wood burning stove

[welshmum]

Ok so this is only a smal project to start with but we are looking to install 2 wood burning stoves in our home. The first one will be placed in our living room. I am buying new so we can get the best kw output. We have smoke bombed the chimney and cleared the bird nest but there is still smoke seeping into the attic. So we are going to need to line it.
My question is where's the best and cheaest place to get 7" flue liner from? Is there any alternatives as we are trying to keep cost down so we can a really good stove. Any alternatives to liner you can suggest?

[bonniethomas06]

Oh oh oh, this is something I CAN help you with.

We lined our own chimney and bought a logburner last year, as we had the same problem with smoke leaching out of the brickwork upstairs.

Firstly, I would go for a 5 inch stainless steel flexible liner. There is some useful info here:

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/lining_a_chimney.html

but I bought the liner on fleabay for much less than the £20 odd a meter +VAT that the online suppliers charge direct.

There are building regulations which apply to flue liners, I think it is 'document J' (just google) that you need to follow (i.e distance from wall and size of hearth etc) and you can get a qualified engineer to come and inspect afterwards. There is great contention as to whether you can fit a flue liner yourself - lots of people feel that it is better to be safe than sorry and pay fitters to do it, but we did the lot - logburner and pipes for £500 - bought a CO3 monitor and have never had a problem since. To have it fitted professionally would have cost £2500 at least - we just couldn't afford it.

Good luck - I am certainly no expert but there is some excellent info online and I would be pleased to share my experiences with you if you decide to fit it yourself.


P.s, don't do what we did and forget to fit a little door into your stove pipe for sweeping. Doh!

[oldjerry]

Echo all the above,Do it yourself.(forget the 'concrete sausage',if your walls are'nt too brill it can leak out into the loft and take out your ceilings,seen it happen,bloody hilarious! but then again it wasn't my house!)If you line it yourself( you should)and the chimbley is straight try if you have enough room below to push it up then just do the ladder thing to secure the liner at the top.It's far more difficult to drag the liner up the ladder then drop it down,but if your chimbley has a kink/bend or there 's not much room to manouvre in your living room you'll have to.
Bonnies supplier sounds really competetive,it used to be about £18 or 19 a few years ago (that was from Warrior in Cambourne).

Have a go ,it aint that hard,and you may be on the edge of a whole new career!. \bw

[welshmum]

Thanks for the response both. The house we are in is old (over a 110 years) and to be honest the people that had it before us had cowboys to do most of the jobs. My hubby had an incident with co poiosoning when he was a lad so there will definitely be a co detector in the house.

We are looking to get an inset wood stove (from fleabay). I like the idea of it being a bit higher so it will be safer with our kids.
Plus it looks really modern which fits with us. Do you think 14kw might be too much for our little room? 4m x 4m?

The width on the one we are looking at is 7" flue. Did you get an adapter or did yours need 5" to start with. Sorry for all the questions. We will definitely get the flexi pipe as we do have a kink in the chimney. How robust are they as I have visions of it ripping as it goes up/down?

[boboff]

14kw is allot, but its quality and controlability that count.
Again with flue sizes it's best to have a 7" flue if your stove has one, but 5" will be ok.
My advice with stoves is seals are very very very very important. From the ropes on the doors, the plates being cemented and the flue being absolutely air tight, makes an enormous amount of difference to the burn and efficiency of the unit, to the extent if this is done right a cheap new stove can work great, if not done right a really expensive stove will be rubbish. I recently bought heat resistant "Mastic" to do around the flue where it was cracking the fire cement, this worked a treat.
If you burn logs take out the "grate" thing, it makes it so much better burning.
Do it yourself, if you get an engineer in, they will want you to knock a massive hole in your wall for air flow, or draught depending whether you actually live there or not.
Thats my experience anyway, I am sure I might be wrong.

[oldjerry]

Boboffs dead right about the seal,and the useless airflow thing,never had one.If you've got a huge output and small room,think back boiler .Dont worry about the flexipipe tearing,just try cutting the bloody stuff!

[bonniethomas06]

Yes I agree with OJ, you won't rip it - it is basically like two layers of the tin cans you get beans in, welded together! Ours went down the Chimney and hit all sorts of rough bricks etc (our house 200 y/o) and was unscathed. But very important - MAKE SURE YOU FIT IT THE RIGHT WAY UP (there are small arrows on it) as otherwise water will condense and run back down the chimney, causing all sorts of issues.

I don't think you need a 14kw - we have a 7.5kw for our 3.5 x 4m room and quite frequently had to open the door, it got so hot, even in the depths of winter, and I am sorry to say ours isn't even sealed very well, we used fire cement but most of it has cracked and fallen off with no noticeable effect.

I don't think diameter matters too much either, I gather you get better drag the smaller the diameter of the flue as the hot gasses are more dense, but be guided by the size of the flue hole in the back of the burner. Lastly, if at all possible have the stovepipe coming out the top rather than the back of it, as it is a pain in the arse trying to fit the stuff round corners!

Lastly, if you would like a nosecone (the thing you fix to the end of the flexi liner you are pulling to make it easier to angle it around kinks) then just pm me your address - I have an unused one I don't plan to use ever again if I can help it.

Oh and to concur with boboff, professional fitters will insist on air bricks or vents in accordance with building regs, but if your house is anything like mine (especially if it is an older house) then there is perfectly adequate ventilation from the tiny cracks and gaps in windows/door fittings and we have never had a draught issue.

[welshmum]

thanks again for the tips. And if teh offer of a nose cone still stands I would be delighted to give it a new home. Let me know if you want anything for it, I dont mind paying.

I am hoping because the stove is such a great one that we can control the kw. I only want it because it looks so good! I will make sure that I do all the sealing and important parts of the install. I tend to have more patience than the hubby.

I will proobably be back on here once we take delivery..

[dave45]

Oh and to concur with boboff, professional fitters will insist on air bricks or vents in accordance with building regs,

FWIW we had our woodburner fitted professionally about 3 or 4 years ago and they didn't bother about airbricks or vents at all. Nice job, and they got covered in ... ermmm debris - clouds of dust, soot and stuff everywhere ... glad I didn't attempt it.

[bonniethomas06]

thanks again for the tips. And if teh offer of a nose cone still stands I would be delighted to give it a new home. Let me know if you want anything for it, I dont mind paying.

..

Sorry Welshmum, just noticed your last post. Just PM me your address and don't worry about paying for it, I am just pleased to give it a new home.