What sort of homes are there in Barnet?

Barnet had about 389,000 residents at the 2021 census, second only to Croydon among London boroughs, and its homes span almost every period. High Barnet and Whetstone sit along the old Great North Road, with Victorian and earlier buildings near their high streets and later suburbs behind. Golders Green grew quickly after the Underground reached it in 1907, and Edgware followed when the line was extended there in 1924. Finchley, Hendon and Mill Hill have large numbers of Edwardian and interwar family houses, while Colindale and the area around Brent Cross have seen thousands of new flats in recent years.

How are Barnet's family homes usually heated?

Larger Edwardian and 1930s houses in Finchley, Mill Hill and Golders Green often run a system or regular boiler with a hot water cylinder, sometimes an unvented one under mains pressure.
Interwar semis in Edgware, Hendon and Whetstone are more mixed, and many have been switched to a combi.
Mansion blocks and purpose-built flats may have an individual combi in each flat or a shared boiler house for the whole block.
Some new developments, including Brent Cross Town, are served by a heat network rather than a boiler in each home, in which case faults with the main plant go to the network operator or managing agent.

In a big house the questions are often about hot water, such as showers losing heat when a second tap is opened, or a cylinder taking too long to recover in the morning.

Which parts of Barnet are conservation areas?

Barnet has many. In Hampstead Garden Suburb, a trust oversees design rules on top of the council's own controls. The Mill Hill conservation area follows The Ridgeway, and High Barnet has the Wood Street and Monken Hadley conservation areas. In Finchley, Church End and Finchley Garden Village are conservation areas, and so is the town centre of Golders Green. If yours is one of them, say so, because moving the flue or running visible pipework across the front of the house may need approval.

Changing your boiler as part of building work in Barnet?

Plenty of Barnet homeowners extend, convert the loft or dig out a basement, and each of these can change how much heat and hot water the house needs. If you are adding a bathroom or a large open-plan kitchen, a boiler replacement is best sized for the finished house, not the current one. Tell the engineer roughly when the builders start and whether you will be living at home during the work.

For a boiler that is staying put, a yearly boiler service is the usual way to keep it running safely and protect the manufacturer's warranty.

What should I mention from a Barnet home?

Say roughly how many bedrooms and bathrooms the house has, whether the hot water comes from a cylinder, and where the boiler is, such as a basement, utility room or loft. If you live in a mansion block, give the floor, whether there is a lift and whether the managing agent needs notice before contractors visit. Photos of the boiler label and the cylinder save time on the first call.

How do I get help in Barnet?

Fill in the enquiry form with your postcode and a description of the problem. It is passed to one engineer whose patch includes your part of Barnet, and they contact you to discuss it and agree any price before work starts. There is nothing to pay for enquiring.

Who you will hear from

We pass your enquiry to one local heating engineer who covers your postcode. It is never sent to a list of companies.

We only pass enquiries to heating engineers whose registration we have checked on the Gas Safe Register. Ask to see their registration ID card when they arrive.