Someone's been out, or sent you a number, and now you're supposed to decide. Three and a half grand for a new boiler. Four hundred for a part. Nine hundred to sort a leak.
And you've no way of knowing whether that's the going rate, a bit steep, or somebody having a go.
Most people do one of two things. They pay it, because the house is cold and what else are you supposed to do. Or they ring round for two more quotes, which takes a week and leaves them with three numbers and still no idea which is right.
Ask the engineer who quoted, and he's telling you about his own price.
Ask another firm and they're pitching against him, so their answer is whatever gets them the job.
Ask online and you'll get twenty people guessing, half of them in a different part of the country where prices bear no relation to yours, and a few who last did the job in 2011.
On a quote check I’m not doing the work, I’m not quoting, and I’ve nothing to gain whichever way it goes. That’s the entire reason my answer is worth anything.
I keep a running record of real quotes that people have posted publicly across the UK. Boilers, repairs, conversions, cylinders, drains, the lot.
Each one gets logged properly: what the job actually was, where in the country if they say, what they were quoted, and what I’d expect it to cost. Then the gap between those last two gets worked out.
The “what I’d expect” figure doesn’t come off a price list. It comes from 23 years of pricing these jobs and doing them. The collecting just keeps me current, and it shows me what’s happening in different parts of the country rather than only what I’m used to.
It keeps growing, and it covers the things people actually get caught on.
About half the quotes I’ve logged were perfectly fair. More than a third were over, some of them badly. The worst was £890 to replace a £15 part.
That’s the problem in a nutshell. Most tradesmen are honest, which is exactly why the ones who aren’t are so hard to spot. They all look the same until someone who knows the job looks at it.
All three are genuine, and all three are people who had no way of knowing.
£425 for a plate heat exchanger. Hot water running hot and cold on a Worcester combi. The engineer diagnosed the heat exchanger, the customer agreed, it was fitted. The fault was still there afterwards. It was the diverter valve, which is a different part and a different job.
£890 to replace a float valve in a loft water tank, because the overflow was dripping. The part is about £15. Even allowing for awkward access and having to get the water off, that’s £250 at the outside.
£441 to repair a circuit board, offered as about £73 a month for six months. A board can be sent away and repaired for about £30, or bought already repaired for about £90. With the labour to fit it, that job tops out around £300. Almost nobody knows repair is even an option, because the people quoting don’t mention it.
Anyone can tell you a price sounds dear. What's more useful is spotting how a quote is put together, and that's where I can actually help.
Being pushed. If someone tells you it's going to burst and you need to get on with it, that's a sales technique. The honest version is that they tell you what they've found, give you their price, and leave it with you. If it fails after you've been told, that's on you, and they know that.
A price miles over everyone else. Often that isn't greed, it's a polite no. They're busy and they don't want the job. The answer isn't to haggle, it's to ring somebody else.
Work that didn't need doing. Full new pipework on a boiler conversion is the big one. I've seen the same job quoted at £9,000 with all new pipes and £6,000 with only what was needed. Sometimes it genuinely is needed. Usually it isn't.
You shouldn't be paying twice to fix the same fault.
Parts that genuinely needed replacing are fair to charge for, even if they turn out not to have been the problem. Fault finding works that way sometimes and it doesn't make anyone a cowboy.
But going back to work out what was missed is not a second job. It's finishing the first one, and it shouldn't come with a second bill. The honest way round it is: diagnose it properly at no charge, quote for the exact work needed, and get paid when it's actually fixed.
Most people have never been told they're allowed to expect that, so they pay three times for one fault and put it down to bad luck.
A video call, same as any other, but about the quote rather than the fault. Then a written report afterwards, so you’ve got something in your hand rather than trying to remember what I said.
The report covers:
That third one matters more than people expect. A fair price for the wrong repair is still money gone.
Worth being straight about the limits.
I can't see the job. Access, the state of the pipework, whether the boiler's in a loft or a cupboard, all of that moves a price legitimately and I'm working from what you can show me.
I won't call anyone a cowboy. Plenty of high quotes are honest quotes for awkward work, and some trades genuinely can charge what they like because there's nobody else to ring. I'll tell you when that's the case.
I can't promise a repair will work. Nobody can, including the person quoting.
And if there isn't enough information to give you a straight answer, I'll say so rather than make something up. That's a refund, not a guess.
Easiest thing is to send the quote over first, then we’ll get on a call about it.
I’ll tell you before we start whether there’s enough there for me to be useful, and if there isn’t, I’ll say so rather than take the £20.