The boiler men cometh

greencreeper · 26-07-2006, 22:00

The two of them arrived late - just after 10:00 - having struggled to find the house. Coming from darkest Wakefield they had no idea about Leeds geography.

First job was removing the old water heater. Screwdrivers are for wusses - hammers are for men. So off came the heater, complete with large pieces of plaster. No worry - plenty of plaster in the van. The heater hangs on a bracket - a strip of metal with two holes. This took just over one hour to install - I timed them. The problem was the missing plaster from the earlier assault on the wall. Much reading of the instructions was needed - obviously had never fitted this model water heater before. A couple of wood off-cuts and some hammering managed to save the day. In their distress, they neglected to drill the third hole, which allows the heater to be screwed to the wall. So it's currently hanging on the wall like a Picasso.

Next came the flue. More heading scratching and instruction reading required. A mobile call to a colleague yielded the necessary information. Now just a case of filling the massive hole around the flue - the old flue was rectangular, whereas the new is round (and much smaller). H&S was cast aside, resulting in a moment of pure comedy as one of the local drunks, staggering and arguing with his demons, tripped over a lump of breeze block that had been carelessly left in the middle of the pavement. So, the liberal application of breeze block chunks and some cement and the exterior looks, er, a mess. Now onto the interior.

At this point I had to intervene - poor lad was struggling to get the expanding foam out the can. I helpfully suggested he turn it upside down, and he was happy again. Next onto the plastering. I mentioned Picasso earlier, though I don't think he did impasto as good as this guy did. The North Sea on a Windy Day. And on the subject of art - I move onto modern art, or rather the pipework. Was a little worried he didn't protect the wall, but he quickly proved that the paintwork wasn't flammable. All done - just to commission it.

Back to art again - performance art. After running the heater for several minutes, fitter two noticed that part of the flue (part of the seal) had dropped off. Bit of a problem - the flue is now plastered/cemented/foamed/breeze blocked in place. So out came the fan - only it was hot. More comedy. Fitter one passes searing hot screw from fan to fitter two - who, after a few seconds, releases that screw is hot and flings screw in the air. Much searching on the carpet then ensued. Fortunately, fitter one had gloves, so was able to remove the fan unit. Unfortunately, it rolled out of his hand - but he daftly, I mean deftly, caught it in the crook of his arm. A bad day to pick the short sleeved top. After much juggling, the loose seal is returned to it's correct position and the fan unit re-fitted. Commissioning continues. Cover goes on. All done by the cleaning. Only took five hours, including lunch.

CORGI registered huh

brundles · 27-07-2006, 00:02

I would ask the mods to move this to humour - if it weren't for the fact it's your house it's talking about

greencreeper · 27-07-2006, 00:09

Well it's my landlord's house - first repair in over two years. Must have been saving up. And it's all true. I sometimes think I'm the only one left who does anything properly

SMG · 27-07-2006, 00:14

I wonder how much an hour these guys were on. Sounds like a couple of guys off the dole making out their corgi / plumbers. I think I`d keep a close eye on my new boiler, just in case.

Shaun · 27-07-2006, 00:19

Don't want to scare you GC buy you cant see Carbon Monoxide - do you have a detector?

You can get the paper ones fairly cheap.

**Matt D** · 27-07-2006, 01:03

Make sure you also get a proper Landlord's Gas Safety Certificate

homealone · 27-07-2006, 01:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matt D

Make sure you also get a proper Landlord's Gas Safety Certificate

so if you die, someone can be blamed

greencreeper · 27-07-2006, 08:06

They're definitely CORGI Registered - which makes you wonder how much faith you can have in self-regulation. I do have a detector - it's like a smoke alarm but it sits on a cupboard instead of hanging from the ceiling. And they gave me a gas safety certificate before they left - they do all the safety checks for my landlord's letting agent.

My thinking is that I have insurance so, providing I'm not in the house, the thing can fall off the wall and the gas explosion can level the entire terrace - nothing to do with me at all

Salu · 27-07-2006, 10:52

Was it "Bodgett and Scarper" from central Wakefield that did the job?

TheBlueRaja · 27-07-2006, 10:53

LOL,
That tells you something, good luck with the boiler though - i dont suppose you could let us know what make it was?

Vlad_Dracul · 27-07-2006, 12:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by greencreeper

They're definitely CORGI Registered - which makes you wonder how much faith you can have in self-regulation. I do have a detector - it's like a smoke alarm but it sits on a cupboard instead of hanging from the ceiling. And they gave me a gas safety certificate before they left - they do all the safety checks for my landlord's letting agent.

My thinking is that I have insurance so, providing I'm not in the house, the thing can fall off the wall and the gas explosion can level the entire terrace - nothing to do with me at all

he whole CORGI thing is a farce. People out there,dont assume that becuase someone is CORGI registered ,they are ok. It just isnt the case. Many REAL engineers in the industry have little respect for CORGI but they have to register with them to operate. Its all about Ã‚Â£Ã‚Â£Ã‚Â£Ã‚Â£Ã‚Â£ wonga you see.
The Gas Emergency service is always there to wipe the **** of the whole industry when it goes tits up.

**Stuart C** · 27-07-2006, 13:55

Gc, I have visions of these "engineers" walking out of the house, waving their Stetsons (to keep cool), spurs clicking along the ground before finally mounting their horses and riding off into the sunset..

greencreeper · 27-07-2006, 18:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Salu

Was it "Bodgett and Scarper" from central Wakefield that did the job?

I couldn't possibly mention the company's name. Would be totally wrong. Could lose Heat Efficient a load of business.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheBlueRaja

i dont suppose you could let us know what make it was?

It's a "Main". The manual has "Baxi" on the back so I'm thinking it's a cover for cheaper boilers that Baxi make. It's interesting in that it doesn't have a pilot light - it ignites itself when the hot tap is turned on. No bad thing.

**Rob** · 27-07-2006, 18:46

the auto ignite thing is very common these days. Pilot lights are history.

greencreeper · 27-07-2006, 20:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rob C

the auto ignite thing is very common these days. Pilot lights are history.

My grandad's boiler was on the floor, so you had to lay down and hold a button in whilst pressing another - made a bang. No sign of a flame though. Ten to fifteen minutes of this and eventually you'd get a flame. Then it'd go out. So out came the screwdriver and matches. Was the same with my old boiler, only it was high on the living room wall, so a stool was needed. It's much better is the new boiler, though it's no doubt costing me a leg in electric.