A friend of mine needs her old kitchen wallmounted boiler replacing on a
tight budget...

What's the simplest and/or best way to do it?

She currently has radiators without TRVs, a wall stat, an all-in-one
pumped mixer shower and the aforementioned old-standard (no integral
anything) boiler.

Quotes and 'advice' from a few plumbers who've been round range from
walking out again to 'well it has to be a combi nowadays - regulations -
and you'd have to replace the shower because it would blow the O-rings,
and fit TRVs all round, and oh the radiators are probably corrdoed and
weouldn't take the pressure so they'd need replacing too,and the pipes are
buried in the floor so we'd have to put new ones in the walls...'.

Some of that may have been good advice, and some would be an improvement,
but given the brief of doing it cheap, it missed by a mile!

They are basically cottect. Any new boiler has to be installed to comply
with the current regulations. This may well involve changing much more than
just the boiler. There are grants available for the elderly and the
chronically sick.

Hopefully I can get better advice here - on what type of boiler to fit,
what else might need doing, and the best way to go about getting it done.
i.e. is it worth buying the boiler online and finding someone to fit it or
is that impossible? Any grants going at the moment? (West Midlands area,
20yo boiler... 1970's house)

Peter Crosland