Neighbours Wood Burner

[Livingonaprayeryeah]

My Neighbour had a wood burner installed a few weeks ago by a legit Company and the flue looks to be legit height, approx 4m tall on the external wall.

The problem is, the top of his flue sits below my bathroom & bedroom windows since I live in a house and he is a Bungalow, and the road slopes down. Now I can’t have the windows open or put washing out as it smells of smoke.

It’s not terribly bad and the smoke isn’t black, but it is noticeable. If I open the back door or window, I can smell it. He has it on literally all day.

Is this normal? Should I be able to smell it?

I raised the issue with Neighbour politely and he said he is burning the right fuel and it is a new burner and he has all the certification and follows the rules etc. So I’m wondering, is this it then. Is this the new norm for us. We live in a Smoke Control Zone.

It’s very annoying as it blows on to the bathroom window, my DC bedroom
window & the downstairs loo window, as well as the back door. All windows that I need to keep open after showers/toileting. I also hate not being able to put washing out now as I have done for years. I have young Children, one has serious respiratory issues, so I wouldn’t allow him out in the garden now if the burner is on.

Is this the reality of living next to a log burner? I don’t know if not being able to open my windows & put washing out would be classed as nuisance by the Council? I can’t and don’t want to move; just want to know if this is our new reality or if there’s anything I can do?

We have the same next door and it stinks.
The log delivery is also very disruptive as they are stored right besides my DC room and get thrown in when they're napping usually. So stressful.

I didn’t realise how stressful something like this could actually be. I hate the thought of my DC breathing it in so they’re stuck in the house with all the windows closed 24/7 & there’s washing draped everywhere now.

I did put some washing out yesterday including baby grows, as I couldn’t smell anything, but when I got home & got it in, it very much smelt of smoke just to give a picture - is this normal?

It all boils down to the position of the flue in relation to your property. How far away from your house is the flue?

It’s a good distance away. there’s a 3 x car parking between us.

The problem is we sit higher on the road, and they sit lower as they are a bungalow. It’s essentially a flue in a single storey itms.

Obviously it is 100 times worse when the wind blows towards us.

Under Approved Document J of the Building Regulations (England & Wales), a flue system is required to clear the height of any structure that is within 2.3m of it. Therefore, if your neighbour’s flue system runs closer to your home than 2.3m, then they are required by law to increase the height of the system until it clears your roof line by at least 1000mm

It sounds as if the flue is further away than 2.3m from your property, so there may not be much you can do.

Yes, it is further away than that. The problem is amplified that our bedrooms & bathroom are above the flue. So smoke exits is and travels up/across to us.

We are bothered by the smoke from a neighbour's log burner. Their house backs onto the side of us.
I w8sh they would ban log burners in built up areas because they are very polluting.

If the flue is further than 2.3m away, then it complies with regulations, If as you say, it it a recent model, well installed and the wood they burn is dry, then they are within their rights.

I’m so sorry you are in this situation. Thanks in large part to wood burning industry lobbying, smoke control areas are almost meaningless now. More and more people are in situations like yours now with no recourse, and it’s terrible.

There are a few stories like yours from people in smoke control areas on the website of Doctors and Scientists Against Wood Smoke Pollution: https://www.dsawsp.org/personal-stories

We have similar issue with our neighbour except they burn coal seemingly all day. Enough to set off our smoke alarms if we open the windows. Our neighbour has a bungalow and the smoke comes out her chimney and blows up the hill to our house. I'm sure she burns all sorts of rubbish due to the black smoke and smells. But never been able to stop it.

We’ve got a wood burner and TBH when we installed it I had no idea how much you would be able to smell it from the street. We got the most eco version we could find, and I always know if ours is on even before I turn into our street.

we only burn well dried wood but it still stinks - so I try to limit our usage as much as possible and never during the day, but my husband loves it and refuses to not use it…

It sounds like they are new stove users and haven’t got the hang of how to use it properly/ efficiently yet . Everyone’s smokes on start up but once up to temperature it should produce little to no smoke. Usually the stove not being run hot enough is the cause of excessive smoke. Damp/ wet / unseasoned wood will produce more smoke and also too big chunks in the stove burn slower/ cooler than smaller pieces ( more smoke). A lot of people do this as its less work cutting bigger logs than more small ones. The key with a stove is to run it hot..

I can tell when my neighbour starts his up when I’m outside as you get a whiff of smoke but after 20 mins when its up to temperature there is no smoke from it at all.

Its easy to run a stove but it takes experience to run one properly that produces good heat,little smoke, little ash and a clean burn.

Ring the council, pollution section of environmental health. They can take action but usually would give advice to help them burn in a better way.

there is increasing evidence about the health risks and environmental damage they do and they are more expensive to run than gas unless you source all your wood free.
But people who own them are unwilling to hear this message and will swear blind that their log burner is not a culprit so they are likely to be more of a nuisance as time goes on sadly.

I feel for you this sounds awful. I used to go running in an area where these were burning in the evening and I struggled to breathe... Doesn't sound like there's much you can do though.

I'd raise a query with the council just in case but unfortunately it sounds legal

I'm sorry you're having to put up with this. Woodburners should really be banned in urban areas as they produce so much pollution, regardless of the eco brandishing. If you look at the particulates they spew out even the eco ones are worse than lorry exhausts. I think the only thing we can do is collectively raise the issue so that they get banned in cities.

Our neighbour burns coal I think and the whole street stinks of it. It's really strong. And that is across the road from us so must be awful right next to you.

Wood burners directly pollute the local area so I would really be contacting your council as if you can smell it to that extent then you are being directly impacted by particle pollution. Councils are legally obliged to investigate complaints about smoke pollution. It sounds like there may be an issue with the relative heights of his flue compared to your home which is worth mentioning to them.

We have the same issue except our neighbour is attached. As his chimney is so low compared to our house, the smoke sits permanently in our garden.
We can't open windows, have washing out, kids can't play outside etc. If we open the door briefly we have to put up with the stench in the house for ages until it dissipates. I'm fed up of paying to run all the extractor fans we have in the house to try to get the smell out.

The council wrote to him but nothing has changed.
He burns it from 2 chimneys most of the day and it stinks. Wouldn't surprise me if he's burning his rubbish too. Last year during the heatwave he only stopped burning on the hottest days 😑

Ps . our council had given smoke detectors/ monitors to groups within our communities as there is a big project in conjunction with the uni about urban wood burning pollution…worth asking if they can do a monitoring check to see how much is coming out of the flue.

Your DH is damaging his own health, and that of everyone in the household.

I bloody love a log-burner, but I don't use one any more, because of the mounting evidence of how harmful they are.

...not having a go at you, by the way, @SupermarketMum . I just mean that your DH needs to understand that he is insisting on doing something that is harming his own health - it's not just an air pollution issue.

A good woodburner, when running correctly, should produce very little discernable smoke. The exception to this is when the burner is first lit, before it reaches full operating temperature.

As your neighbour has only very recently had theirs installed, I suspect that they're not yet fully au fait with how to run it efficiently and effectively. Hopefully they've shelled out for a decent woodburner and it isn't a cheap crappy one!

One of the commonest mistakes people can make is not running the burner hot enough. If it's not at its optimum running temperature it will produce more smoke than it should/could.

Your neighbour needs to ensure that a) they're only burning well seasoned logs, b) there are sufficient logs in the firebox to maintain a hot fire, c) they adjust the airflows to ensure optimum temperature is maintained.

If the fire is burning at a low temperature and is only just alight or is merely smouldering, there will be too much smoke.

Where I live (semi rural), every house in the near vicinity has a woodburner. Our houses (former workers cottages) are close together yet we rarely smell each other's smoke. I sometimes get the whiff of smoke in the bedroom upstairs if I have the French windows open - but more often than not it's from our own woodburner starting up or refuelling!

For peace of mind, you might perhaps wish to get an air purifier. That can not only clean the air but also let you know whether or not any dangerous pollutants are in your home.
I have the Levoit Core 400S,iwhich I've situated in the main living area. It reads close to zero almost all the time. I would recommend you put one into the area of concern.

This. I genuinely can’t smell ours outside. I used to think it was because we have an old house with massive chimneys. But our neighbour with the same height chimney has just had one installed and I can always smell his and there’s often ash from his chimney coming down onto the street. Not sure if he’s burning rubbish or a bad technique or a cheap log burner. But he’s doing something wrong.