woodburner instalation (in Scotland)

[Annpan]

Having being waiting for 3 1/2 months now just to hear back from a woodburner salesroom thingy (Stove Experience - based in Shotts, central Scotland) I am now well and truley pissed off... not to mention cold. We were told we could have it fitted in the middle of August, but they still haven't given us a price, and that is despite phoneing them every week since June.
So we approached another company (Scottish Stove Centre, based just outside Drymen) that was 3 weeks ago and we were told they could fit the second week in September... no contact, despite phoning them 3 times a week.

We are getting really cold, we have no hot water and a baby in the house... we thought it would be better to pay someone to have the job done proffessionally rather than attempt it ourselves, but winter is getting closer and we are not getting anywhere. Our Livingroom is already a mess due to other building work getting done and next week we will have more builders here and a scaffold up (I am thinking access to put in a chimney liner) Is it worth while attempting it ourselves or are we more likely to struggle to get someone to come in and fix it (plus the CO danger)

Any suggestions? or anyone around fancy fitting a stove for us... we would pay - if you knew what you were doing

[baldowrie]

first of all do you NEED a chimney liner?

Does your chimney smoke or is it sound? If so you do not need a liner.

Did the stove company say you needed one and if so did they do a smoke test before saying you did?

Fitting a stove is no too difficult.

You need vitreous flue, preferably one mtr I believe. A register plate to stop debris coming down the chimney and a good 15inches of hearth in front of the stove door to stop ash and embers going on the floor when you refill the stove.

Of course if you have no chimney you will need flue, double skinned, up through to the outside.

[Shirley]

we had a sound chimney but were still advised to put in a liner - safety is paramount and knowing that a family lost two of their children because of a house fire caused by a bad chimney lining there is no way I'd take any chances with something like that.

Personally I'd stick with getting someone to do the fitting for you unless you are experienced at this sort of thing - think there are building regs to consider too but don't quote me on that.

It's a pretty poor show for the two companies that you've approached - are you buying the stove from them or just requiring the fitting. If you were up here I'd recommend Donside Heating Supplies in Alford - their service is second to none... doesn't help you much though, eh.

[baldowrie]

well if your chimney is sound you didn't require one, and that's from a proper stove fitter recently

[Martin]

if you're stuck, we've got some connections that may be able to help (even in Scotland)

[Annpan]

Any chance you could PM me martin... yes we are stuck If we don't hear back in the next few days we will have to go elsewhere, we cannot wait any longer

As for the chimney lining, of course all fitters want to want to sell you the top package but, after doing some other bits and pieces of research we thought it was safer and more efficient to have one installed. (better drafts and suction, plus safer.)

Baldowrie - the eejit that I am thought that a register plate had something to do with it being proffessionally fitted (like a corgi number type thing) oh dear, well I am glad I asked but maybe it is not a good idea to do it ourselves (what with being complete dafties 'n all)

[red]

the thing is Ann - if you do it yourself you dont get a certificate of compliance, so this could cause problems if you sell your house.

dunno how big the problems would be and of course if you plan to stay in your new home forever.. it dont matter...

[baldowrie]

also you have the option to remove the stove

[red]

well this is true. depends if you see it as 'improving the house' or not.

is your haouse very tall Ann? cos we had our woodburner installed a few weeks ago and one of the blokes stood on the roof shoving flue down.. no scaffolding.... said it was a good view of the local tor from there..

[Annpan]

No the house isn't very tall, but I just thought while the scaffold is up anyway.

The stove will be our only source of heating, so it will remain when we sell the house, which we do plan on doing one day (though would anyone be daft enough to buy a house with only a solid fuel burner as heating?)

Still no news today, one company keeps saying 'oh, didn't you get our email' I mean really, it's like kids getting out of doing homework I can't find anyone else in central Scotland to do it, I have searched the internet... does anyone know if B+Q do it? although they would probably just have shite stoves...

I am ever hopeful that we will get the call tomorrow saying that they will fit it next week... dream on...

[Stonehead]

(though would anyone be daft enough to buy a house with only a solid fuel burner as heating?).

Moi!

In fact, I'd love to rip out the oil-fired boiler and replace it with a solid fuel Rayburn or similar. But when the previous owners ripped out the solid fuel Rayburn that was here, they narrowed the flue to install the oil boiler - by pouring concrete down the chimney...

[Annpan]

Well Stoney I'll keep you in mind when I sell here in 10/15 years, we are going to build on a new kitchen with a soild fuel rayburn aswell and have solar water heating, passive solar heating, crazy efficient insulation and a big garden with established fruit trees, a chook house, a polytunnel, a workshop with ample storage, an allotment sized veg area and a small lawn (suitable for when the grandkids come to visit ) - Any offer considered - baring in mind inflation and a moving date of around 2020

Of course we have none of this at the moment, yes I was the one daft enough to buy a house with no heating at all and a hell of a lot of work needing done


We did get a quote in this morning £5000 (we were expecting it to cost around 1/2 that )

[Martin]

someone's taking the mickey! A GOOD 12kw woodburner with saddle boiler should be around £1600 - £1800, lining the chimney, probably around £1,000 - probably 3 days work on top - £4,000 tops!

[Annpan]

12kw Clearview stove plus accesories - £1500 (that includes extra bits like gloves and thermometer, etc)

Labour - £1500 - 40 hours labour (2 men, 2 days) - ha, I wish I got paid that much

Chimney lining - £900 - for 7 metres, though the chimney isn't that tall, he has over estimated

Add on the slate hearth and boiler attachment and it comes to £5k...

Credit where it is due, the quote has been broken down into each item, and how many they think that they will need (always overestimating to be on the safe side). It also says that this is not a final price as fluctuations can occur. Having a look at the detailed quote I can see that we can easily shave off quite a few of the extras he has quoted for.

[Martin]

in that case, sounds about right! (I didn't know about the "extras") - apart from the very toppy labour charge - a really good plumber costs around £300 per day.......
- it looks easy to line a chimney, but it's an absolute b****r of a job to do, and needs finishing off properly at both ends!
And if the bloke has the stove in stock, grab it quick! - there's one heck of a "lead time" on good woodburners at the moment - the last one we ordered took 6 weeks to get, and apparently, we were lucky!