Gas town
The government's 2024 estimate puts almost every home in Rainham on mains gas: none off the grid in Rainham North West or South West, and only 3% and 6% in the other two areas. That makes Rainham combi and system boiler country, with very little oil or LPG.
Semis in the middle, terraces in Parkwood, detached in Wigmore
Across the Rainham wards, the 2021 Census counts about 35% semi-detached and 34% terraced. It varies a lot by area. Nearly half the homes in Rainham Central were semis, half in Rainham South, the Parkwood side, were terraced, and in Hempstead and Wigmore half were detached.
That spread matters when you choose a boiler. A three-bed semi with one bathroom suits a combi. A detached house in Wigmore with an en-suite and a family bathroom often doesn't, because two showers at once ask more of a combi than it can give. A system boiler with an unvented cylinder handles that. We'll tell you which, and the boiler size estimator on our site gives you a starting point.
Hard water from the Medway chalk
Southern Water supplies Rainham from the chalk and the River Medway. Its checker gives about 101 mg/l of calcium for Rainham postcodes, roughly 253 mg/l as calcium carbonate. That's hard, and over the 200 mg/l point where a new combi should have a scale reducer.
Conservation areas
Rainham has been a conservation area since 1977 and Lower Rainham since 1989. Meresborough and Moor Street are conservation areas too. A flue on a wall or roof facing the road in any of them needs planning permission, so we look for a side or back route.
Grants from Medway
Medway Council runs the Warm Homes Local Grant through E.ON until 2028. For eligible homes rated EPC D to G it can pay up to £15,000 for insulation and similar measures, plus up to £15,000 for low-carbon heating such as heat pumps. It doesn't cover gas boilers. Medway stopped taking ECO4 applications on 1 March 2025.