Over to the picturesque Sussex town of Horsham, where we have a beautiful listed residence in the protected heritage quarter of the town.
Green door in Horsham
British Gas condemned the old floorstanding Potterton boiler in the cellar, and they and other contractors suggested that the only solution was the relocation of a new boiler at the other end of the house, involving unsightly pipework throughout.
The existing defunct boiler was flued up a very old chimney weaving through 3 floors; we suggested fitting a new Viessmann Compact 26Kw boiler in the cellar. The existing system was very old, the cylinder was around 60 years old and the radiators were in their 40s, we estimate.
The system was fully Powerflushed and we converted the gravity system to a fully pumped type, retaining most of the original parts at the customer’s request.
Not a straight or flat wall in sight
The roof of the house was made of stone tiles, possibly York stone, and looked very old and possibly fragile. Rather than use scaffolding, which would rest on the roof, we suggested a truck mounted access hoist was employed. We’ve used these in the past and they can offer quick and easy access to some difficult areas without even touching the fabric of the building.
Easy with the right equipment - and a head for heights
The new flue was inserted, and the boiler converted to an ‘open flue’ type, where air is used in the cellar for combustion.
View from the top
Our brief was to keep all the radiators, hot water cylinder etc as before, so some very old pipework remained in the cellar, which we added insulation.
Parking restrictions were everywhere, but Horsham council run a very efficient dispensation scheme for contractors working on these period properties.
Getting the old boiler out of the cellar, this was the easy bit
We left the house with a brand new condensing boiler, but (excluding the cellar) the house looked exactly the same as when we started.
