Tradesman Review – Nortons Heating in York


Update July 2015: This review was written 6 years ago, and I’ve been contacted by Nortons Heating. They have expanded significantly and are no longer a one-man-band. They have a premises in York with more staff. It’s great to see a small company grow and become successful, congratulations to them!

Visit their site at nortonsheating.com for more information.

My original post is below, but be aware it’s 6 years old and representative of the current company.

We’ve owned our house for three and a half years now, but it’s only relatively recently that we’ve had to start using local tradesmen for maintenance etc. I found it very hard to chose who to call. There are loads in the YellowPages, but without personal recommendations it’s hard to tell one from another.

In order to help others in a similar situation I’ve decided to write a review of all the tradesmen we use, starting with Nortons Heating in York.

I first contacted Nortons about 8 months ago when I decided we ought to get our boiler serviced (I know we’re meant to get it done every year, but we didn’t!). I can’t remember how we found them, I think it was probably via a Google search and we chose them because they were one of the closest (if not the closest) to us.

I get the impression that Nortons is run by a husband and wife team, with Andy (the husband) doing the servicing etc, and his wife doing the admin and taking bookings. Being a small company it’s sometimes not as easy as it might be to get hold of them on the phone, but at least you don’t have to deal with a call centre.

Andy came and serviced the boiler. He was very friendly, and cleaned up after himself. Unfortunately servicing the boiler didn’t solve an intermittent problem we were having, so I called him back again a few weeks later. He had a good look at the problem, suggested he replace two parts (the cheaper two of three possible faults), and came back a few days later to fit them. This solved the problem.

All this was a few months ago. A few days ago out heating failed completely – it just wouldn’t fire at all. The morning after the fault developed (luckily it was a mild night), I rang Nortons. I got through mid morning. When she found we had no heating and hot water she said she’d try and fit us in. By the time I’d told Abby I’d got hold of them, he was at our front door! The boiler just needed a clean, and Andy was finished in under an hour!

I can’t remember how much we were charged for the service and first problem, but it didn’t seem unreasonable. We haven’t had the bill yet for the recent problem.

Overall Nortons are definitely a company I would recommend, and would use them again (having used them three times now). They have their faults (mainly how long it can sometimes take to get hold of them), but who’s perfect!?


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