Nine things Solihull Heating does, written out in full.

Replacement combis, system boilers and complete central heating installations — designed around the house, not around whatever is in the van.

The largest part of the work and the one the firm's own strapline starts with: design, install, maintain. A boiler change is rarely just a boiler. The flue has to terminate somewhere legal and sensible, the gas supply has to carry the appliance's input, the existing pipework has to be clean enough not to wreck a new heat exchanger, and the controls and cylinder have to match what you are putting in. Solihull Heating looks at all of that first, quotes on what is actually there, fits the appliance, commissions it and registers the manufacturer guarantee. Worcester is what appears in most of the photographs on this site.

The annual service that keeps the boiler safe, keeps it efficient and keeps the manufacturer's guarantee alive.

Get in touch to book your annual service and make sure your boiler is running safely and efficiently — that is the firm's own line, and it is the right one. A service is a combustion analysis, a check of seals, safety devices, the flue and the condensate, a gas rate and working pressure measured at the meter and the appliance, and a look at the system around the boiler. It is also the thing almost every manufacturer's guarantee depends on: no service record, no claim. Late summer and early autumn are the sensible months, because a fault found in September is an appointment and the same fault in December is an emergency.

No heating, no hot water, a boiler locked out, a system losing pressure — diagnosed and put back into service as quickly as two engineers can get there.

The fault-finding half of the job, and the half that rewards experience rather than parts. Lock-outs on the coldest morning, radiators cold at the bottom, pressure that quietly drops overnight, hot water that has gone lukewarm, a pump that has seized over the summer. Because both engineers work on the systems they installed, a call-out to one of their own jobs starts with someone who already knows the layout. Send a photo of the fault code on WhatsApp before anyone sets off and the right part is far more likely to be on the van.

Replacement cylinders, unvented systems and the expansion vessels, valves and discharge pipework that have to be right around them.

Hot water cylinders and unvented hot water cylinders are listed among the firm's own services, and unvented work is its own qualification for good reason — a sealed cylinder is a pressure vessel with safety devices that have to be installed, sited and discharged correctly. The photographs on this site show the sort of installation that follows: cylinder on a proper base, expansion vessel and valve group grouped where they can actually be serviced, and the pipework labelled and supported rather than snaked across the wall. Cylinders also need their own annual check, which is easy to forget when the boiler gets all the attention.

A forced clean of the whole heating circuit to shift the magnetite sludge that makes radiators cold at the bottom and boilers kettle.

Sludge is iron oxide, and an old steel-and-copper system makes it continuously. It settles in the bottom of radiators, collects in the heat exchanger and slows the pump, and the symptoms are always the same: radiators hot at the top and cold at the bottom, banging or kettling from the boiler, and a house that never quite warms up. A power flush pushes cleanser through the circuit under pressure to lift it out. It is also worth doing before a new boiler goes onto old pipework — most manufacturers expect a cleaned system and a magnetic filter, and a guarantee claim can turn on it. Every photograph of a new install on this site has a filter in it.

Replacement radiators, thermostatic valves, towel rails and the general plumbing installation work around a heating system.

Replacement radiators and plumbing installations are on the firm's own service list, and they are often the cheapest useful improvement to a working system. A radiator that was undersized in 1988 will never heat a knocked-through room; a radiator with a seized lockshield will never balance; and a house without thermostatic valves is heating bedrooms nobody is in. Radiator repair, replacement and installation, valve changes, towel rails and the pipework alterations that go with a room being changed are all part of the work — and all done by the same engineers who look after the boiler.

Smart thermostat installation and the zone controls behind it — wired properly to the boiler, then set up with you.

Smart thermostat installations are listed among the firm's own services, and the box on the wall is the least interesting part. What matters is behind it: the correct connection to the boiler or the zone valves, a receiver sited where it will hold a signal, and a schedule actually configured with you so the house is warm when you get in rather than at three in the afternoon. On a bigger Knowle or Dorridge house with more than one zone, sensible controls make a larger difference to the bill than swapping the boiler again. A smart controller is visible next to the boiler in several of the photographs here.