Heating and Plumbing in Reigate (RH2)
A good deal of Reigate's older housing sits in or near a conservation area, and some of it is listed. None of that stops you having a modern boiler and a warm house. It does decide where the flue comes out, how the pipework gets to where it is going, and how much of it you end up seeing.
Flues and pipes on an elevation people can see
On a listed building, consent covers work that affects its character, and that is not limited to the outside — cutting into panelling, plaster or a chimney breast counts too.
A flue terminal, a condensate pipe or a run of external pipework appearing on a principal elevation is exactly the sort of detail to agree with the council before anything is ordered, rather than after a boiler has arrived that only fits one way round. In a conservation area the rules are lighter but the same thinking applies, because the street is a large part of why people bought the house. There are almost always workable routes: rear and side elevations, internal runs taken up through cupboards, or a vertical flue. They want finding at the survey, while the price can still reflect them.
Getting pipework through an old house
The aim in a period property is to put the heating where it does the least harm and to leave the original features alone. In practice that means following existing voids and floor depths, lifting boards carefully rather than cutting them, running behind skirting, boxing where boxing is honest, and keeping chases away from anything decorative. Our own carpenters lift and refit the floors and our plasterers put the walls back; the gas and heating side is done by engineers we bring in and manage. Because one firm has priced both halves of that, nobody arrives to run a pipe through something that should not be touched, and nobody is left arguing afterwards about who fills the hole.
The later Reigate housing
South of the town and out into the newer suburbs the job is more conventional, and that is worth saying plainly rather than pricing every house as though it were period.
On 1930s to 1960s stock the questions are the ordinary ones: the age and size of the gas run, the condition of the radiators, whether the system has ever been properly cleaned, and whether the controls are worth updating at the same time. A house still heated on one timer, with no thermostatic valves on the radiators, will usually gain more from better controls than from a larger boiler. On the newer builds it is generally a straight replacement, with the existing pipework checked rather than trusted because it looks tidy, and the sealed system's expansion vessel and pressure relief checked at the same time.
More in Reigate
Everything we do in Reigate is on the Reigate area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the heating & plumbing page.
Common questions
Q.01My house is listed. Can I still have a new boiler?
Yes. What needs care is where the flue and any visible pipework go, and whether the internal route affects anything of character. That gets agreed with the council before anything is ordered.
Q.02Where can the flue go on a conservation-area house?
Rear and side elevations first, then internal or vertical routes. We work out what is possible at the survey and price that route, rather than picking the easiest wall on the day.
Q.03Can pipework be run without damaging original features?
In most houses, yes. It means using existing voids, lifting boards rather than cutting them, and keeping chases away from cornice, panelling and anything decorative. It takes longer and it should be in the quote.
Q.04Do you cover the whole of RH2?
Yes, from the old town out to the southern suburbs. Our base is 27 High Street, Godstone, a short drive away.
Thinking about heating & plumbing in Reigate?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.