Boiler failed here just last week, over 17 years so swapped out. Swapped like for like on a system boiler as 5 beds, 3 baths etc. Went for WB Life 8000 30KW and parts totalling 1750. Then mate fitted, commissioned, installed hive etc etc his labour for 2 days was 700 including parts, pipes etc taking it to 2450. Closest Boxt could get was 3000 so as others say, use boxt as a benchmark to beat.
Everyone's got to eat. 250 a day is fine by me.
Something in the worlds gone a little wrong
If he was an acquaintance- yeh probably £250 a day - If he was really a mate of mine I’d not charge him
Just spent most of today cutting trees, clearing gutters and repairing a roof for some old friends of my late parents - I drove there on my own car and consider them friends although they are almost 30 years my senior - couple of cups of coffee was sufficient
Cost is a significant aspect but bigger is having someone competent do the job and someone you trust in your house.
Hampshire near Winchester - current situation
"tradesmen" - electricians, plumbers, roofers, labor for general building work
demand now excessed supply - consequentially you just do not know what to expect
£350 a day on an invoice - £300 if you pay cash - but again you have to stick a pin in yellow pages to get someone - you look for recommends from neighbours etc., but most are dissatisfied with what they have had done - 9:30 til 4 seems to be their working day .... and most get away by 15:30
roofers - seem to write their own cheque!!!
we have an old house, Grade ll listed and need lots of stuff doing - difficult to find anyone
compare these "so called" "tradesmen" and the quality of their work and what they are earning versus teachers, nurses, junior doctors, etc., etc., and something is just wrong
my DIY skills are now improving on a daily basis
Last edited by BillN; 18th April 2023 at 20:32.
I am a tradie,have many mates who are tradies, we all to a man separate the Mate from the money when it comes to our own jobs, they have all to a man volunteered to help me move house quite soon, thats a few coffees and a beer sort of thing, for our earnings we all pay our way and are happy to pay taking the view that if you are here for free you are not someplace else earning.
Your proposal is a nice way of doing things but not something i come across much at all.
If I were to charge £350 for a day, you can be sure sure that I will not see that as wages. The cost of keeping a small limited company running with three men working, all in vans with salaries, pensions etc is no mean feat.
Since when did labour charges for a job become money in the pocket for the person providing the service? I’m sure you can tell the difference between cost for the job and wages for the man
As for cash, forget it. Everything we earn is banked these days and banking or spending cash is a pain in the rear.
Yesterday two of us were booked to do an all day job for a customer after her ceiling was meant to have been taken down by third party builders, when we arrived she told us that it hadn’t been done so we couldn’t do the job, where does that leave us with two men with no work for the day?
Bringing this back up. Our boiler packed up (it's very old) and just been quoted just short of £3,500 for a WB combi 30kw (it's for our annexe, so essentially a 1-2 bed flat) for supply of boiler and installation. I've just run a quote on BOXT that's come in at £2,100 for what seems to be a like for like installation. That's a huge difference. Has anyone actually used BOXT for an installation? - they seem to get good reviews, but I'm always a bit suspicious of those. Thanks in advance.
Used BOXT Jan 22 for a replacement boiler. From start to finish I can’t praise them or the fitter enough. They do use self employed gas fitters so I suppose it depends on who you get but I was informed who would be doing the install and was able to see reviews of his work.
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A chap I know and have used for years fitted our new boiler with all the extras for £1800 five years ago.
Funnily enough The refill loop has just packed up so Baxi came round today and replaced it FOC as it is in the guarantee period.
Had a Worcester Bosch previously and it went completely kaput after 11 years - one year after the guarantee ran out!
Cheers,
Neil.
Thanks for the feedback on Boxt, that's helpful. I spoke with my local provider and they brought the price down by a couple of hundred (and were a little about uncomplimentary about Boxt) but that's still over £1000 difference...
Over £1k on £3k bill is a massive price difference - so a like for like swap on the boiler with I presume some s
Ight pipe work modification to line up with new boiler? Is the system being flushed too (I presume so)- did you find out how much the cost of the boiler is?
I know blokes who do installs for Boxt and they all like the way it's run. Pay is better and most of the time if somethings missed off it gets sorted there and then and the contractor reimbursed. The same can't be said for contractors who work for the big blue flame company.
Happy contractor, happy customer.
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Considered Boxt as the price was superb & guaranteed!,but after sending pics and emails back n forth wanted £600 for scaffolding for the flue access.
I emailed saying just fit to the existing flue all done internally.
No need scaffolding to fit a new flue.
Yes, that includes the system being flushed (on both quotes) and is as you describe; replacing old boiler with a new one, both quotes include the same boiler (Worcester Bosch Greenstar 4000 30kw) and any slight changes to pipework etc. No, there's no breakdown on the quote (and I've asked for that previously on another job and they said they don't do that...)
We just had our boiler replaced, did consider Boxt as I remember reading this thread but in the end just got a local recommended plumber to do the job.
I ended up replacing an old gravity system with a sealed system boiler and having it power flushed. Generally they were very tidy, with all pipe work being tidy and as they had to cut a new flue they also went out their way to find matching bricks to plug the old flue hole.
Came to around £3500 including fitting a Tado system. Boiler is the very latest Vaillant ecotec plus 630 30kw. The system flush took them an entire day working till around 8pm that day and I knew my system was sludged up but didn’t realise how bad it really was.
Got them coming round tomorrow to replace the gravity copper tank with a megaflo tank, replace the existing heating valve which according to them is sticking open, fit a new loft hatch and a new shower.
The fitting of the megaflo, hatch and shower is extra, looks like it’ll be around another £3k.
Just to add to this, the boiler and ancillaries came to around £2k, the megaflo 250 litre tank around £1.5k. Why the hell is a water tank so expensive? Yes I know, it’s the name but they recommend it as the best.
Last edited by IAmATeaf; 4th September 2023 at 15:00.