Heating and Plumbing in Purley (CR8)
The large houses on the Purley hill ask a question a smaller house does not: can the system supply everything at once? Several bathrooms, a big floor area and solid older construction all pull in the same direction, and a like-for-like boiler swap often will not answer it.
Sizing for the house you actually have
A combi heats water as it passes through it, so what it can deliver is limited by the incoming main — and in a house with two or three bathrooms in regular use that ceiling gets found quickly.
The alternative is a system boiler with a hot water cylinder sized for how the house is really used, so two showers running at once is not a competition. Which is right depends on the measured flow at the tap and on the number of outlets, not on what was there before. We measure it at survey and say plainly which way we would go, because fitting a bigger combi does not create flow the main is not delivering.
Older fabric, and radiators that were never right
The period stock across Purley is largely solid-walled, and a solid wall loses more heat than a cavity wall of the same size. If radiators were sized years ago, or sized by whoever happened to be fitting them, a new boiler alone will not warm a room that has never been warm. A room-by-room heat loss calculation shows whether the radiator in a room can actually heat it — and modern boilers run more efficiently at lower flow temperatures, which asks more of a radiator rather than less. On a big house, pipe runs also have to be planned rather than improvised: floors up, walls chased, and everything put back properly afterwards.
Who does what
Gas and heating are specialist trades. The engineers are brought in and managed by us — we survey, price, programme and stay answerable. Lifting and relaying floors, chasing, boxing in and making good is our own team, and it is in the price rather than left for someone else.
More in Purley
Everything we do in Purley is on the Purley area sheet, and the full detail of how we approach this trade is on the heating & plumbing page.
Common questions
Q.01Will a combi suit a house with three bathrooms?
Usually not. Once several outlets can run at once, a system boiler with a properly sized cylinder serves the house far better. We measure the flow at survey rather than guessing.
Q.02Why are some rooms never warm?
Often the radiator rather than the boiler, particularly in a solid-walled period house. A room-by-room heat loss calculation shows whether what is in the room can actually heat it.
Q.03Who puts the floors and plaster back?
Our own carpenters and plasterers, and it is included in the price. The heating engineers run the pipework and commission the system.
Q.04Do you cover the whole of CR8?
Yes, across Purley and the surrounding roads. Godstone is a short run and Purley sits well inside the ten miles we keep home work within.
Thinking about heating & plumbing in Purley?
Tell us what you are planning. We come out, look at the job properly and give you a price for it.