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If I had my way, I might pay someone else to be doing the work, there are funds for it. However, my experience suggests for every conscientious tradesman providing a good good at realistic money, there's 50-100 who don't want to do anything bigger than change a tap or 'cowboys' who do less than they should knowing the customer won't know. The chap who installed our current boiler, put it in the garage, and his performance is typical. The 22mm hot water circuit that runs the length of the garage (a cold place in winter, obviously) was not lagged. Nor were any of the soldered joints cleaned. I'm 99% sure the internal water stop-cock was as 'frozen' when the new boiler was installed, as it was when we arrived 9 months later. It broke before it would turn. That takes some doing, and I'm sure it takes more than 9 months of non-use to achieve that 'welded' status. Although he is familiar with the building and the set up here, he's not a contender. The people I had lined up, are just too busy with work queued unless I can wait 3-4 months. I have quite a small window of time when Mrs Freddy is having some time off and we can live without hot water if we need to. The changes here are so significant, I would need at least 2 tradesmen booked for the same period, and they would HAVE to be here at pretty much the same time. I struggle to get people here just to quote.... For example: I had a plumber lined up to change the frozen stop-cock shortly after we moved in. On the phone, he sounded ideal, and a date was booked. I emailed a picture to show him what to expect to make sure he had all the equipment necessary to complete the job. Once he saw the installation the boiler installer had done, I got black-balled. Plumber wouldn't pick up the phone, nor answer text nor emails. When the 'new' gas man saw the house plumbing the other day, his term was "it looks like it was thrown together". I don't doubt it. If I've learned one thing, it's that 'good' tradesmen, are ALWAYS busy. Correction. The pipework looks to be iron. The joints look to be 'sand cast' iron. The pipework I refer to is unlikely to be drawn steel. I have tried to confirm either way, and so far been unsuccessful in finding out conclusively what the material might be.. I have used the term Black Iron to describe what might (technically) be ductile or malleable iron. I and some others refer to this as black iron because of the appearance. Any rust that forms, is not orange/red, but tends to be black? (In fact seems a bit sooty? And maybe why I wouldn't have immediately disassociated it from cast.) Black Iron is also a reference to mild steel coated in a black bitumen type paint. I had thought steel corroded faster than iron because of the carbon content, and you don't want gas pipes corroding... But again, I'm not finding that easy to resolve either way.

My mistake, I should have checked ...... I remembered it being a re-badged quality boiler, and for some reason I had it in mind it was a "Main". Duh! It looks like I bought the right one, anyway, so not all bad. I bought the 30kw version because it was pennies more expensive than the recommended 24kw version, but the DHW output was notably higher if you have the mains flowrate/pressure, and we have. While I'm more of a bath person, Mrs Freddy is very much a shower person. If a boiler change is being justified somewhat on the strength of a good shower, I decided to get what I could out of the budget. That said, ANY mains shower will be more powerful than the trickle she has to manage with at the moment. Only little niggle about the 30kw version (gas fitter has told me today) is the pipework leading away from the gas meter needs to be 28mm because of the draw from a 30kw over (say) a 24kw boiler. While new supply pipework was always going to be the order of the day due to an 'executive' decision being made to re-site the boiler, "the budget" is less happy that 28mm has to be used. What is more weird about it, is that I have seen modern gas supplies fitted to homes using 15mm copper pipe running along exterior brickwork. Don't yet understand why 28mm might be needed the other side of the meter? There was some mention of gas/air pre-mixing prior to the burner, but time didn't allow for a full explanation.... The current boiler is a Worcester/Bosch Greenstar 18Ri system boiler around 6 years old come October. I think it has an 18/19kw output. Our home needs less than 10kw to heat, so plenty big enough for us. It's supposed to heat a three bed house with one bathroom. I'm probably tempting fate by saying it hasn't skipped a beat while we've used it. In the very unlikely event I might time it right, a prospective buyer could see the boiler working before they removed it. Obviously, I'd have the payment for it before it was touched. The plumber (who introduced me to his mate the gas fella) has had a look and said it's worth something, though no money was mentioned. It, and the pump, could be had for £100 (in my mind) as I have no use for it at all. That said, even as spare parts I would hope it's worth £100, but I have no idea. I did have a little look on the auction site some time ago at what sort of money used boiler can go for, but it was no use really. Location and demand in the sellers location seemed to make an enormous difference in bids and bidding. Selling in a large city got better money than the middle of no-where as travelling/transportation costs are a barrier. Bottom line is, any money for the old one, is going to be a bonus. If it wasn't for the fact we have rotten pipework in difficult to replace locations, or the distance the current HW tank is from the new kitchen sink location, the boiler wouldn't be getting replaced. But pipework (some rotten), storage tank condition (old), storage tank location (as far away from the new kitchen sink as it's possible to get and still be in the house) all make for a fairly troublesome situation. It would (on balance) be more expensive to keep the old system and make it safe (eg water leak free) than completely replacement it with a brand new combi, given I will be doing the great bulk of the work (I now know ). Even paying a plumber, it would still be cheaper to replace rather than refurb the old system pipework and storage tank. The REALLY attractive thing about the combi (other than saving money as we'll only heat water we need to use) is the lack of a cold water storage tank. I have been in at least 3 houses like ours (possibly four), and every one has the same cracked ceiling in the same place for the same reason. The cold water storage tank is directly above the bathroom. The emptying/refilling cycle seems to have put (or does put) a lot a creep stress on the ceiling plasterwork. I have yet to see a bathroom ceiling in this house style, without a crack or cracks in it. I have a solution, but that tank being absent will not only remove the cause, but make the permanent remedy significantly easier. It'll also make installing the new bathroom extractor, significantly easier too. As an aside, the light tube I want to install at some stage (that Mrs Freddy DOESN'T want at some stage) will be easier to install if there is no water tank blocking the tube pathway.