K
knightime
Hi there,
A quick back story - we called in a local plumber to replace 3 rads upstairs, and to perform a power flush as the downastairs rads were taking around 1.5hrs to heat up after putting the central heating on. We moved into our property in 2k and have always had this issue with the downstairs rads.
They came in, replaced the rads, power flushed the system, turned on the central heating and the downstairs rads failed to heat - I mean stone cold - none of the flow and return pipes were warm.
They came in a few days later as they said it must be a blockage in the pipework somewhere. They cut out a couple of tee sections, one downstairs near the flow/return in the kitchen, and one upstairs on the landing. They fired up the boiler, and the downstairs rads came on. However the chap working on it said he wasn't happy with the heat being produced so cut out another tee section, just outside the dining room. In the meantime the owner arrived, and proceeded to remove redundant pipework from upstairs (our old immersion tank central heating system was replaced by a condensing combi boiler around 4 years ago). When they once again refilled the system and put on the central heating none of the rads downstairs came on.
The owner returned around a week later as he said there was probably something wrong with the boiler - he cleaned something in it (I can't recall what), but this didn't work. He then said it was more than likely the heat plate exchange for the central heating, which would literally mean a new boiler, or replace all the pipework in the house.
My wife and I discussed this, then she asked him to return to discuss further. Another week later he returned, and unbelievably the heating came on for the first time in over 3 weeks (sods law - I'd been turning rads on one by one, sometimes 2 on/2 off, all sorts of combinations, so I'm guessing it dislodged something?), but it only ever came on the day he came to discuss the boiler/pipe replacement issue - since then nothing.
We've now received a quote for £1.7k to replace the pipework, or if we don't we'll have to pay £350 for the investigative work for the heating not coming on downstairs.
My question is - is this normal? Can a plumber come to perform a job and leave a household in a worse position than when they came, and then charge extra to remedy what they initially messed up? Or is this something to be expected with work of this type? Are we allowed to complain to anyone?
We're now in a position of having to look for the money to get the pipework done, but would like some advice before making our decision.
Sorry for the long post - any advice offered would be greatly appreciated!
A quick back story - we called in a local plumber to replace 3 rads upstairs, and to perform a power flush as the downastairs rads were taking around 1.5hrs to heat up after putting the central heating on. We moved into our property in 2k and have always had this issue with the downstairs rads.
They came in, replaced the rads, power flushed the system, turned on the central heating and the downstairs rads failed to heat - I mean stone cold - none of the flow and return pipes were warm.
They came in a few days later as they said it must be a blockage in the pipework somewhere. They cut out a couple of tee sections, one downstairs near the flow/return in the kitchen, and one upstairs on the landing. They fired up the boiler, and the downstairs rads came on. However the chap working on it said he wasn't happy with the heat being produced so cut out another tee section, just outside the dining room. In the meantime the owner arrived, and proceeded to remove redundant pipework from upstairs (our old immersion tank central heating system was replaced by a condensing combi boiler around 4 years ago). When they once again refilled the system and put on the central heating none of the rads downstairs came on.
The owner returned around a week later as he said there was probably something wrong with the boiler - he cleaned something in it (I can't recall what), but this didn't work. He then said it was more than likely the heat plate exchange for the central heating, which would literally mean a new boiler, or replace all the pipework in the house.
My wife and I discussed this, then she asked him to return to discuss further. Another week later he returned, and unbelievably the heating came on for the first time in over 3 weeks (sods law - I'd been turning rads on one by one, sometimes 2 on/2 off, all sorts of combinations, so I'm guessing it dislodged something?), but it only ever came on the day he came to discuss the boiler/pipe replacement issue - since then nothing.
We've now received a quote for £1.7k to replace the pipework, or if we don't we'll have to pay £350 for the investigative work for the heating not coming on downstairs.
My question is - is this normal? Can a plumber come to perform a job and leave a household in a worse position than when they came, and then charge extra to remedy what they initially messed up? Or is this something to be expected with work of this type? Are we allowed to complain to anyone?
We're now in a position of having to look for the money to get the pipework done, but would like some advice before making our decision.
Sorry for the long post - any advice offered would be greatly appreciated!
