Real Woodburner or Optimyst or Similar?

[Davros]

We bought a house in Norfolk last October which has three woodburners. We only managed to visit twice for a few nights before the latest lockdown so we decided to get some work done in our absence. The chimney sweep visited and pronounced all three woodturners unsafe so we have got a couple of quotes to put them right but the cost and, more so, the difficulty is getting out of hand. Firstly I should say that we have oil fired central heating which is (now) working well. One woodburner we will not replace as its in a small room which does not need so much heat. The second one would be nice to replace but its in the hallway and, for the cost, we thought we would replace it with an Optimyst type unit. The third woodburner is in the very large, high ceilinged living room and we thought we would get this one sorted out and have just the one woodburner in the house. However, in order to do this, we need scaffolding to get access to the chimney to fit the "flue liner, pipe and termination". To erect scaffolding we need permission from the church next-door and the neighbours behind who no-one knows and we have to track down. We would also need a wood store. The cost and inconvenience is starting to make me question whether we should do this at all. The cost is currently nearly £5000 for one woodburner only. The wisdom of Mumsnet is desperately required

I have a couple wood burners in my main home and an optimyst in a rental.
I live love love love my wood burner. I had to line the chimneys (they used a tower) and it needs sweeping every year. Plus the cost of wood and where to keep it, and of course you have to clean it! I like my optimyst stove. I have it because there is no flue, it's a flat and the optimyst was the best alternative. But it's not a fire.
I'm moving and I'm going to get a gas fire. I will have no room to store wood and it's a smokeless area.

You can have a wood stove in a smokeless/smoke controlled area, it just needs to be a defra approved one.

Just a thought OP. You bought the house in October, you can't sell a property with a woodburner that doesn't have a valid safety certificate. Has your solicitor or surveyor messed up?

I sold my last house with no paperwork for the wood burner , I just ticked no documents on the forms , all they asked for was a gas safety check on the boiler.

Depends on the size of the house and rooms I think. Does make me wonder a bit if there was a reason they had 3....

We’ve got 2, big old sitting room that really benefits from a woodburner. It makes the room, it’s toasty warm and we turn the heating off and just have that,

Also have one in the study as that’s a cold room, that’s a bit of an indulgence tbh. Not used much.

If you have free seasoned wood it’s a great idea.

Can they use a hoist rather than scaffolding?

Unfortunately we definitely need scaffolding. I'm just questioning whether it's worth the cost and hassle.
Strangely, on all the forms filled out before selling, wood burners are not mentioned at all and we failed to spot it. Our solicitor, the estate agent and/or surveyor however, should have noticed and we are thinking about what to do about it. There are so many properties, especially in the countryside, with wood burners, it really should be a feature of the forms and survey

I think they are worth it. Ours makes the whole house feel warm, it's cosy and I like the look of it. So I'd probably shell out the money get it sorted and put in one I really like the look of.

But hourses for courses, there's no law saying you have to have one and being able to flick a switch and have instant heat is also very appealing.

www.sweepchief.co.uk/thinking-of-purchasing-a-house-with-a-woodburner-or-open-fire/

I think the onus is on the buyer to ask about woodburners - there's no requirement to have a certificate etc. OUr solicitor noticed there was a woodburner and prompted us to ask for the HETAS certificate when we bought last year.

We provided all of that to our buyer - the stove had only been in 5 years or so and we had it all to hand. I don't know if they'd have asked if we hadn't provided it.

I'm not against spending the money but it's on top of all the hassle of getting permission, even finding the person we need to ask for permission, the delay when everything else will be done. I suspect it was up to us (our solicitor, the surveyor?) to ask about the wood burners but I think that's ridiculous and they should be specified in the questionnaire vendors have to complete. There is no way these people couldn't have known there were problems, they should have disclosed them but I can't blame them I suppose if they don't have to. It's very galling

I don’t think you will find many people who will tell there are problems with something are are selling 🤔. Whenever something is sold privately/ secondhand it’s up to the buyer to do any checks/ tests . Sold as seen .

If wood burners were installed a few years ago there is no requirement for documentation, it is something like fifteen/twenty years. We have two, an old and a new and I spoke to hetas about the older one.

Op. It’s expensive, it really depends on how you live and if you’re likely to use them, we are self sufficient in wood and have two wood stores so it works for us. However if I was buying wood to burn regularly I’m not sure I’d wish to spend the money to be honest.

That's the thing, I am festering that this was not disclosed but don't feel I can blame the vendors, that's what the solicitor and surveyor should have raised. I'm just trying to work out if a fake version would be good enough or I will regret it.......

The cost is currently nearly £5000 for one woodburner only.

that sounds about right. Personally I like them and feel it s worth the money - but I like the smell and the feel of real flame heat.

That's the thing, I am festering that this was not disclosed but don't feel I can blame the vendors, that's what the solicitor and surveyor should have raised.

Raise it with your solicitor - if the fixtures and fittings form said there were woodburners then it is definitely something the solicitor should have picked up on. I'd be asking for a refund of some of their fees.

Thanks. I think we will try tackling the solicitor who was pretty useless. She sent all the important documentation to the house we had moved out of by ordinary post, not recorded or anything. We had no idea and she didn't check why we hadn't responded! I'm leaning towards seeing how far we can get with the permission to put up and move the scaffolding on other properties. If we didn't have to do that I think I'd just go ahead