Boiler Replacement and Heating in Merstham (RH1)
If your house still has a cold water tank in the loft, a cylinder in the airing cupboard and hot water on a timer, then putting a modern boiler in is a conversion rather than a swap. Merstham has houses of every age that arrangement turns up in — the terraces, the larger houses above the village and the post-war estate.
From an open system to a sealed one
An older vented system is fed by tanks in the loft and sits at whatever pressure the height of that water gives it.
A modern sealed system is filled, pressurised and closed, with an expansion vessel to take up the movement as the water heats. Converting between the two means the tanks come out, the feed and vent pipework is dealt with properly, and the whole system then runs at a pressure it has never seen before. That last part is where the surprises live: joints that have quietly wept for years, and old radiators thinned from the inside, can show themselves once the system is pressurised and tested. It is far better to raise that at the quote than to present it as an extra halfway through, so we say plainly what we can see and what nobody can see until the system is up.
Taking out a back boiler
Where the heating still comes from a unit behind the fireplace, removing it is as much a building job as a heating one. The appliance comes out, the chimney or flue has to be dealt with and left safe and ventilated, and then there is an opening in a chimney breast, a hearth and a length of wall that all need putting back so the room does not look as though something has been ripped out of it. That side is our own bricklayers and plasterers, working alongside the heating engineers we bring in and manage for the gas work. One survey covers both and one price covers both, which matters here because the building work is often the larger half of the job.
Combi, or keep the cylinder
Going to a combi frees up the airing cupboard and the loft, and for a house with one bathroom in regular use it is usually the straightforward choice.
It is not automatically the right one. If two bathrooms get used at the same time, or the incoming flow is modest, keeping stored hot water with a system boiler and a new cylinder often gives a better result and fewer arguments on a weekday morning. It is worth deciding on the evidence — how many outlets there are, how the household actually runs, and what the main delivers when somebody measures it — rather than on what a neighbour had fitted.
More in Merstham
Everything we do in Merstham is on the Merstham area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the heating & plumbing page.
Common questions
Q.01What happens to the tanks in the loft?
On a conversion to a sealed system they come out, and the feed and vent pipework is dealt with properly. You get the loft space back, and the system runs pressurised instead of gravity-fed.
Q.02We have a back boiler behind the fire. Can it be replaced?
Yes. The appliance comes out and the flue is made safe, then the chimney breast, hearth and wall need making good. That building work is done by our own team and priced with the heating.
Q.03Should we go for a combi?
Often, but not always. One bathroom in regular use and a decent flow rate suits a combi well. Two bathrooms used at once usually suits a system boiler and a hot water cylinder better.
Q.04Could old radiators start leaking once the system is pressurised?
It can happen, because they have never held that pressure before. We say so up front, check what can be checked at the survey, and price the risk honestly rather than raising it later.
Thinking about heating & plumbing in Merstham?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.