Getting a woodburner squeeeeeeeee - tell me about yours

[noyouhavehadawee]

am a tadge excited - we have a flat wall with no chimney so they going to build us a pretend chimney breast to whack it in with a twin flu on the outside. Were getting a multi fuel jobby. I cant even light the bloomin chimnea so this will be some learning curve! Anyway I cant decide what kind of hearth to have or whether to have an oak beam across or to go more minimalist (our house is only 15 yr old so quite modern and in taste) . Tell me about yours.......

bloody phone not quote i mean stove

it won't mark it as long as you don't drag it across the top but stove soon loses its pristine appearance anyway- all normal-

Le Creuset kettles have a rather timid whistle ( I speak from experience) so keep your ears primed to hear it. Our kettle sounds like a factory siren " whheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee" and I talk back at it when it kicks off, rather like to a fractious child!

Our chimney sweep told us not to burn logs from pine trees as they release a lot of tar and it sticks to the chimney which can cause a chimney fire. He recommended buying a 'chimney log' from amazon which you burn for an hour or so a couple of weeks before it's swept and it really helps dislodge all the soot and tar in the chimney. They cost about £16 and seem to work. Also he said best to sweep around this time of year, after the last fire of spring and before autumn so the soot and tar doesn't stick to the inside of the chimney over the summer (if we get one).

Oh I like that Charnwood stove OP; are you having it in the white or the black?

Don't get a big one and don't buy an unbranded (cheap, Chinese scrap iron import) but pretty looking thing off the Internet. We inherited a massive behemoth of a stove to heat an average sized living room. It isn't very economical, which is fine at the mo as we have a free, plentiful supply of wood for the next few years. It also belts out an immense amount of heat.

Also, the previous owners didn't think much of building regs and the pipe is far too close to a big, wooden decorative beam. We'll have to take it out at some point, as if the thing catches fire it'll probably invalidate the insurance - we have to make sure the fire is well out before leaving the house or going to bed.

Despite all this, I love our stove.

We are getting it in black on a low stand, the white one they do is actually almod and although looks lovely i was worried hw it would age and how dirty it would get so were going traditional black. My fitter has made contact and is coming out in next few days with my slate samples for the hearth.

the bottom one low stand in black

We have this one which is multi fuel.

It is in a massive inglenook (on slate) in a drafty and very old house. It is so efficient, though. My dh wears shorts in the depths of winter as it belts out so much heat.

We have a cordless thermostat, as upstairs would be freezing and downstairs boiling!

We had a very disappointing survey today having picked a lovely free standing wood burner on Saturday. They took out the hideous gas fire we inherited from the previous owners and our fireplace cavity is only 24 inches wide. So we either have to get a hobbit sized burner or we have to go with a capsule burner which just doesn't have the same impact at all. It will kind of look like a flat screen telly mounted on the wall showing a DVD of a fire burning. Very sad faces in our house today. Boo.

Beamae, would you have enough room to have a freestanding stove in front of the fireplace like this (ignore the dodgy decor)?

Well I did wonder about that, but our lounge is quite narrow. So we think it would be too intrusive. Also looking to get in quotes from builders to widen the cavity and chimney breast. Might be quite an expensive venture!

we debated one freestanding either way we were told wall sticking out Ness the hearth it stands on would need to be 800 x 800 mm so get your measuring stick out

beamae our cavity wasn't very wide either but our fitter took out some lines of bricks to widen it. We supplied the fire and he did everything else, got chimney swept, supplied hearth, oak beam, steel liner, cowl ,did all works , plastering etc etc and his bill came to around £1100

That's encouraging! Thanks Pudden.

so i came home with my little stove kettle even though there is no sign of a date for our installation yet and DH has just come in with a bloody electric chainsaw .

Enjoy your new burner. Any questions during your install or afterwards feel free to shout :-)

Just realised I missed your comment about the disappointing survey.

The likely reason your installer will not fit a certain size stove into the recess is that manufacturer's request a certain air gap left and right of the stove (often 6"). This air gap is there for two reasons:

1. To ensure that the heat from the stove gets to the room and is not just heating up the inside of the recess.

1. To ensure the recess does not overheat.

There is no building regulation involved here - a stove can go as close to a brick wall as you like as long as there are no combustible materials around (inset stoves almost touch the brickwork). You cannot overheat a brick or stone.

Manufacturer's instructions override Building Regulations but only if it is a safety issue.

As long as your recess is made of non combustible materials then there is no safety issue involved - it is purely about the heat getting to the room (a stove crammed in to a tight recess might be a disappointment).

One way of fitting a stove in a small recess is to choose a stove with a 45 degree rear connector. This means that the flue pipe comes off the rear of the stove (stove can be swept through the stove by the way but it must be a 45 degree connector and not a T connector).

Because the pipe is at the rear of the stove a goof proportion of the stove is "in the room" and half in the recess (a couple of offset elbows in the vertical flue can bring the stove further forward into the room if required).

This is a useful method if the stove wants a 6" air gap and the gap is actually 4" for example. Because a good part of the stove is in the room rather than the recess then there is no issue with the heat not getting to the room. I would happily do this for a customer as long as customer is happy. Of course a part of the rear of the stove is 4" not 6" air gap but we are using common sense here and there is no reason for any concern whatsoever.

The hearth does NOT have be 86cm x 86cm in this case (that is for freestanding stoves where no fireplace recess exists). As long as you have a minimum 22.5cm of hearth in front of the stove doors you are okay (30cm best practice but 22.5cm min building regs).

Charnwood range of stoves (C4,5,6 etc.) all have 45 degree adaptors for this purpose.

Now some stoves only request a 3" air gap. Convector stoves might also be worth looking at. These are twin skinned so the outside of the stop does not get very hot (the heat comes from the glass and air vents in the stove) and therefore a manufacturer might specify a smaller air gap.

Google Julian the Stovefitter if you need to find me for advice...