Lb Heating & Air Conditioning

My home is heated with cast iron rads, except for an addition were "slaint fin" aluminum radiator coils were installed by a previous owner. I was not happy about the amount of heat radiating from them. I called the heating company to come out and see if they could: 1) be replaced with cast iron radiators, or 2) how much it would cost to run the aluminum rads on a separate system, or 3) If the slaint fin aluminum rads could individually be temperature controlled via thermostats. I wanted to know which would be the best solution and approximate estimates. I called L B explaining these things and that I wanted someone to come and diagnose which would be the best option for my house.
The plumber they sent to my house first told me that if he worked on anything in the system he would legally need me to test my boiler afterwards. It was a legal requirement so I agreed. He then requested me to crank the heat for the whole house. After which he grabbed a shut of valve and fully opened it by slightly turning it counterclockwise. Eventually because I had cranked the heat to 32C all of the slaint fin rads started heating up and the addition was a nice temperature. His final suggestion was that I just crank the heat all winter to accomodate the one room. Naturally I thought this was outrageous because it would cost me a fortune in heating and make the rest of the house way too hott and uncomfortable.
When I inquired about an estimate to change the system to cast iron rads, he told me he didn't know anything about those systems. He could not provide me with a quote and told me his boss might be able to help me and to phone and try speaking to him directly.
When I asked about controlling the slaint fin rads on a separate zone, he claimed it would be thousands of dollars to install the system. When I inquired about running the slaint fin rads on a separate thermostat... he mentioned that there was a way to make them continuously run and by-pass the cast iron system, by re-arranging some electrical in the boiler. I did not think this would be a good long term solution because there would be no control over the temperature. He said he would be able to do the "electrical re-arranging" when he came back to do the manditory CO2 test on my boiler. He claimed it would be a simple job but he didn't have time to do it today.
I was a little shocked because he hadn't acutally done any work to my system. He claimed that because he had opened the valve I now had to get a CO2 boiler test done.
I found this very shaddy. I could have played with my shut off valves and cranked the heating in my house myself. The whole point of having someone come by was to get some estimates. But I mean really he could have asked me to turn the knob and saved me a "manditory boiler test".
Needless to say, I ended up going with another company to come and clean my boiler and do the CO2 boiler test.
So basically this "quote that never happened" ended up costing me $150 plus the cost of getting my boiler cleaned and tested.. another $150. A rip off.

- I stand by all of my previous statements. The water valve wasn't shut, it was open 80% of the way. Like turning off/on a faucet I could have easily done this and saved $150. It was winter and if there was "no heat" in the room the pipes would have burst. The temperature just wasn't adequately warm enough to be comfortable. After cranking the heat to 32C it was hard to tell if opening the valve had made a difference.. because the whole house was boiling hot. Needless to say they did not solve any problems but created more by requiring me to get my boiler tested. I agree that if actual work had been done by law I should be safe and get my system tested. But all they did was twist 1 valve.. (again) which I could have done myself. I did get another professional company to fix the problem by installing larger sized slaint fin rads in the room.