On Sat, 17 Dec 2005 22:09:49 -0000, "PC Paul" wrote:

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!

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)

Thanks for any thoughts...


The cheapest way would be to find someone replacing a boiler of a similar type which is working but
being replaced for other reasons (e.g general refurb) and fit that. As it would be of comparable
age, regs would only be an issue if anyone could prove when it was done...