Has anyone here ihadn a log burning stove installed ?

[TheThoughtPolice]

We live in a 3 storey house with a 'proper' chimney. Currently we have a (nice) gas coal effect number but I would like to replace it for a warmer and cheaper to run wood burner.

Obviously I have to factor in the cost of the burner itself but how much should I set aside for fitting ? Will my chimney have to be lined with anything or will the long black flue just go all the way up the chimney to the outside world without be needing any extra flame retardent business ? I think the chimney breast is made of blockwork, not brick.

The burner will be on the ground floor, is it possible to feed a flue up 3 storeys ?

sorry for weird typo in header.

I don't know but will be interested to hear.

We also have two floors above us.

TP, we had a wood burner installed last year and are reaping the benefits today!

We are in a 3 storey terrace and the fireplace on the ground floor had been bricked up. We got a chimney sweep to come around and check out the chimney breast - he swept it and did some sort of test to check that the smoke would rise properly etc etc. We then ordered the wood burner ourselves and the sweep installed it for £200 cash.

The total cost, including the woodburner itself was under £1000 whereas the cost for having a liner would have been £1500 - £2000 just for the liner.

I would really recommend it. In theory there are lots of regulations regarding how much space you have to have around the burner and restrictions on what you can burn. However, if you find a pragmatic, sensible, experienced sweep who also deals with woodburners you will find that there are lots of options iyswim.

HTH

ours was approx £1500 to buy the burner and have it fitted/ chimmney lined etc. its not a very big stove though so maybe it would be more in region of £2500 for a larger one.

Thanks for these replies, it's not as expensive I first thought.

where the bloomin eck do I find a chimney sweep in this day and age ?!

You need to check out regulations where you live -cities tend to be "smoke free" zones which in theory means you can be fined up to £3000 for burning anything that produces smoke.

When we lived in a city we had to burn smokeless fuel in our open fireplace which wasn't anywhere near as lovely as a log fire.

Chimney sweeps advertise in the Yellow Pages or on-line equivalent. No small children involved anymore it's all chimney vacuums and hi-tech.

Yes, plenty of sweeps around - we found ours on the internet.

The city smoke free regulations are a joke. I don't know anyone who adheres to them, and I'm talking central london here!

I'm not in central London, or anywhere in the SE but I am in a city.

Thanks for your help so far folks

Well worth doing - we had one installed back in 2001 (in my old house) - the woodburner was around £650 (we lived in a small cottage) and used to just chuck out the heat. Much better financially as well - especially compared with the oil fired central heating we went to next.

Ooooh, I've got stove envy now

I've been looking at stoves on the net and dreaming. It'll prob be 6mo to a year before we get it fitted but I can't wait !