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?

Op it sounds dreadful. Do you think you could plant some screening plants or trees to absorb the smell or stop some of it coming over? I wonder if a row of small conifers or tall bamboo in pots might help.

They produce more particulates than diesel cars in the UK.

Unfortunately they are still legal, but hopefully not for long.

I think your best option would be to go down the statutory nuisance route, although I think the threshold for success is probably quite high.

Here is a summary, and UK can google statutory nuisance at your local council :

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/statutory-nuisances-how-councils-deal-with-complaints

They are within their rights.
It’s still horrible to have to live next to it though and either have your bathroom full of condensation/mould because you can’t open your window, or smoke and the smell of it if you do.

Log burners should be banned unless you can prove you have no other viable heating source. I feel very sorry for you, but not sure the solution as unfortunately it’s allowed. Can you speak to neighbour to check they’re using kiln dried logs only? And reduce the hours it’s on?

I think anyone with problems should report it in order to put pressure on councils as hopefully eventually they will be banned in urban areas unless you have no other means of heating your home. There’s only so much they can do in cities to reduce pollution from traffic so to have growing levels of pollution from wood burners whilst needing to enforce ever more drastic clean air zones doesn’t make sense.

Thanks for replies. It’s on again and stinks today. So no washing out & extractor fan takes ages to clear the bathroom (I always had the window open prior to this).

Kids wanted to play outside in the leaves but it stinks.

I know they are within their rights and believe it is all legit. He has assured it’s dry wood.

I just cannot believe how horrible it is and that this is our new way of living. Gutted.

If I report to council I doubt there’s much they will do since it’s legal. His flue is 4.5m but our 1st floor windows are this height. Thanks

He’s a smoker so doubt he cares about lung health if I raised that point!

I think statutory nuisance or any form of nuisance is extremely unlikely to suceed as a legal action.

And I am a solicitor who lectures at post grad level on nuisance

I am in this position too. I’ve resorted to expensive air filters but the windows have to stay closed when the neighbours use their log burner. And my asthma is AWFUL.

HOWEVER after the first few weeks, they got completely bored with it themselves and have almost stopped using it. RESULT! I hope this happens for you.

I agree they should be banned unless there is a valid reason for them E.g. very rural/no gas.

I live in a cul de sac of houses in the country, and all of us either have an open fire or a log burner and use them daily in autumn and winter. Even spring too a lot of the time. I honestly don't notice the smoke unless it's a very still day or there's a lot of fog and therefore the smoke isn't being blown away. We dry our washing outside and also let the kids play outside with no issues. The only thing that smells the washing is slurry when it's freshly spread nearby.

Sounds like it's to do with the lie of the land which is unfortunate, but if your neighbour has complied with all the regulations I don't think there's a lot you can do?

They really need to be banned in urban areas.

Ideally , they should only be allowed if alternative , cleaner heating means are unavailable.

They stink to high heaven and I'm convinced that they contribute to poorer lung function in built up areas.

We shouldn't be chopping trees down to burn for vanity reasons.

It is baffling as he only just built this bungalow last year & it has all the mod cons like underfloor heating & is ultra modern! He added the wood burner a few weeks ago. We live in a busy town so no gas/heating issues.

Nothing I can do then I guess. Gutted as my DC has a rare respiratory issue already.

Maybe complain to your MPs. I'm planning to do that, if enough of us do we may be able yo get them banned.
Having had to spend thousands to replace 2 diesel cars because of the London ULEZ, I can't understand why log burner are allowed at all in built up areas.

I think you are right.

Still, I believe that the council has a responsibility to investigate such issues and the more people complain, the higher the likelyhood they will take some blanket action in the future.

There is also the possibility that they will inform the householder that they are the subject of an investigation, and that may cause them to moderate their behaviour (of course depending on the person it may actually make it worse). It also means that you have put in a complaint that may need to be declared when the house is sold.

The number of complaints will also be closely monitored by the government and may be used to implement policy.

I also think the advice above, contacting your MP, is also worth doing.

If people do want them stopped, they are going to have to put some effort in. That includes doing stuff like actually measuring the PM2.5s in their area and collating stuff like medical notes to support their claims.

You don't get what you want by sitting on your hands and hoping the whole thing will go away.

@Livingonaprayeryeah our underfloor heating takes an absolute age to adjust to temperature changes, it's often freezing downstairs as a result. A log fire is what we use to take the edge off. Otherwise we'd have to abandon downstairs until the heating adjusts, which would be the next day. That's maybe why he is doing it. UFH is a menace. I wish we just had radiators (it's a rental, we don't have to do this for life).

I have the same issue bathroom and bedroom and downstairs kitchen/diner end up stinking of smoke. Neighbours chimney is all at regulation height etc, but when there is no wind or a little amount of wind (prevailing winds blow smoke towards my house/garden) the smoke lingers. I'm asthmatic and it affects me.

Kiev sounds like you’re using UFH in the same way as traditional radiators.

If you keep your room stat on the temp you like (we like 18-20) it will maintain it at that temp all the time. The worst thing is to turn it off, the slab goes cold & then you have to heat it up all over again which you’re right, takes ages.

It just fires up once the room drips below 18 so always maintains it there, hope that helps

I'm not and it doesn't work like that. Trust me, we've spent two entire winters testing it! The problem is threefold: a) we basically live in a wind tunnel, b) whomever designed this house put 3 out of the 4 thermostats on external walls, which is really stupid if you live in a wind tunnel with no neighbours and no trees, on open farmland and 3) as soon as the wind kicks off, the heating goes absolutely nuts and suddenly we're in a furnace; as soon as the wind drops off, it's freezing again. Added to that, they're stone floors, and the heat builds up and builds up in them, so even if you have the thermostat at a moderate temperature, it soon becomes unbearable to be in the room.

It's nigh on impossible to control. We simply can't leave it on low all the time. We've had to settle for it coming on from 4am - 10am every day at a temperature of 21 and hope that's enough to take the worst of the chill off the house.

That's why we have to supplement it with the wood burner; we can't just turn it up and use it like a traditional radiator, it will take a day to reach the necessary temperature, and if the wind suddenly then hits us too, we find the whole of the downstairs is 25 degrees because the bloody stupid thermostats are on external walls, getting hit by violent winds.

Was that a rant? Rant done! O_O

Appreciate you trying to help, but our stupid heating system is well beyond anyone's control, unless our LL gets the entire thing ripped out and designed better, which is not going to happen.

We have no gas and no chance of being connected. We also have very regular power cuts can last 5 -6 days . During this time we totally rely on our multi burner to heat and cook. As a country we don’t have the infrastructure to ban them.

@Pasithean I think we could ban them where the infrastructure is fine, where there really is no reason for them in the same way as the ulez charges for diesel cars in the more built up areas.

There is no we, unless you’re an mp?

the government has made a statement they have no intention to ban. Instead they are controlling them in terms of regulations to install and the sale of types of fuel permitted. Banning them would be very complex. As effectively it would be individual house dependant. For example I am very close to central London, but also semi rural, my neighbours aren’t close, but 10 mins walk away and there are lots of terraced cottages , all in the same postcode.

in addition, lots of older properties don’t have central heating, and the owner uses a fire, often open, even in heavily populated areas. They maybe elderly or vulnerable. You can’t take peoples heat away. And you’d have to give them money to put alternate heating in if they can’t afford it. So they’d need to decide house by house. Hence why a high level control like they have put in is the best overall option.

councils will only take action if it is installed incorrectly or they are burning the wrong fuel, ie black smoke belching out from wet wood. They won’t take action for anything installed correctly burning seasoned wood.

Why not install an extractor fan in your bathroom? That wat, at least this room will be smoke-free! As for your child's bedroom, could you move them into a different room?

Ec04 is just for homes on lowest incomes and for houses band d-g, which will cover a tiny percentage of the homes that need it and potentiality can’t afford.