Woodburning stove

[pigsinmud]

Any advice would be great. We are finally going to decorate our living room.....only moved in 12.5 years ago!

There is a fireplace in the middle of the room - not by an outside wall. The chimney stack has been removed. Would it be possible to have a woodburner installed in the fireplace with the flue then going through the loft and out the roof? I'm not sure how they work! The chimney is in place from the living room through bedroom above, it has just been removed in the loft and roof.

Also, my mother has read an article about woodburnting smoke being very bag for you - something about particulate matter. I have had a look and am thinking this is probably more true in older stoves rather than modern ones.

Does anyone have any idea how much installation of flue costs? I am not sure about woodburner. We have a house built in 1860s. It has high ceilings and is cold. Surely the woodburner will not heat the house enough to not need heating on. I can see us never bothering to light the thing.

You should be able to have them fit a flue pipe up from the stove and through the route you want, but you'll need an expert to come and check it out as there are all kinds of rules about distances and angles to meet buiding regulations - very important to have the fire drawing properly.

We have one about 3 feet in from the corner of our living room, in a house which didn't have any chimney. There is a black flue pipe, about 8-10 inches diameter, going straight up from the back of the stove, vanishing into the loft, then popping out again outside - there are also rule about how high the top has to be, relative to your roof!

If you already have a chimney, they will probably still put a flue pipe up, but just slotted inside the chimney opening.

It can be done ; someone I used to know had a 1970's house with no chimney at all and the builders put the flue pipe through the bedrrom floor, up through the built in cupboard and out of the roof. No longer in touch so not sure how much it cost.

OUr house is 95 year old and we haven't had the central heating on for over a year. The stove is enough to keep the house warm, dry washing and cook some meals/boil a kettle on etc

A woodburner will heat your house very easily, the trick is to get a big one with a minimum of 15-21 kw output, I live in a very old solid stone house built around 1800 with 12 and 10 feet ceilings and 4 bedrooms, I use a 21kw output wood burner that heats all the radiators and all the warm water so you will not have a problem with the heat. Get an expert to give you an estimate for the flue installation as it must pass fire regulations and is not a diy job. All fires/boilers regardless of fuel wil produce carbon monoxide/dioxide and a wood burner is no different but also no less safe than a gas or oil boiler so as with any stove/fire/boiler that is inside a building you should fit co2 detectors as a safety precaution. If you do decide to get a stove avoid the modern trendy stainless steel designer types as they are generally useless but look very pretty.

Get a HETAS regulated installer to come and give you advice as to what you can have, and an estimate.

It has to be put in by a HETAS instaler, OR by a builder, DIY whatever, but in that case you have to get the Local Authority Building Regs to come and approve it and pay for a certificate from them.

Thanks for all the advice - very helpful. I like the look of the modern ones - are they all useless?

Morso do some nice modern stoves, and have a good reputation. The contemporary style stoves are usually more expensive (think £1k to £2k+).

Flue installation seems to start from around a grand - if it's a basic setup, straight through an existing chimney and not-very-high house. A neighbour is having one installed where there is no chimney and it's more like £2.5k (not including stove).

I have a Morso woodburner which is inset into the chimney breast. It looks great and really kicks out the heat. We live in a new house so having the burner lit knocks the central heating off straight away. It cost around £1200 for the stove and another £400 ish for the fitting but we didn't need a flue.