Micro Bore Rip Out

[Alba Albion]

Hi, I'm posting these questions on behalf of my Mum in Clacton On Sea, Essex.

At the mo she has micro bore copper tubing through out her 2 bedroom bungalow for central heating. (so has the whole street)

2 main radiators are not heating up, the system is regularly flushed out and well maintained and recently had a new boiler and pump.

British Gas are quoting £3.5k to get, not them, but another contractor to rip it out and replace with 15mm.

Cost is not the issue, unless you good people say otherwise and the job will take a week.

At the mo, this micro bore runs in and out of the walls, down the edge of door frames etc and is very showy.

I think it's ugly but others can live with it.

Our question to you is:

Do you think, when replacing with 15mm it will be on show like the micro bore

or

do you think that the contractors will bury it in the walls ? 

What is the normal procedure that you would employ ?

Any advise on this would be appreciated.

Many thanks, Alba Albion. 

 

[Andy™]

for that price, i would expect it to but put under the floors the come up to radiator. same for downstairs, unless its solid floors, in which case it may have to come down the corner then along to rad, or something similar

but it may be there is nothing wrong with the current setup, other than badly balanced

and i wouldnt be getting BG to do the job, get a local company to do it. probably get a better job for less

 

[NozSpark]

The guys that I know will not bury any pipes, but as Andy says it might just need balancing.

I would question why the system needs regular flushing, if its flushed properly and then has inhibitor added then there shouldn't be any need for it to be flushed again for many years

We have an 8mm microbore system, it works perfectly well although it does take a little longer to heat up than a 15mm system

Again, as Andy says, get local guys to do the job... I know of someone who had a local guy price a boiler replacement and then had BG to quote. They got BG to do the job even though they were over £1000 more expensive; they, by chance, subed the job to the local (cheaper) guy

 

[Alba Albion]

Hi Guys, just wanted to say a big thank you.

I went onto a website to find out how to balance your radiators, and got step by step instructions.

Some one left a comment saying he didn't balance his but just turned the Lockshield valves up to a quater open and that did it without having to bleed the rads.

So.......I gave that a try and IT WORKED !

I've just saved my Mum £3,500.

Cheers for the advice

Alba.

 

[Manator]

Well done, it does pay to get second opinions. BG are well known for scaremongering!!! and making vulnerable people pay out for none essential works.

 

[kerching]

customer       1         BG      a big fat Zero!

that is the kind of score I like!    you spend a bit of time on the 'net, a bit of time on here and save £1000s!

another good scammer is 'a big fat british freshwater fish that rhymes with Rudd' who services/installs alarm systems

just warning

 

[Manator]

I caught a Roach the other day whilst fishing for Rudd

 

[kerching]

i will swim with them, but never got one wedged on the end of my rod

 

[Andy™]

see... even sparkies know more about plumbing than BG 'engineers'

 

[Manator]

BG have just tried to condemn a boiler installation done by our plumber. They have since retracted the information simply because the financial implications would harm them.

The "engineers" are encouraged to find faults and gain as much work as they possibly can, and paid a commission on those results. They have been the subject of TV programs which have condemned their practises and have promised to change. Alas this appears to have been ignored.

 

[steptoe]

customer       1         BG      a big fat Zero!

that is the kind of score I like!    you spend a bit of time on the 'net, a bit of time on here and save £1000s!

another good scammer is 'a big fat british freshwater fish that rhymes with Rudd' who services/installs alarm systems

just warning

my missus works for them, 

and, its apparently all true,  :C

 

[ProDave]

I had to go and rewire the boilers in two adjacent new builds that were rental properties.

the BG man had "failed" the gas installations because there was "no permanent live to the boiler"

Sure enough, there was just switched live "heating demand" connected to the boilers.  but it worked just fine (system boiler with hot water tank)

I rewired it as per boiler manual with permanent live and switched live.

The only difference, when the heating demand went off, the boiler pump carried on running for 30 seconds.

Was that really a big enough "fault" for BG to fail it? 

 

[Andy™]

even if it was a completely new install, done to the highest standards, it would still be 'dangerous' and in need of replacement to them

 

[kerching]

my missus works for them, 

and, its apparently all true,  :C

I finished installing and commissioned a fire alarm system on the friday

Got delayed on the way back on the monday ( job was in scotland )

Arrived on site to be told that "fat fish" had been and done the six

Monthly test on the alarm ( part of their old contract apparently). They had condemned 6 of the smokes as they failed the test.

Manageress showed them my paperwork from 3 days before.

Their excuse?.........that particular "engineer" had never been to the site before as he was covering for a colleague who was ill?????

WTF is that all about?

 

[steptoe]

dunno, but the upside for me was I got all my systems designed for next to nowt, 

 

[Blue Duck]