Cost to remove gas fire and install wood burner

[TeaChocKitKat]

I'm buying a house which used to have a coal fire (it has a chimney). There's currently an ugly gas fire there - I'd love to get rid of it and replace it with a wood burner. Assuming the chimney still works, how much do you think it will cost?

The house is from the 1960s so any suggestions on how to do it sympathetically with the house are also gratefully received!
Thanks

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen would you recommend a gas-fired stove, i.e. do they do a good job heating the room? I'm considering one for my sitting room (new build) but don't want to install a woodburner

I’m afraid this isn’t true, though the stove industry have done a great PR job in making us all think it is!

I think also, it’s one of those things that we just don’t want to be true, isn’t it? Who doesn’t like watching a fire and feeling the lovely warmth when it’s cold outside? Wouldn’t it be lovely if they were perfectly ok and we could all close our eyes and ears to the evidence they’re harmful? I think this is part of the resistance, but the evidence is clear. We need to stop this as a practice.

I can't see that happening unless and until the government can guarantee absolutely reliable and reasonably priced power that will never go off. People who had woodburners and open fires found them literally life savers during some of the long power cuts that people have suffered in recent years after storms etc.

Agree with @Patineur
they could be banned or more strictly regulated to buy but I can’t see the government insisting people take them out while all energy forms are still so expensive.

They’ll be banned at some point. It might not be in the next couple of years, but it will likely be in the lifetime of any new burner being fitted now.

This has a good round up of the risks of wood burners.

www.cleanairhub.org.uk/clean-air-information/the-basic-information/wood-burners

We paid £2500 to have a wood burning stove inserted into our open fire place last year. It's not a freestanding unit - it fits flush to the marble surround. Didn't need the chimney lined as it was already in use as an open fire. Price included the stove, marble look back and hearth and new fireplace surround using a Heatas registered fitter. Can't comment on cost of gas fire removal as there's no gas here.

It cost me £5k recently. Worth every penny.

Most people using wood burners are more on the wealthy side, though I imagine more people are tempted to at the moment, because of the cost of living.

Unfortunately, the health risks will attack the poorer just as much as the richer people.

Do you mind me asking why you think this, given the health risks?

I did this a few years ago and to remove the gas fire, and install a multi fuel burner, it cost me £3500, I'd say it's closer to £4500 these days

We were quoted for this very job just pre pandemic. It was £5,200 so a ballpark figure . Prices have probably gone up in the last three years though

I’m talking neighbours in a wider area than next door neighbours. Pollution from wood burners has quite a large spread.

Our oil central heating price per litre was very high in the winter. The wood burner would heat the living room and kitchen in the winter. Some of our elderly neighbours still had open fires in their kitchens to keep warm.

Has anyone fitted a wood burner without using a chimney? I want to get one fitted in the extension and I believe it’s possible to install a flue instead?

Yes, they can cut into the wall and install a flue. I have one like this. It cost around ,£3k all in.

Its not the industry, its the EU that drove these changes & having had an old stove and then a new ecodesign one, i can say they are worlds apart, i use approx half the wood, for more heat.

However, i live in the middle of no where but on a still day & high pressure, the smoke is very noticeable outside (burning dry 3 or 4 yr old wood), if i lived in the nearby village, i can imagine it would be a very real problem.

As i said before, if your all set up for gas and its just appearances, get a new gas stove, it is a load easier.

Personally if you are fitting a wood burner because of concerns about fuel prices, I’d spend the money on insulating the house.

Our living room was quite cold and draughty and we’d sometimes light a fire to warm it up in winter. We had thought about a wood burner. However once I read about the health effects, particularly on children, I changed my mind. We got the draughty windows and doors replaced with double glazed units, and put chimney sheep up the chimneys. It’s made such a difference and the room stays really cosy now.

Wood burners are horribly polluting... I never use the 2 that we put in 12 years ago.
Do Google the recent Guardian article by George Monbiot - balances the warm fuzzy feeling we all have initially for wood burners and gives some startling information about how unhealthy and polluting they are. There are pretty alternatives!

We paid about £9k to have two installed with a glue. We have a lined chimney which we have currently blanked off and see quoted £4k to install a walled ‘cassette’ wood burner. We don’t need it as the main burner adequately heats our whole house with a small top up from the gas central heating.

I don’t know what the EU did or didn’t do about them, but you’d be wrong if you were thinking the industry haven’t been busy circulating and stoking myths about them!

I get it, the newer tech is clean-er than it used to be. And aren’t they lovely to have, in the moment you’re using one (if you don’t have asthma)?

It’s really hard to connect the dots in your mind to the awful, awful pollution and its health impacts. That lovely glow and warmth is so deceiving. It feels like they’re something good in our lives. When in fact they’re massively upping our risk of major health problems and premature death.

And for anyone with kids, if we’re concerned to give them a healthy diet and make sure they have enough exercise, and generally live a healthy life, why on earth would we want to cancel that out by making them breathe harmful particulates that will lodge in their brains and other organs for life?

This might not be very useful, but we had our gas fire removed and capped off a few months back. So no wood burner, just the gas fire removal and made safe or whatever the terminology is. Just checked the invoice and we paid £106.80 for it.

Yes but there’s a big difference between the elderly people putting on a fire to keep warm because of fuel bills, and those talking about spending £5k - £10k on getting a wood burner fitted in their living room…

If you live somewhere off mains I can understand it, but if you are on mains there’s no reason to get one put in.

@ReedRite

Particulates and many other forms of pollution also effect our lives, people have been dying in their 10s of '000s long before the recent fad for woodburners.

On PR, i'm sure the traditional energy industry don't want us using wood for heating either....

Nwer burners are far cleaner, so when chimney is swept, its dry dust that is removed, on the older burner, it was sticky claggy soot, the burn temp is much higher.

There are also millions of vehicles on the roads that do not conform to later Euro pollution standards, as i ve also said, gas, oil, electricity production is also not pollution free... AND i also advised OP to stick to gas.

But the fact is, woodburners for many people is the only affordable way to heat their homes and the blame for that lies with the Govt with their stupid & costly energy support scheme.

If i didn't use a woodburner, i would have to use electricity and oil, my heating bills would be 4 or 5k per year, so now i don't use any oil at all, which is hardly pollution free either.

This has got to be one of the most hysterical posts I’ve even seen on here ?

equivalent to 750 hgv’s running in your home 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤪

Not really that ‘hysterical’ .