Heating and plumbing in Harwood
I am Chris Greenhalgh — Gas Safe and CIPHE registered, based in Tonge Fold, a couple of miles from Harwood, and the man who will actually turn up at your door.
Six minutes up Crompton Way, and priced the same as my own street.
Gas Safe registered, working on Harwood boilers, heat pumps, bathrooms and drains myself — no call centre, and nobody else turning up in my name.
£132 call-out, includes the first 90 minutes, inc VATInside the same-day area
Same day is a seven-mile promise, and Harwood is comfortably inside it
I cover about twenty miles around BL2 2TA but only claim same-day availability inside seven of them. Harwood is 2.2 miles away — six minutes up Crompton Way. I would rather tell you where that line is than let you find it on the day you need me.
If it is genuinely an emergency and I am already on a job the other side of Bolton, I will say so on the phone rather than keep you waiting. There is no call centre between you and that answer.
Where I cover around Harwood
The BL2 3 postcodes — Harwood village, Lea Gate, Christ Church Lane, Belmont View, Downgreen Road, Castle Croft, Hough Fold Way and the closes off them — running up towards Bradshaw and back down to Breightmet.
There is one flat call-out charge across the whole 20-mile area, so Harwood is not priced differently from anywhere else and travel is already inside it. What being this close buys you is availability rather than a discount: at six minutes, a same-day slot is realistic whenever the diary allows.
What I actually get called to in Harwood
Recent Harwood jobs on my system include a heat pump installed with its cylinder, radiators and pipework, three upstairs bathrooms fitted out across a run of visits with a builder, a heating control installation finished off, an unvented cylinder inspection, a garage-to-house pipework run with an outside tap and a washing machine feed, and a toilet with a weak flush and a smell nobody could place.
Harwood throws up more whole-project work than anywhere else I cover, and it is the reason this page reads differently from the Breightmet one.
Three things Harwood calls me out for
Harwood is largely newer and larger housing than the rest of my patch — more detached and semi-detached, more en-suites, more cylinders and more room to put a heat pump. Three jobs keep coming back.
Heat pumps, fitted properly rather than sold hard
One Harwood job was a full air source heat pump installation — the unit, the cylinder, and the radiators and pipework to suit it. That last part is the bit that gets skipped: a heat pump run into radiators sized for a 70°C boiler will cost a fortune to run and disappoint you. If the emitters and the pipework are not right, the answer is that the house is not ready yet, and I will say so.
Three bathrooms is a project, not three jobs
A Harwood house had all three upstairs bathrooms done, working alongside the builder across a run of dated visits. It was quoted as days rather than a guess — roughly four per bathroom, five for the one with the bath — with materials invoiced separately at cost and the supplier invoices handed over. If it goes quicker you pay for the time actually spent.
A weak flush and a smell that is not the toilet
One Harwood call was a WC flushing badly, the bowl clearing slowly, and an intermittent drain smell drifting in. That combination is usually not the toilet at all — it is the cistern, the trap, the waste connection or the soil vent, and it needs all four checked in order rather than a new toilet fitted and fingers crossed.
What it costs
Every figure below is the same in Harwood as it is on my own street. Heat pumps and bathrooms are quoted after a survey rather than off a price list.
Call-out £132
Covers travel and the first 90 minutes on site. Each further half hour is £45. Parts are quoted and agreed after I have diagnosed the fault, never before.
Boiler service £105
Flat, whatever the make. A gas fire service is the same. Add a gas safety record for £150 all in — that is the boiler on the certificate, and £10 for each other gas appliance added to it.
New boiler from £1,799 fitted
A like-for-like combi swap, system flush and magnetic filter included. Moving the boiler, changing system type or coming off a back boiler is priced above it, after a look.
Everything else
Gas safety record on its own £99 for the first appliance, £10 each extra. Leak detection and trace £180, covering travel and the first 90 minutes, with a written report for an insurer at £60. Cancellation or missed appointment £66.
Fixed-price bookings made online — the £105 service and the £132 call-out — take the full amount at the time of booking, and that payment is the whole price for the visit. Quoted work such as a boiler install or a bathroom takes 50% at booking with the balance on completion.
How a Harwood job runs
- You book a real slot, not a callback. The online form takes the date and the payment, so the job is in my diary rather than on a list I get back to.
- You get a text with an ETA and a live tracking link when I set off. Two miles up Crompton Way means that window is usually short.
- The certificate is completed on site and emailed before I leave, and the appliance is registered with the manufacturer on your behalf.
- I remind you at about eleven months, so the next service does not creep up on you.
Same engineer, same price, whichever side of Bolton you are on.
You deal with me from the first message to the certificate. That is the whole business, and it is why the work is backed by a 24-month workmanship guarantee on heating, gas and plumbing.
Common questions
How quickly can you get to Harwood?
Two miles, about six minutes, so it is inside the area where same-day is realistic when there is a slot. I will give you an honest date rather than promise a time I cannot keep.
Is my house right for a heat pump?
That is a survey question, not a phone question. It comes down to insulation, the radiators you have now and where the cylinder would go. I would rather tell you the house is not ready than fit one that costs you more to run than the boiler did.
Do you work alongside builders on bigger projects?
Yes, regularly, and it is a good deal of the work I do in Harwood. Bathrooms and refurbishments get quoted in days with materials invoiced separately at cost, so you can see exactly what you are paying for.
Do you service unvented cylinders?
Yes. It needs a separate ticket beyond Gas Safe and I hold it — the Unvented Hot Water Storage Systems certificate, in compliance with G3 of the Building Regulations. It is worth doing at the same visit as the boiler.
More on how a job runs start to finish on How I work, or go straight to heat pumps, bathrooms, boiler servicing or back to the rest of Bolton.
Book Harwood work in
Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm. Tell me what needs doing and I will come back with a price before anyone sets off.
Water coming through a ceiling right now? Emergency plumbing tells you what to do first.