Replumb cost

Charlie

We’re in the process of adding an extension to our house, as well as upgrade a lot of the underlying infrastructure across the rest of the house. Our house is a 4 bed detached, currently 110sqm (to be 150sqm when extended). As part of this, we are looking to do a full replumb, to inlude the following:

• Replace existing oil system with new A rated gas combi boiler and 5 bar water pump and water tank
• Removal of all existing gun barrel piping, with new pipework across the entire house
• Connection of gas from newly installed gas meter (gas networks have installed meter)
• New downstairs WC plumbed
• Underfloor heating system for entire ground floor (approx 80sqm)
• Zoned system installed (3 zones)
• Supply one small radiator in downstairs porch (UFH will be in rest of downstairs and upstairs will retain existing rads)
• Installation of outdoor tap

Whats not included, is the ground work, labour and insulation to prepare the ground floor for the UFH system.

We’ve been quoted €20k (not incl VAT) in Dublin. I’m looking to gauge if this quote is about right for the work being carried out?

Sleeper12

If you are going to that expense why not look at air to water heat pump. It will work great with the under floor heating & cost half the price of gas to run. Grants available too.

enricoh

I'd be getting a price on the groundwork, insulation etc as well- when you get it I'd say forget about underfloor heating!

Dtp1979

Sounds a bit steep tbh.

how many bathrooms do you have? Are they re plumbing those?

Charlie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119109306#Comment_119109306

Due to the nature of how we’re doing the work, the grant process isn’t viable for us. So we’re ultimately trying to do as much work now to future proof for the likes of a heat pump down the line, without going whole hog with everything that’s needed to deep retrofit for a heat pump now.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119109365#Comment_119109365

We currently have one bathroom, with a new WC being put in downstairs. The existing bathroom will have the existing gun barrel removed and some other plumbing upgraded, but other than that will be largely untouched (shower and sanitary ware unchanging). The new downstairs WC has been quoted for plumbing, but not for the supply and fit of sanitary ware.

What sort of ballpark do you think our work should be in?

antoinolachtnai

I added it up in my head before seeing your quote and it came to about €20k including VAT. So you are a bit over but not much and the reality is that there’s a lot of inflation going on. You are in the right sort of range if you are confident you have the right tradesperson. If you wanted to cut it a bit you might be able to cut down to two zones, put radiators back to back to reduce pipe runs and put boiler near meter to reduce gas pipe run. Reusing old radiators? I don’t know, I’d be inclined to get new, oversized radiators if a heat pump is the ultimate destination. Even if not I would be inclined to renew radiators. But you need to rely on your plumber’s advice.

Charlie

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119109899#Comment_119109899

Thanks for running those numbers, that’s useful context. We’re certainly used to both hearing and seeing substantial cost increases on a near weekly basis across the rest of our build / renovation, so that could well be the difference. The plumber in question is someone we’ve used several times before and have always found them fair to deal with and their work to high standard.

Re reusing the rads upstairs, they were only installed 2 years ago (so are nearly new) and are oversized in all but one room.

Dtp1979

Actually I’m looking at a job I’m doing at the minute which is similar. Biggest difference is I’m using rads downstairs which doesn’t have that much price difference. The job is coming in at 15k incl vat.

id say the above job should cost no more than 17k incl vat

To be honest is it worth the expense ? why change to gas when it's incredibly expensive even more than oil ? Why not just upgrade your existing oil boiler ?

I'd be weary of changing to gas now, there could be shortage of supply in another year or less or much higher prices, at lease when you're not using Oil you're not paying standing charges which are not cheap.

Dtp1979

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119217436#Comment_119217436

Since when is Nat gas dearer than oil?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119218628#Comment_119218628

Thought it has got more expensive than oil now ? + you got rental charges you don't have with oil.

I'm looking over the seai comparison between the different sources seems pellets are very attractive against oil or am I reading it wrong ?

https://www.seai.ie/publications/Domestic-Fuel-Cost-Comparison.pdf

blackbox

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119218628#Comment_119218628

I thought it always was. Gas Price is based on oil prices.

Gant21

For Dublin prices is bang on. Cheaper outside the pale.

Right so the way I read it @ 80% efficiency stove coal works out between 10 and 11 cent per Kwh

Gas 8.3- 11 C/Kwh @90% efficiency

Electricity 11.54 Night rate to around 38 C/Kwh

Oil @90% efficiency around 12c/Kwh

Wood Pellets between @90% between 8.05 c/Kwh Bulk to 8.83 bagged

Wood full pallet around 16 c/Kwh @ 80% ( a lot more expensive than I thought )

Heat Pump, they give several bands which I assume relates to the COP of the HP correct me if I'm wrong.

Heat Pump COP of 4.5 and night rate leccy 2.56 c/Kwh Day rate around 4.63 c/Kwh

Coal @80% efficiency between 9 and 11c per Kwh

It is clear that Oil has gone up the most. Gas 42% vs oil 83%

Electricity up 16-18%

Pellets up 10% bag 20% bulk ? explain that one.

So on night rate as it stands now it's cheaper to run storage heaters.

Shocked at the cheap cost to run a Heat pump @ COP 4.5 and even less the higher the COP.

The Heat pump is trickier to calculate given the difference between Day/Night meter, will it run half the time at day and half at night ?

My home is not the best insulated and in Winter and so would be looking to get one that is a direct replacement for oil that heats to a higher temp but these are supposed to be really good these days with cops of 4 + which would mean we'd probably run it like we would oil a few hrs a day which would be at day rate leccy except the morning which would be on the night rate.

Even a COP of 3 would mean it would cost around 3.85 c/Kwh to around 8.3 during the day. That's a lot cheaper than oil.

Eventually could add insulation but the cost of this is rocketing too for now. Priority at this point of time is the heating, some of the rads are shot and upstairs in the attic are not working so this is more important at this point in time than insulation, + the noise and banging rads has become intolerable.

Now we do have a well which can increase the cop to 7 if they can use it which would bring that night rate cost to around 1.6 c/Kwh and around 3.2 Day.

Now my interest in heat pump is very keen indeed, if they are as suitable now as they say for oil boiler replacement and can use the existing well even better.

Eventually could add solar PV and battery and charge the battery on night rate if possible could use some of that during the day when the HP s on.

Failing all that there is the wood pellets which appears very attractive vs Oil, for now. But my issue is storage, I don't know whether a SILO is practical in our climate or not ? suppose they wouldn't sell them if not.

Dtp1979

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119218918#Comment_119218918

No oil was always dearer than Nat gas