Stove info

[Sidsick]

Hi,

We are gathering info to install a wood or mukti fuel burner in our old edwardian terrace. There was a stove in the house before but the previous owners never had a chimney lining or a fireboard around the flue.

We have been quoted over a grand for fitting of a burner, is this expensive seems so to me? Also were can we get a full list of regs for example how high does the hearth have to be from the floor currently we have a hearth which is 2 inches from the floor.

Do we need to use vermiculite and where can a find a list of fitters local to west midlands area.

One more thing....the stove we want is 9kw max but a calculation of the room says we only need 4kw max but we do have an open staircase which leads to another open staircase to a third floor will we be ok with a 9kw is too much better than too little.

Cheers for any help.

 

[sarahj]

When I had our stove put in in Feb everything had to be done: stove, flexible liner, vermiculite and fireboard. This all came to about £2100 - £1000 was for the stove, a 5kw Clearview (made in Ludlow).

The regs say that for a stove over 5kw you have to have either a floor or wall vent fitted - not practical as we have concrete floor and 3' stone walls! The regs also say that you need 12" from edge of stove to edge of hearth, but I do not know if there is a minimum height - ours is a concrete platform 4" above the main floor so wouldn't have caused any problems.

Living quite a way out for us probably increased the cost for us, but being our only heating appliance I didn't want to cut corners nor am I quite up to doing the job myself!

 

[Sal]

seems about the right sort of price. you might be able to do better if you buy the stove 'off the shelf' and get someone who knows to fit it - ask your chimney sweep - they should know someone.
the thing is flue is expensive, we have been given a rough guide of 900 quid for the lining alone.
I would advise against getting stove with a higher output than advised for your room; for it to work efficiently, you will have a fire thats hot enough to press you against the windows if you keep the fire small and low.. you will have tar and soot problems if you are thinking of having back boiler.. then you will need a slightly higher kw. Its tempting to get a burner that fills the space of your fireplace, but its much better to get the right one. besides.. a smaller one will cost less.

also i advise having a flat top rather than a canopy top - cos flat top burner give you somewhere to mull wine......

 

[skier-hughes]

Depending on where you are in the Midlands, try
http://www.chaseheating.co.uk/contact.html
or
http://www.chaseofmilford.com/

I've used both and they gave me excellent service, I'm sure they can advise.

Graham

 

[worms]

somewhere to mull wine......

Quite agree! Also good for roasting chestnuts, keeping the coffee warm, etc etc.

Also agree about not going too big. Ours is somewhere between 4k and 5k (too old to be sure!) and can overheat the room. Opening the door seems to just suck in cold air rather than warming the hall.

 

[sarahj]

Opening the door seems to just suck in cold air rather than warming the hall.

I found this too. We were tempted with idea of a vent in the ceiling/upstairs floor to put heat up there, but my brother thought that in the event of a fire this could be highly dangerous!

 

[gsport george]

We were quoted four and a half grand to fit a stove... not including the stove, scafolding or even a skip. The shop told us that building regs required a new hearth to be built up 100mm on top of the lovely existing stone slab, which they would do in concrete with some nice tiles... This interpretation of the building regs is rubbish by the way...

Needless to say we didnt take them up on it...

 

[Nemesis]

Interesting you should say that... is it depth rather than height required?

 

[gsport george]

You have to have a certain distance in each direction made from non-combustible material, which I am sure the origan stone slab would count as.

There must also be a distinct and obvious change where the rest of the flooring meets the hearth... one way of satisfying this requirement is through a level change, but it isnt the only way and there is certainly (as far as I can find) no specific 100mm requirement...

I will probably simply put a wooden rim round the hearth to indicate where it is, without the need to spoil the original hearth stone, but I would argue that even the obvious visual cue of the change in colour and texture between wooden floorboards and stone hearth would satisfy the wording if not the spirit of the rules...


No doubt someone will correct this if I am wildly off the mark...

George

 

[Nemesis]

I think the idea of raising the hearth was to stop carpeting over, but historically hearths were flat!

 

[stevew]

I don't think the height of the hearth is an issue. In some of the glossy catalogues you see stoves atop sheets of glass on wooden (combustable) floors. Our stove is nowhere near the req'd 12" from the edge of the hearth. I intend to get a semicircular piece of (toughened or whatever)glass to place in front of the hearth which should protect the carpet but also means that for half of the year it can be moved conveniently out of the way. I'm not sure how the reg's stand on 'temporary' hearths?

 

[Penners]

I very much agree with what Sal has to say about your choice of stove. If you put in one that is rated much higher than your room needs, I'm sure you will regret it. You'll either have to try and keep the stove running at tick-over - which is difficult, inefficient and risks tars building up in a cool flue - or you'll be cooked.

As to the cost, I don't think your figure looks excessive. We had a unit installed a couple of years ago. The stove cost about £800, and the total bill for installing it, running a flue up the chimney and filling the chimney with mica, plus capping the chimney, was about £2400.

And worth every penny!

PS: Our installer gave us a temperature gauge that sticks magnetically to the flue. It shows when your flue is in the right temperature range to avoid tar build-up. Very useful!