Please HELP with new combi boiler , possible nightmare on my hands

[R.Oak]

depends how much beer has been consumed.All joking apart and there be no joking about a potential life threating situation.I stick to bathroom fits and domestic plumbing ,Do fit heating but not connect gas .Its all oil round these parts ..brum

Same as me, general plumbing only as i dont have GSR, I will sometimes install without the final connection but i prefer to leave it to the experts as much as possible.

 

[Shaun_sdw]

Just to say gas-safe has still not been back in touch with me yet but I have eventually spoke to the owner of the business who fitted this .
he was mortified with the pictures and says he can't understand why the fitter has installed it like this .
I know they have to say that but I feel he was being genuine , he has requested to physically come out and inspect it himself as I've told him I am not interested in the same guys coming out to repair or replace anything .
ive told him I have contacted gas-safe and he said that is what I should have done and he will also be in contact with them .
until Sunday the wife is without hot water , (I'm ok as I'm in a premier-inn for the next few nights ), he would have came out sooner but I'm working away until them so I suppose I will have to wait for both gassafe and the owner of the company who installed to visit my house .

he also commented on top of what he seen that the flue could also be positioned too close to both the waste down pipe and also the side of the conservatory.

So Until Sunday

I promise to keep you guys updated and thanks so much to all of you for your input so far
best wishes

shaun

 

[Shaun_sdw]

Small update , the owner did come to see me on Sunday , he was really nice an said he will get another team of guys to rectify the issues . He was supposed to email me a list of things they were going to do today to fix the issues but it didn't come through . I'll give them the benefit of doubt that they didn't get it finalised before I contact them tomorrow .
ive asked for it in writing exactly what they are going to do as far as repairs , costs , total bill etc to be supplied to me before I let anyone else working in the house , I looked into the company more and more looking for bad review and to be honest 95% of the reviews highly praise the company , maybe I had a bad fitter or he was having a really bad day ,
fingers red crossed they contact me tomorrow so I can at least start to make plans and book a couple more days holiday to resolve the issues

 

[kris]

Remember shaun youve been put out with this carry on so make sure your compensated for your troubles , good to see your keeping us updated,

 

[Shaun_sdw]

The saga continues,
dont worry I didn't forget about you guys

anyway work has still not been carried out or finalised , we have still not came to any common ground over the situation, I'm still without hot water or heating .

they were supposed to get back to me with a solution on Monday , everything should have been in black and white so we all knew exactly what was going to happen ,

nothing monday

nothing Tuesday

Late afternoon on Wednesday I got a email that just asked when they can come to do the remedial work ?
no explanation to how long it will take , what they needed to do , if the repairing brick work , changing boiler or anything else useful .

I sent a email back almost instantly stating that they have not done what I expected , I had asked on the Sunday when the owner of the company came around , I would require a repot of exactly what work they were going to carry out in the house and how we would rectify issues like , wall , window, carpets, ceiling etc...... ,he agreed and said I would have it on Monday

Anyway the end of this email on Wednesday I said I wanted to have the full reply and report by the end of business by Friday or I'm getting in another fitter from another company to remove all of their work and start again .

rest of Wednesday - nothing
Thursday - nothing
Friday - nothing until 2pm so I thought I'd call them .
i don't even think they had looked at the email , this is how important I obviously am to them.

i really really have now lost all faith in them and I'm so sick of the whole situation .
i thought I'd give them the benefit and give them the opportunity to resolve the issues but we are now 11 days gone after they were told to downed tools on the Tuesday 30th sept , I'm no further forward since then .
ive now been without hot water or heating since 29th of September

gassafe have contacted me back and have took full details of myself , the fitter , the company etc but I'm awaiting a response from them .

I have had a local forum member contact me , he has been out to inspect my house and he is totally shocked .
you guys have only seen some of the pictures but other parts of the work is really bad also , he has seen with his own eyes and I think just couldn't believe it .

promise I'll keep you updated but I had to wait this week so I knew what was going on

 

[EPH]

Sounds like the owner of the business was giving you plenty of bluff unfortunately as they've had more than enough time to sort this. Get down to CAB and see about getting the work put right by someone else.

Some others might know better than me, but don't know if Gas Safe will be that bothered in poor workmanship. I'm not for one minute suggesting that they shouldn't be, but not sure if it's the case.

I feel sorry for you, you've had a very bad experience here that's out of your control and they should be bending over backwards to accommodate you, I think that tells you all you need to know about this company.

 

[Dotty]

Which forum member was it Shaun? His screen name, not his real one.

 

[Shaun_sdw]

Which forum member was it Shaun? His screen name, not his real one.

Not sure of the forum name , I actually phoned him as he has just done work for my brother , when he came around I was talking to him about it all and he said he was a member on here

 

[lame plumber]

The thing is because the window doesn't open and if there isn't permanent vents on the window then the being too close to window reg is fine. Like Steve said it's mostly older boilers that can be mounted onto wood. We have to do this on many occasions but even though there standard of work is terrible.

Not true, an engineer has been jailed for doing just that when it was later converted to an opening window, treat that situation as an opening and keep the distances if you dont want to be sharing a cell with mommy one day.

 

[Millsy 82]

I think your first thing to do would be get the lintel looked at on Monday if possible as it will be weakened to the point that it will probably be useless. Also who ever came out can they give you a report of what needs doing to bring it up to standards (not necessarily to make it look good though. Then go back to the company with this and say this is what needs doing and give them a timescale to sort it (you have to give them reasonable time to sort it your local CAB will be best to advise you though). If they fail to do that then get someone else in to sort it.

 

[Millsy 82]

Not true, an engineer has been jailed for doing just that when it was later converted to an opening window, treat that situation as an opening and keep the distances if you dont want to be sharing a cell with mommy one day.

You cannot fit a boiler for what may be done you have to fit it to what is there now. Otherwise you will never fit a boiler because they may get someone in to fit a window at a later date etc. If they then replace the window it will have to be picked up on the next service/ repair then dealt with.

 

[Shaun_sdw]

I think your first thing to do would be get the lintel looked at on Monday if possible as it will be weakened to the point that it will probably be useless. Also who ever came out can they give you a report of what needs doing to bring it up to standards (not necessarily to make it look good though. Then go back to the company with this and say this is what needs doing and give them a timescale to sort it (you have to give them reasonable time to sort it your local CAB will be best to advise you though). If they fail to do that then get someone else in to sort it.

I suppose i have already done this ,
the owner of the company came our almost 1 week ago , 1 week after they started the job .
he admitted to the mistakes and problems and agreed in person to resolve the issues .

he was going to do his own report , they know exactly what needed done as I've sent them multiple emails with all of the problems , they have pictures , they have physically seen it . They have then had now six days to even just properly respond to this and haven't even done that .
They ( the company ) will not get back into my house , they have had ample time to resolve this situation but it's obviously not a priority for them .

i wouldn't care if I had been nasty with them , I've been nothing but nice , I feel they are thinking I'm a soft touch and have just played it along .
I've had enough !!!
I have took legal advice and sent them a email this morning with two options , I'm sure they won't like either of them . I've asked for them to respond to me ASAP and then when they do someone else will get the business .

i get the feeling from them now that they are trying to some what deflect the blame to me that they have done a really really poor job .

Its almost as if
I should have turned the water off
I should have drilled the hole for the flue
I should have lifted the floor boards and replaced them
I should have fixed the boiler to the wall
I should have made sure the boiler they brought was the correct one before they installed it

This is like one of those jobs you see on watchdog or them cowboy trader program's
I'm just so glad that I have not give them a Penny yet .

 

[stevetheplumber]

lots been said on here regarding structural damage but i truth it isnt as bad as made out there is probably no lintel above that window as the arch makes it self supporting i would get a bricky to remove the arch and fill the window in with matching bricks removing the now damaged arch as well
you will need the boiler of the wall to do it

 

[kris]

Not true, an engineer has been jailed for doing just that when it was later converted to an opening window, treat that situation as an opening and keep the distances if you dont want to be sharing a cell with mommy one day.

Of course it is , you cant jail someone for abiding by the law thats ridiculous, you put the flue outside regs state away from an openable window, if its not openable then your abiding by the regs ,
If someone changes that windo in the future then under no circumstances can the original installer be blamed it just wouldnt stand up in a court of law, there must be something more to the case your on about lame surely,

 

[ambrosia]

Going back a bit, they did remove the backboiler didnt they? its not still connected to the heating system is it?

That old cast iron heat exchanger wont cope with a pressurised system if it is still attached

Kris I know the case you are talking about, it was in gas safe mag a few months ago,
however in this case to open the window you'd have to move the boiler out of the way