When we moved here in May 2017 the central heating was past its best - basically unrepairable according to a local guy who came to service it. There was major corrosion on it and it was not holding pressure. He never charged for the service on the basis of giving a price for a replacement boiler. Anyway time goes on and more prices sought from local contractors, none of them showed up despite the promises. Next step was to obtain a price from a national company, the salesman/surveyor turned up and huffed and puffed and gave a totally unrealistic price. I then got in touch with a firm recommended by Boilerjuice - No Hassle Boilers. Very good service, nice new Grant boiler with a good warranty at a good price and they lived up to their name......fast forward to last July when I got an oil delivery, the tanker driver mentioned that there was evidence of cracking on the tank - this was a massive 2.4k litre tank of unknown age (turned out to be 18 years old) - it wasn't bunded and was at risk of failing. More phone calls and in fairness a national (Wales) firm turned up, with much sucking of teeth gave us a quote (this was in September). The evening before he arrived I noticed an oil stain on the driveway where the underground supply pipe ran...Turned the oil off and contacted the home insurance company and they sent an 'expert" to have a look. There was some digging around the staining and a small plume of oil discovered. We were away for a week on holiday. Day we came back local contractors turned up to install a temporary line. Asked them for a quote for a new tank, they measured up and a quote was expected. Waited a couple of weeks and phoned them, they'd lost the measurements it appears so they came straight back to re-measure.
Tail end of November insurance company arranged for repair work to the pipe to be undertaken...this involved removing contaminated soil and replacing the pipe all of which was done very tidily...in the meantime contacted a company via Boilerjuice for another attempt at a quote. Local guy contacted me - photos of the existing installation were sent to him, failed to show up to measure uo and asses the job, so I activated the original quote. They turned up a week later and two of them spent the day removing the old tank (having first pumped out 1200 litres of fuel oil) and installing the new one...great job and I would recommend their work any to anyone....so now we have a brand new installation which is totally complaint with the complex regulations
But why oh why don't people want work ?
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It's Wales, innit?
We get the same problem down here with the famous "Pembrokeshire Promise" from tradesmen.
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By strange coincidence the only company that actually wanted the business was from Pembrokeshire. Oil4Wales - they were very good.
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Is it because they have plenty of work?
Is this tradesman mentality just a British thing?
They do say if someone can start straight away on a job, stay clear as there is a reason they aren't busy.
Last edited by: Fullchat on Mon 6 Jan 20 at 11:33
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There is a shortage of skilled tradesmen in the UK. There used to be a lot of plumbers from places like Poland but most of them have gone home for some reason.
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There certainly aren't any in Warsaw.
New Year's day was a burst pipe and a flood issue. Woke up with a hangover and a flooded kitchen. A pipe that goes down into the underfloor heating (the concrete floor) has split and certainly going to be a pig to fix. It's under the sink, buried under the carcass of the kitchen unit and just a few cm before it's in the concrete. Closing the under floor heating stops the flooding but means a cold ground floor. Fortunately the first and second floors work on a different circuit and the hot water is ok. So no major emergency, just can't get a damned plumber in. "I'll be back" said one after seeing the task. Never returned. Others haven't come at all. Wivey is on the phone right now, trying to get one for tomorrow. We'll see.
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>> Is it because they have plenty of work?
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>> Is this tradesman mentality just a British thing?
>>
>> They do say if someone can start straight away on a job, stay clear as
>> there is a reason they aren't busy.
>>
It's not a problem when they say, "Sorry I'm too busy at the moment and it will be three months before I can do the job". It is when someone promises to turn up and they don't, without even a phone call to let you know.
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Exactly. In fairness our quote from Oil4Wales expired a month before I accepted it, they knew about the ongoing problems with the underground leak and knew the tank held a substantial amount of oil - It was a month or more later when I accepted the quote and they honoured it. The job they did was tidy and quite a bit of engineering required to get compliance. The tank was in a really awkward spot and required some reworking to remove the old one as well as the new installation. My farmer neighbour was on hand to assist in the removal of the old one, but his expertise with a JCB thingy wasn't required.
What was surprising was the amount of water that had accumulated in the old tank...
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I use Trading Standards Approved for tradesmen I haven't used before. Unlike other check-a-trade type websites, the tradesmen can't vet any criticisms.
www.buywithconfidence.gov.uk/home/
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Often wonder how self employed trades guys divide their time between working on jobs and seeking new business / quoting for jobs.
I guess they themselves know their conversion ratio so every 10 hours spent quoting maybe pick up one job. Many rely on recommendations and may never need to quote "cos they are trusted" by x, y or z.
Request for a quote would suggest you are getting several, then may come back to haggle, then a few weeks to start ... but I need income generated today.
A few plumbers and heating guys I know will no longer do repairs as such, only interested in complete bathroom installs, boiler installs etc. Their reasoning is you can turn up for a call out and that job can then last much longer and can interfere with other planned work.
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Just going back to the "tank cracked due to U/V" malarkey, we had that last year some time. New tank required, few grand bill at the end it all.
Aha, thinks I, I'll put my old car cover on the new tank, so it's protected, and it might make it last longer than the two week guarantee they seem to give you these days.
Aha, says plumber at the boiler inspection, that breaks the regs, flammable you know, and blocks the vent. Big black mark goes on the record...
I must remember to remove the cover at the next inspection.
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They did have a 10 year guarantee when the cracking on mine was discovered and it was just outside the time. They don't give anything like that time now.
At least the new one is double skinned so it can crack all it likes now.
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I could be wrong, but I think that even with a bunded tank, cracking of the outer plastic means your next delivery driver makes a fuss/refuses to deliver, depending on general crankiness.
The last delivery made with our cracked tank (bunded) was very reluctant once he saw it, and he didn't want to put more than 100 litres or so in to tide us over until we got a new one.
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Central Heating Tank Woes. - Robin O'Reliant
