, we were able to do a more thorough job than a pro could have done for the money (it took three days just to prepare the old soot-encrusted boiler cupboard) and ended up with a state-of-the-art system with three independently controlled heating zones and a showcase of polished pipes at reasonable cost. It does have a certain wow factor and it's nice to be able to say "Hey, I built that!".

On the downside, the family wouldn't have spent late winter/spring huddled in overcoats muttering "when are we going to have some heat?" because a pro would have done it much quicker.

There are no short-cuts if you want to do it properly. Read everything you can. Study the theory, principles and best practices. Most of it's there on the internet if you look hard enough. Plan carefully. And allow yourself plenty of time.

Paul

 

[frediaz]

As one who's done this very thing, I can endorse everything Oilman says. We had to do a great deal of research - helped enormously by the contributors to this forum - before feeling ready even to remove the old system. And even then numerous queries arose along the way. Good information is hard to come by.

One of my biggest grumbles is that, while central heating equipment is easier than ever for the diy-er to buy, solid advice is rare as rocking horse sh*t.

On the plus side, we were able to do a more thorough job than a pro could have done for the money (it took three days just to prepare the old soot-encrusted boiler cupboard) and ended up with a state-of-the-art system with three independently controlled heating zones and a showcase of polished pipes at reasonable cost. It does have a certain wow factor and it's nice to be able to say "Hey, I built that!".

On the downside, the family wouldn't have spent late winter/spring huddled in overcoats muttering "when are we going to have some heat?" because a pro would have done it much quicker.

There are no short-cuts if you want to do it properly. Read everything you can. Study the theory, principles and best practices. Most of it's there on the internet if you look hard enough. Plan carefully. And allow yourself plenty of time.

Paul

Thanks, useful advice

 

[frediaz]

Why would you assume proffesional installers would ruin your decoration ? and if your father in law has a terminal illness will he be fit enough to help with such a physical job, rads and boilers are heavy and so is shifting furniture to get floors up, this can be quite a heavy task itself !
Oh yea, dont personally know of any firms which do what your asking.

Well, you see, I have had "professionals" doing work here and it was not like they bothered to put masking tape on the windows so as not to smear the paint all over them or make sure that there were no gaps in panels so that they did not have to sculpt large voids with filler that collapsed soon afterwards. That kind of thing. They always have another job on the go, so why waste time doing yours properly?

Buy the way, when I said my father in law was "dying" to come and stay I did not mean he was dying literally, he just wants an excuse to stay here with the wife even if it means helping doing some work! I am not that ruthless

 

[oilman]

..........it was not like they bothered to put masking tape on the windows so as not to smear the paint all over them........

I accept smearing paint over the window might be a poor technique, but I doubt a professional would mask the windows unless he is spray painting. Paint should be run onto the glass to seal the surface of the putty, though it should be reasonably neat. Could you be having unrealistic expectations?

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

Sounds to me that you haven't really had a proper proffesional in to do a job, it's a pity a few dick heads spoil it for the good guys.
Glad to hear your your father in law is ok but it sounds like he needs to get a life.

 

[PaulAH]

"Professional" is a slack word. I remember when it only applied to people trained in intellectual subjects like medicine and law. Nowadays we have "professional" tattooists and chimney sweeps, bless 'em all.

People in service industries tend to be either experienced, knowledgeable, conscientious and honest; or slobs who are out to make a buck.

You won't find many slobs on this website (apart from some of the questioners).

 

[PEDANTICVINDICTIVEMAN]

"Professional" is a slack word. I remember when it only applied to people trained in intellectual subjects like medicine and law. Nowadays we have "professional" tattooists and chimney sweeps, bless 'em all.

People in service industries tend to be either experienced, knowledgeable, conscientious and honest; or slobs who are out to make a buck.

You won't find many slobs on this website (apart from some of the questioners).

It's a pity people in medicine and law dont have to do as much continuous training as we do, some of them cant even remember your name after working for them for years.

 

[oilman]

.........or slobs who are out to make a buck.

Ssssshhhh!!! I'm having enough trouble extracting money for little work as it is.

............some of them cant even remember your name after working for them for years.

If I had to write your name on a prescription, I think you would be ill for quite a long time.