Boiler install costs

LPG not LPB

What is coming out? Is it a combi to combi swap or are you taking out a heat only boiler & cylinder for a combi? What boiler are they fitting? Is it horizontal flue or vertical? So many variables. LPG may make it a bit more expensive but from memory LPG boilers were only around 50 quid more than NG ones, or the conversion kit cost that much.

I've just (yesterday) had a Nat Gas combi fitted along with a magnetic filter and 9 TRVs for £2300. That was a combi out combi in, minor pipework changes below the boiler. Boiler was a Main Eco Compact 30kw for reference and I'm in the North East.

Details in the OP except for what the replacement model is. The quote doesn't include the make and model but I've asked for that information.
I'd expect minimal pipe work changes.
I was expecting £3k, but £4k feels like I'm being shafted.
Time for another quote.

The current boiler is an Ideal Mini S24 - so pretty small.

Sounds like a lot.
We had a system boiler with cylinder replaced a few years ago with a combi (Ideal 30kw combi) for a whisker over £3k.
I think the boiler on its own was about £1100.
We had the boiler moved from the kitchen to the airing cupboard upstairs, so there was a fair amount of preparatory pipework; it was far from a straight swap.
We also had a magnetic filter put in, it needed a flue to go into the loft & through the roof, as well as a condensate pump which takes the condensate up into the loft & out of the bathroom waste pipe.
The fitter was on site for 3 days (well, about 2.5 in total) to remove the old system, get the pipe work re-routed for the new location (including the gas feed) and then get the new one in & commissioned.

EDIT - I suppose you'd expect it, but this included removal/disposal of all the old kit.

LPG is additional certification over the standard mains gas boiler ticket, which needs paying for by the engineer, but £4k does seem steep for what appears to be a straight swap if the boiler is coming in under £2k.

Any local caravan/holiday park type places nearby? They should have an LPG heating engineer they could recommend.

Mini S24 is a system boiler so I guess you've got a hot water cylinder somewhere. 24kw is fairly big for a system boiler, usually they come in around 15-18kw. Even then £2k for the boiler, flue, & filter is steep unless they are fittings a Worcester with a 10 year warranty but I'd not expect £2k in labour for a straight swap.

Boiler prices have gone up a lot over the past couple of years though, and some manufacturers are passing on the government CHMM fine they are expecting to pay to the tune of around £150 a boiler.

Not the same but I've just had a straight Combi swap using a Bosch 4 series boiler and it was 2,1k with Boxt. That included everything, flue, mag filter, etc and took a day to complete.

I think I paid £1500 for a boiler swap new model same make so no pipe work or at least not much.
Shafted sounds about right.
Where are you?

Not the same but I’ve just had a straight Combi swap using a Bosch 4 series boiler and it was 2,1k with Boxt.

Agreed with bear-uk there, give Boxt a ring. My Mum had to have one replaced, the existing Plumber couldnt get to her for over 2 weeks, Boxt were there in 4 days at a similar price, which was more than I thought it should be at £2.3k, but typical.
OP, do you really need a 24kW boiler? That seems rather big for a typical house. Unless you have 8 people in the house with 5+ bedrooms, or, there is no insulation, then 12kW will be enough for 80% of households. There is a price difference in the boilers, plus the lower rated one will run more efficiently at your average load.

Mmmm Boxt are showing £3,200 all in but for a 18kw Worcester Bosch with a 10 year guarantee.

Currently playing this game too - combi swap in the SE. Boxt are quoting around 2.5K, British Gas came in at just under 5.

I paid £3000 a decade ago for a boiler swap without the magnetic filter.  Boilers vary hugely in cost so maybe the quote you have is for an expensive one?

paid a smidge over 1800 for a boiler swap combi to combi but different make end of last year. I'm in the north east.

**** sake, typed out comprehensive reply but forum ate it 😂

short version: just had a straight swap for a new combi (as above) but in the SE, just under £2k including labour (one guy there pretty much all day)

contingency for warranty

sounds like a lot to me too.

Last year we had an old (really old - 1992) 28kw wall mounted heat only gas boiler with horizontal flue replaced with a modern 25kw heat only gas boiler , in the same place , along with taking out an old vented hot water cylinder located in airing cupbaord, and replaced with a much large unvented cylinder located in loft, and that whole job came to £4500 for everything (ie the boiler, the cylinder, the labour including a flush of the system, all the parts inc magnetic filter and sundries etc)  and took 3 days.

what does that mean and why are you paying extra for it?? Our new boiler comes with 10 year warranty as standard?

I'm assuming, and I probably need to check this, that if it breaks in the first couple of years at least, the installer will be the one who has to come back and identify the fault. They may get paid by the supplier to do that, I don't know.

contingency for warranty

what does that mean and why are you paying extra for it?

It's assumed cost built in for their safety when something goes wrong.

Like my last house where a new combi was fitted and within a week an upstairs rad pipe burst.

I’m assuming, and I probably need to check this, that if it breaks in the first couple of years at least, the installer will be the one who has to come back and identify the fault. They may get paid by the supplier to do that, I don’t know.

They shouldn't be charging extra for this. Warranty is covered by the manufacturer, if they are the local appointed service agent for that manufacturer they'll get paid for call outs. If it's not them then they send whoever their local guy is or one of their own engineers.

ENgineer literally just lef the house after fitting our new boiler - Natural  Combi not LPG, but assume it is broadly similar.

Fitting and various bits was £1k (this included adding an additional radiator to the system).

Boiler was £2375 (for a 45Kw boiler - large house with multiple bathrooms), plus another £300 for the care kit that included a decent programmable timer/thrmostat, filter, easy fill kit etc.

So around £3.7k all in.

Rural Lincolnshire pricing - down south it'll be more no doubt

Around £3.4k 2 years ago for removing hot water tank and old Baxi boiler. System flush.  Swapping to a modern combi. Plus magnetic filter and controls etc.  So a reasonable amount of pipework. New flue required etc.  Two full days work for 2  guys.

I had another quote for the same thing which was laughably £2k higher. Which for me was looking like something like £900 a day for each guy if they installed it in the same time.

We're on oil and starting to look at new boilers , ours is 17 years old and costing us more and more each year to keep running, ours is a HRM wall star and getting quotes of 5k+ !! .... Looking around the combi on its own is near enough 3k ! ... why are oil burners so much more than gas boilers ? ... East coast Yorkshire

Try this. Switch off the heating and hot water for a few days and then ask whether having heating and hot water is worth £4K to you. If not look for someone else.

1. Just had a new  boiler fitted  yesterday by local plumber that I use.25 year old Ideal gravity
2. fed replaced with new Ideal max 24 for heat and hot water tank. I wanted to keep tank as we have solar panels with immersion which in the summer gives us all our hot water without using the boiler. £3336 with all the new pumps,expansion tank etc that new boilers require. So quite a lot of new pipe work and connecting water feed etc as new ones are pumped not gravity feed. £560 of that was vat.
3. Can’t believe how much hotter the radiators and hot water are. Old boiler must have been so inefficient.

Just had a 36kw Worcester Bosch combi installed a few days before Christmas. We were £3300 all in with old boiler removed and disposed of, new flue, bit of piping etc and Nest digital thermostat fitted. 

bit of an emergency install so didn’t have the opportunity to shop around but I was expecting the bill to be worse to be honest. Used a local independent guy.

LPG boiler.

*checks  decade*

My calendar tells me it's 2024 not 1974. Kipper ties, orange T2 Combis, bell bottoms and greenhousing North Sea gas to heat uninsulated homes.

2024 is open neck shirts, EV Buzz, bell bottoms, insulation and a heat pump powered by off-shore wind farms.

Come on people, make an effort, the ice caps are melting, forests burning, coast lines submerging... .

The fact that OP is questioning £4k for a boiler install suggests OP might not be comfortable forking out the £20k+ it would realistically cost to go green as an individual household - not including costs of purchasing an EV.

Regardless of how you feel about the environment, it's very, very expensive to actually live a green life. Virtue signalling is a rich person passtime.

We had our boiler done about 5years ago so pricing will not be relevant to today. Installer came one day, looked at old boiler, wrote a list of parts and boiler to buy at local plumbing merchants and gave it to me to buy it all (about 1500 IIRC) then came back another day and fitted it all and charged about 800 to install. A unique way of doing it I thought.

Virtue signalling is a rich person passtime.

I have the lowest income on the thread I guarantee, anyone who can afford waste money on gas central heating is richer than me, but enjoy DIY. Nothing I've done hasn't paid for itself in less than ten years except the windows.

Depends where you are?

Sounds OK to me as long as it’s not a Worcester-Bosch. Better off with Vaillant or Wiessman.

considered changing to an ASHP? More expensive, but no local carbon emissions from heating your house.

Had our oil combi removed a year ago and a system boiler and large unvented cylinder fitted. That was 5k and has saved us a fortune in oil . Previous combi was an old warmflow which was utterly crap .

Virtue signalling is a rich person passtime.

Yes its expensive being poor without the luxury of capital to invest over *checks post* - 10 years.

I did it progressively, on less than a typical eating out and drinking budget for many STWers based on food and drink threads. But that'll be virtue signalling too no doubt. The time was less than many spend on Netflix and other subsription services, but that'll be virtue signalling too. I started when I bought the house in 2000, still tinkering with it. It used to be cold, damp and expensive to heat. It's now pleasant Winter and Summer.

The vast majority of people on this forum could afford to DIY insulate their home but prefer to spend it on other stuff.

If it's virtuous I'll take the compliment but virtue signalling is an insult. People who choose to think about the kind of world their children will live in get insulted, great innit.

The fact that OP is questioning £4k for a boiler install suggests OP might not be comfortable forking out the £20k+ it would realistically cost to go green….

If I was putting an ASHP in I’d still be sense checking the quote. This is about checking how much I’m being asked to pay, not what heating choice I’m making.