When a Navien NHB in a Burnaby home is past repairing, what a proper replacement involves, and what it tends to cost.
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Quick answer
A Navien NHB in a Burnaby home is usually worth replacing rather than repairing again when the heat exchanger is cracked or badly corroded, or when repair costs start stacking up against a meaningful share of a new install. A licensed technician can walk you through that math honestly instead of guessing.
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Two or three repairs in close succession, with no clear end in sight, is usually the moment to stop and price a replacement instead. A cracked or badly corroded heat exchanger is the clean-cut case — that single part alone can run close to a new unit, so replacing the whole boiler is almost always the better move.
We're upfront if a repair is still the smarter call — a lot of Burnaby boilers on the region's soft water keep running well past the point homeowners expect once the failing part is actually fixed.
The process begins with a technician coming to look at the actual mechanical room, not a guess over the phone — existing piping, venting condition, and gas line sizing all get checked before we price anything.
For older Burnaby homes we pay close attention to the mechanical room's clearances and existing vent routing during the assessment, since a tight 1960s-era basement changes what's practical to install compared with a newer build.
Install day means removing the old unit, bringing piping and venting up to code where it needs it, setting and wiring the new boiler, then testing combustion and system pressure before signing off.
Burnaby's housing stock is a real mix — a lot of post-war bungalows from the 1950s through '70s with mechanical rooms tucked into unfinished basements, alongside newer infill homes on the same streets. Older basements often mean tighter clearances around the boiler and shorter, sometimes awkward vent runs that we check carefully during any repair or install. Burnaby also sits on Metro Vancouver's soft, reservoir-fed water supply, which is gentler on a heat exchanger than well water, so scale is usually a smaller factor here than in the Fraser Valley. The city's hillier pockets, like the areas around Burnaby Mountain, can also mean steeper driveways and stairs that affect how equipment gets moved in and out on a replacement.
| Item | 2026 ballpark |
|---|---|
| Boiler install | $6,500–$14,000+ |
| Boiler replacement (full swap) | $7,500–$15,000+ |
The exact number depends on sizing the boiler correctly for the home, how much of the old piping and venting survives, and how accessible the install site is.
These are 2026 public-market ballparks, not a quote — CANRO's certified technicians confirm the actual number after the in-home assessment.
We size the replacement to your home's actual heat loss rather than matching the old unit's rating, which matters on Burnaby's mix of smaller post-war homes and larger newer infill on the same block.
After commissioning, we run through the basics with you — condensate drainage, what normal cycling sounds like, and when a noise is worth a call. In an older Burnaby basement install we also point out where the combustion air intake needs to stay clear, since that space tends to become storage over time.
Safety note
If you ever smell gas, hear a hissing sound near the boiler, or notice soot, a burnt smell, or a yellow/flickering flame at the burner, shut the unit down if it is safe to do so, leave the house, and call FortisBC's emergency line at 1-800-663-9911 from outside before doing anything else. Gas and combustion work on a boiler must only be opened up by a Technical Safety BC licensed gas fitter.
Yes — replacing a gas boiler requires a permit, and CANRO pulls it as part of the job before any gas or venting work begins. We build the permit timeline into the schedule we give you.
A straightforward swap with existing venting reused is often a one-day job, but changes to venting, gas sizing, or piping routing can extend that. We give you a realistic estimate after the assessment, not before.
Metro Vancouver's reservoir-fed water is relatively soft, so scale buildup inside the boiler tends to be less of an issue here than in areas on well water. It doesn't eliminate the need for annual service, but it's a factor we note.
In most cases yes — the distribution side of the system (radiators, baseboards, zoning) is usually reused, and only the boiler itself and any failing piping or valves get replaced. We confirm condition during the assessment.
No — an oversized boiler short-cycles and wastes energy, while an undersized one can't keep up on the coldest days. We size to your home's actual heat loss, not just to the old unit's rating.
We remove and dispose of the old unit as part of the job so you are not left dealing with it yourself.
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