Does anyone with a woodburner not have their chimney lined?

[anchovies]

Not sure what to do, woodburner I like is £900, fitting without liner approx £500, another £500 for a liner. From a safety perspective I am tempted to just find the other £500.

On the other hand I could just block off the chimney, bung some logs in the hole in the hope it will look stylish and spend the money elsewhere...

Ours isn't lined. We wanted it lined, but there's a bend in the chimney that was too tight to accommodate the lining, so we had no choice but to go unlined. The fitter had to inspect the chimney in the loft and the bedroom above the fireplace, and he did a test using a sort of acrid smoke bomb to make sure the chimney was sound and there were no gaps anywhere in its length that would allow fumes to escape.

We'd never have known we didn't actually need a liner until they had problems getting it in, we'd assumed it was essential. There must be hundreds of people who pay to get perfectly functioning chimneys lined.

Ours aren't lined. We have two, and they've been inspected by a gas fitter (used to have gas fires vented through them) the stove fitter, and last week by a sweep, who all confirmed that they are in great nick and fine with the original linings (clay).

I'd think that getting a test done would be a lot cheaper than just going straight to a lining that you may not need.

Interesting

It's the cost if lining that makes it prohibitively expensive for us, but like mustdash outs have, until recently had gas fires in them

Also the house is only 80 years old so how vad can they be?

From what I understood the heat exiting through the chmney from a wiidburner is more intense than that from am open fire, that's why it needs lining, but is that true?

Can I ask what kind of person can you ask to check your chimney? I am loath to ask the guy from the fireplace shop as surely he'll recommend the ££££ option?

So sorry for Appaling spelling. Am left hand one finger typing while BF

Ours isnt lined, doesnt need it, cant remember why but has been checked by gassafe engineer, and fitted by him too

Ours is lined, but in our last house we had a stove and no lining. I think it's important to get the chimney swept v regularly if you have no lining and yes, woodburners/multifuels can be very intense especially if you let your 13 year old light them

I would try contacting a chimney sweep who doesn't also fit wood burners so no conflict of interest and ask his/her advice.

I have one that's been in for six years no liner and it's quite a large one. I'm have another smaller one fitted in two weeks time in a different room again no liner.
Get your chimney sweep to check it for you, he will need to do the smoke test thing. I had quotes from several companies to supply and fit the wood burner and only one was funny about us not wanting the liner, we of course didn't use them.

a wood fire generates a lot more soot, creosote and tar than a smokeless-fuel fire does. This clings to the flue and is flammable.

My old granny lived in the country and burned steam-coal and logs. Occasionally her chimney caught fire (you hardly ever hear of it these days but it used to be very common)

Eventually she had to have her chimney rebuilt as the brickwork was so damaged and cracked.

How often do you have it swept smartyparts? Is once a year too often/ not enough?

We lined ours even though it passed the smoke test as theres no guarantees it would have a small leak somewhere now or in the future. The chimney passes through our kids bedroom so didn't want to take any risks. We were repening a disused chimney and had no idea of when it was last used.

Ours isn't lined. Agree with Pigletjohn about the crap that clings to the inside of the chimney. We had ours swept, and when we lit the next fire, guess what happened? Chimney fire. Sounds minor but it was absolutely terrifying.

If ours can't be lined we will be taking the log burner out.