Heating Engineer in Croyde, North Devon

Croyde is a surf village, and the heating here follows the bookings rather than the weather. A big share of the property is holiday let or second home: full from Easter to the end of September, then more or less empty all winter with the heating off or ticking over on frost protection.

Systems that live like that fail in two predictable ways. They lock out in the spring, when they're asked to go from months of standing still to full demand overnight, and they fail mid-season, when the place is at its fullest and a breakdown costs you a booking rather than an evening. Neither is bad luck. A service in February or March catches most of it, and it's the single most useful thing an owner here can put in the diary.

One thing to check before you call. Not every property around Croyde is on the mains gas network. I work on mains gas only, so if yours runs on LPG or oil then I'm not the right engineer for it, and it's much better to sort that out before a visit is booked than on your doorstep. If you're not sure which you've got, have a look at whether there's a tank in the garden.

I'm George Lane, Gas Safe registered. Croyde is about 22 miles by road from South Molton, and I cover it with Georgeham and Braunton on the same run.

You'll get an answer. Ring or message during the working day and you'll hear back the same day; evenings and weekends, it'll be the next working day. And if it isn't a job for me, I'll tell you that and point you at someone who can help, rather than going quiet on you.

When you book, I'll confirm it and give you a two-hour window rather than a whole day sat at home waiting. On the morning you get a text with a tracking link, so you can see where I've got to instead of wondering. Traffic and the job before yours are real, so it's a window rather than a promise to the minute, but if it slips you'll hear it from me first.