Combi boiler conversions in Teesside
Converting a tank-fed system to a combi on a Teesside home costs £2,600 to £4,200. The cylinder and loft tanks come out, pipework is reworked, and you gain a cupboard, a loft and hot water without waiting for it.
What a conversion changes
In a traditional system the boiler heats a cylinder, the cylinder is fed by tanks in the loft, and hot water exists only if you planned for it an hour earlier. A combi conversion removes that chain: mains water enters the boiler, is heated as it passes through, and comes out of the tap. The cylinder cupboard becomes storage, the loft tanks and their pipework disappear, and the airing cupboard stops being the warmest room in the house by accident.
Who it suits, and who it does not
Conversions work beautifully in one-bathroom houses: most Teesside terraces, older semis in Norton, Grangetown or central Stockton, and the majority of two- and three-bed properties across the TS postcodes. They work less well where two showers run at once, where a bath needs filling quickly, or where the incoming mains flow rate is low. A combi cannot deliver more water than the street supplies, so the honest first step is measuring flow and pressure at the stopcock. Under about 12 litres a minute, a system boiler with an unvented cylinder is usually the better recommendation, and a quote that says so is doing you a favour.
The work involved
Two days is typical. Day one: drain down, strip out the cylinder, cut back and cap the old feed and vent pipework, remove the loft tanks, and rework the pipework at the new boiler position. Day two: fit and flue the boiler, flush the radiator circuit thoroughly because thirty years of tank-fed sludge is now heading somewhere new, fit a magnetic filter, refill with inhibitor, commission and set up the controls. Making good the airing cupboard and the loft boarding is part of a fair quote, not an extra.
Costs people forget to ask about
Three items sit outside the boiler price and belong in the conversation early: whether the gas supply pipe needs upgrading to 22mm, whether the old radiators are sized for the higher flow temperatures they used to run at, and whether any decorating is needed where tanks, pipes and the cylinder once stood. None of them are large on their own, but a quote that ignores all three will always look cheaper than one that does not.