Boiler 8 April 2023

Gas Boiler Installation: What to Expect During the Process

If you’re preparing for a gas boiler installation, here are the key steps involved:

Initial assessment

Your installer will assess your property and your heating needs to determine the best boiler for your home.

Quotation

You’ll receive a detailed quotation outlining the cost of the installation and any necessary additional work.

Booking

Once you’re ready to proceed, you’ll book the installation with your installer.

Pre-installation checks

Your installer will complete various checks to ensure the installation can proceed smoothly, including gas pressure and pipework checks, electrical safety checks, and boiler location checks.

Installation

The installation process can take anywhere from one to three days, depending on the complexity of the installation.

Testing

Once the installation is complete, your installer will test the boiler and all associated components to ensure they are working correctly.

Commissioning

The installer will commission the boiler to ensure it is operating at maximum efficiency.

Handover

Your installer will provide you with all the necessary documentation, including operating instructions and warranty information, and answer any questions you may have about your new boiler.

Remember, it’s essential to use a Gas Safe registered engineer to carry out your gas boiler installation, for your safety and that of your property.

What an Installation Day Actually Looks Like

The published version of this process makes it sound tidier than it feels on the day, so here is the honest account.

We arrive early, put down dust sheets and get the water and gas isolated. The old boiler comes off the wall first, and that is usually the messiest part — old systems are full of black sludge, and it has to go somewhere. On a straight swap the new unit is often on the wall by lunchtime, and the afternoon goes on pipework, the flue, the condensate run and the electrics.

Day two, where there is one, is normally the fiddly work: making good around the flue, running the condensate to a proper drain, wiring the controls and then filling, venting and balancing the system. The system gets treated with inhibitor before we hand it back.

What We Need From You

Very little, but these three things save time:

• Clear access to the boiler, the meter and the stopcock. If the boiler lives in a cupboard full of coats, emptying it before we arrive gets us started sooner.
• Somewhere to park within reach of the house. We are carrying a boiler and a lot of copper.
• Someone in at handover, so we can walk you through the controls rather than leaving a manual on the side.

You will be without heating and hot water for most of the working day. We will tell you in advance if it is going to run overnight so you can plan around it.

After We’ve Left

We register the boiler with the manufacturer and with Gas Safe on your behalf — you do not need to chase it — and the Building Regulations compliance certificate follows in the post. Keep it with your house paperwork; a buyer’s solicitor will ask for it one day.

Your boiler will need a service every year to keep the manufacturer’s warranty valid. Ours is a flat £95 + VAT, and we will remind you when it is due rather than leaving you to remember.

What Can Delay a Job

Most installations run to plan. The things that occasionally push them out are worth knowing about in advance, because none of them are visible until the old boiler is off the wall:

• An undersized gas supply. If the existing pipe cannot deliver what the new boiler needs, it has to be upgraded. We check the gas rate at survey so this is priced in rather than sprung on you.
• A heavily sludged system. Years of corrosion in the radiators has to come out before a new heat exchanger goes on, or the warranty is at risk.
• Flue termination. Where a boiler is moving position, the flue has to come out somewhere legal — clear of windows, doors and boundaries by the distances the manufacturer sets.
• Asbestos in older properties. Rare, but where it turns up around old flues it stops work until it is dealt with properly.

Booking It In

Installations are quoted free of charge, in writing, at a fixed price once we have seen the property. Call 01732 792 454, or read more about boiler installation in Tonbridge and the surrounding villages.