Woodburning stove with pipe through room above?

[BonzoDooDah]

We have a stupid house in that the chimney has been taken out of the bedroom but not the ground floor or loft. Yup, dodgy I know, but we're getting the chimney in the loft supported properly with a fireproof beam.

To get a woodburning stove fitted in the downstairs room we need a flue fitting through the bedroom.

I'd like to use the heat from the stove to heat the bedroom too so rather than build a new chimney through there we are planning to have the flue go through the room with a painted steel cover on it. (Similar to what you see above stoves in rooms with no chimney in.)
We've been assured that with the insulation this will be hot but only like a heated towel rail hot.

So, has anyone seen this done?
Are there any drawbacks? (e.g. Will it carry sound too much? )

[BonzoDooDah]

I meant to add that currently there is no fire at all in the downstairs room. The fireplace is boxed in. But that's fine as we are getting builders and people who know what they are doing to open it all out.

[tricot39]

A friend has done this in their cottage. It works quite well but fits in with quite a rustic aesthetic. Not sure how it would fit with "conventional"decor.

[MissBeehivingUnderTheMistletoe]

We have an exposed flue in our double height barn. Our flue has a concrete liner which releases the heat slowly after the fire is out. When the fire is on the flue is touchable but does get hot. I wonder whether the a steel cover would conduct heat too well?

[BonzoDooDah]

OOh that sounds interesting MissBee and Tricot. Do these flues go through separate rooms? Ours would be just the flue going through a room with no fire. Is that what you have / seen?

The concrete liner sounds great. Was that supplied by the fitters? Do you have any details please? I presume that deadens any sound too?

[dottygamekeeper]

Similar to MissBee we have an exposed flue in a double height barn (but from a fire place with Jetmaster system, not a wood burning stove). The flue does not go through a separate room, just the full double height of the barn and up through the roof. It has a double skinned flue, and between the inner flue and the outer stainless steel skin there is vermiculite. When the fire burns for a long time and we have it burning strongly the outside of the flue does get quite hot to touch. we didn't have it installed. I think your issue might be where it goes through the floor into the room above as you would not want any possibility of the joists/floorboards catching fire if they got too hot. I can see the logic of wanting the flue to warm the upstairs room, but think it may look a bit odd just running up inside a room.

[Monty27]

I'm very worried about a friend of mine who has decided to use a real fire in a victorian house. (He says the chimney is clear etc) but his house keeps filling up with smoke, he says he has put a camera the whole way up (three floors) and there's nothing stopping the smoke from getting out . Still, he's ruined his decor ffs and I'm not happy about it, but still he's a man.....

Piglet?????? (Our online lovely advisor on building stuff).

[Monty27]

Sorry that sounded like I've thread jacked but my point is that I'm worried about people doing this to save money on heating bills (and don't we all need to) without proper ventillation. iyswim.

I can see a few disasters ahead.

[PipeDreams]

Monty27, your friend is liable to cause serious injury to himself or others. Please insist that he gets some professional advice!

Common causes include the chimney terminating in the loft, chimney cracked/internal collapse etc.

Sorry for the short answer but hope that helps! Dennis

[nickelbabe]

Monty - it could be that the chimney needs to be relined - if the mortar has come away in places, there will be gaps and the smoke will come through through the plaster.

there are firms that spray a liquid liner up the chimney.

[TalkinPeace2]

OP
Friends of mine have done that in their victorian terraced house.
Woodburner in the through living room downstairs goes through the middle of the back room upstairs - with proper lagging stuff on it.
Heats both rooms excellently and looks rather splendid

[MissBeehivingUnderTheMistletoe]

I've put some pictures of the flue on my profile. The concrete flue rings are available anywhere but the good thing is that it doesn't get too hot and acts like a radiator. The flue goes through the roof.

[BonzoDooDah]

Wow MissBee that stair Flue is amazing! What a great use of the heat. Thanks for the pics.

TalkingPeace Glad it works for your friends. Do you know (could you ask please?) what they used for the lagging as you call it?

monty that house sounds horrendous! Seiously they're going to get killed with carbon monoxide. Is it just them or children / family in there? I think I'd be buying them a CO detector!!

Dottygamekeeper thanks for the hints - yes I would have to ask about insulating the pipe properly as it goes though the two ceilings. I'd not thought of that. This is why we're getting professionals in to do the actual work.

piglet ?? Something we said?

[Monty27]

I've been seriously concerned about it, it's him and two lodgers. I'll have another go. :(

[PigletJohn]

I wrote a response which might be considered callous.

[Monty27]

Oh, why?

[PigletJohn]

I felt that it was unpardonable folly to ignore a dangerous situation, and heedlessly put one's life at risk.

Worse still as I now know there are other occupants.

[Monty27]

They're all grown men Piglet. I have reiterated the danger and will do so again.

Thank you, I know you're right.

(sorry for threadjacking again).

[BonzoDooDah]

No worries about the threadjacking - I'd be worried sick.

[Monty27]

Thanks for tolerating that Bonzo I've just cut and paste all the responses on here and emailed them to him. Pillock!!!

I would love a woodburning stove :)

[CointreauVersial]

My mum has a woodburner with the flue going up through her bedroom. Originally it was an external flue, but they did a two-storey extension so it became internal.

The flue is all boxed in, though, so doesn't heat the upstairs room.