DIY Combi boiler resiting...

[markie76]

Hi guys,

I live in a housing association flat and during a refurb they installed the combi boiler in the wrong location (not as requested, not as indicated on the schedule of works). However, after a year of wrangling they will not do anything about it but have given permission to have it moved.

The correct site is further down the same wall in the kitchen and the job requires 2 pipes extending and upscaling from 15 to 22mm, extending the electric supply and extending the heating circuit pipes. The boiler was installed in a day by 3 men doing various things on and off.

I have had some quotes around £600.

My questions are;

1. What is a reasonable length of time for this job for a plumber and his mate?
2. What is a reasonable daily rate for a plumber in London? Is my quote reasonable.
3. According to building regs the flue has to be min 300mm from an opening window - any exceptions to this?
4. What qualifications are required to work on extending the electricity supply?

Probably the biggest question of all;
5. If a corgi registered professional disconnects the gas supply can the work be done by a non-corgi registered tradesman subject to the corgi man coming back, inspecting the work, reconnecting the gas supply and issuing a certificate?

Thanks for your help.

M

 

[muggles]

1) Depending on how much extra pipe is needed, where the flue is run and how that needs to be resited, and whether any chasing of walls needs to be done to move the electricity supply, amongst other things, I would say that 1-2days is a sensible estimate.

2) I have no experience of London prices but I would say that the quote is about right.

3) Check your manufacturer's instructions, they are a legal document and must be adhered to, so they will give you a definitive answer on what applies to your boiler. It might be possible to get a plume management kit to extend the flue up the wall externally if this is a problem.

4) To be honest, most plumbers will just get on and do this without any official qualification - it's not exactly difficult and would be quite hard to get wrong (assuming your boiler is powered off a fuse spur it'd just be a case of running a new length of cable from the spur to the boiler). If you want to get an electrician then they will be registered, NIC EIC is the popular one.

5) What exactly are you hoping to gain by getting two different plumbers in?

 

[kirkgas]

the heading says it all as far as i can see, the OP will move the boiler and get a gas guy in to connect/check/take responsibility for, it is ILLEGAL for anyone to do this work and get an RGI in to certificate, i'm sure there are plenty who would do it but they would be off their head as they become responsible and when there was a fault and it was checked out as their job they would have to take the blame as they could hardly say "I just signed it off"
in this case as a tenant, why would you be paying anything, if the landlords installer got it wrong get it changed FOC, you doing it will cause all sorts of problems when its due a service etc,
there are no exceptions to the 300mm from window dimension,

 

[simond]

Some manufacturers allow the exterior concentric flue termination to be much closer to the window than 300mm if an approved flue extension divertion kit is used. There are plenty of exceptions.

Such as Worcester and Vaillant for starters, I could go on.

But the OPs posting suggests he will be doing this outside the gas and electrical regs, which is a bit rich considering its not his property and his actions may prejudice the safety of other people in the same group of dwellings.

 

[muggles]

the heading says it all as far as i can see, the OP will move the boiler and get a gas guy in to connect/check/take responsibility for

I suspected this, but I was for the moment giving the OP the benefit of the doubt.