Wood burning stove (for a house)

[scrogger]

I just wondered if anyone on here had maybe had a stove recently fitted. My question is this.

We live in a house thats about 20 yrs old so crappy thin walls and no proper chimney we moved in here about 4 and1/2 yrs ago and had a balanced flue fire fitted. Now swmbo in her infinate wisdom at the time said she would not have a wood stove due to the mess!!.

You guessed it now she would like to swap to a wood burner we just had a quote to remove the fire and take a flue straight out of the wall and up the side of the house. The fire was not huge and i think its price alone was about £1300.00 but the overall quote is nealry £5k .

Back to the question how hard is it to take out a fire obviously using a gas safe fitter to remove but then install one of these myself. Am I missing something or does it just involve knocking out a hole and putting the flue out and up the side of the house. I know I Iam making it sound simple and there is more than likely more to it I know.

But surely it should not cost £3500.00 to knock a hole out and fit a steel tube type chimney.

Any advice greatly appreciated.

Regards

Andy

 

[Gill]

absolutely no way buddy.you should be able to get a corgi registered gas fitter to remove your gas fire for £100 max.and no way £3500 for the fitting of a flue !what kind of wood burner was it for the £1300 price tag ,it has to be a steel burner for that money ie clearview or similar as opposed to cast iron.i would imagine you would be able to fit the flue yourself,the hardest bit would be making the exit hole for the flue.you can hire any diameter of hole saw from any hire shop and a few fixings to hold the flue in place.i dont know what the room is like you want to install the stove in but you could keep the flue inside if you prefered it would be even wamer ,if it is stainless it does not need to be hidden or you could put a false chimney breast round it and fireplace.

 

[scrogger]

Hiya Gill yeh was a clearview not that that matters it was one the missus chose from the brochure im all for keeping the cost right down. The part about taking the flue thru the house was discussed but would cause chaoe throughout the house as all the rooms have just been finished plus our loft is converted.
Do the flues have to be stainless or can we get a black one I could see my neighbours not been happy with a chip shop type flue running up the side of the house.

I did think the price was a bit ott. Have you just had one done then?

 

[Gill]

not in this house scrogger, but i,m on the case.the flue does not have to be stainless,shop about buddy for the flue ,i have been down the road of pricing the burner and then for an install and it was very high, not as high as yours mind you.you can also get flue pipe on the bay.

 

[Bodge]

We had a clearview vision 500 fitted in march 09. Fire was about £1100 and fitting by a hetas registered fitter with stainless flue with grill on chimney stack was about £1000. My mate said he could do it for about £500 but he is not hetas registered so imo not worth the risk if anything went wrong and an insurance claim was neccessary.
Are you having a brick stack built up on the outside of your house then? if not wont your house look like a takeaway with a big flue running up the outside? I guess the flue would have to be an insulated double skin one but I cant see it costing over £1k for a top of the range one.
We did a ton of research on woodburner forums etc before taking the plunge so knew how much it would all cost eventually (roughly).
hth

 

[tobes01]

Btw if it's a Clearview then it may well have a resale value (although not sure what the deal is on gas stoves) - we had a woodburner put in that we always hated (style not function). Turned out it was worth £500 on trade-in with the local stove shop.

 

[addo]

Hi, I paid a lot less than yourself for the stove, and had my whole chimney lined and a class 1 flue inserted. My stove is a Hunter herald 8 multi fuel, and it powers the central heating and hot water as well as giving the whole house a good heat in itself.

This was all done by a registered guy and included all the plumbing to the existing system, and a new cold water tank.

All I did was expose the origonal 100 year old chimney breast, and fireplace and re-build the hearth.

Worth a shop around for your stove, and the fitting. (Clearveiw nice but paying for the name, tons of other choices)

You should get the price down by a few grand, by the sounds of it.

Edit. I paid £35 for a seporate corgi guy to take the old fire out.

 

[belzeebob23]

high andy
have you had a look at http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/categories/search/cast-iron-wood-burning-stoves-2
http://www.machinemart.co.uk/shop/search/filter/flues/type/any/page/2

that should sort you out

 

[Shewie]

Get one of these Andy, only hundred notes.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/BOAT-CAMPING-...s_SM?hash=item19b6bd76c2&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14

 

[wingstoo]

ou will need to get twin wall insulated flue of about 5" or 125mm INTERNAL diameter minimum, it is stainless steel throughout normally, but you can get it pre coated to the coulour you want/need, but it is normally at least £100 per mtr length.

If you have a modern timber frame house with a brick skin you will need to make sure that the fire-proofing is up to current standards.

A good Hearth base needs to be built.

As for the gas fire, well everyone says you need a Corgi or Gas safe registered engineer to remove it, not 100% true, but if you know nothing about plumbing/gas it is advisable to get one in.

3. - (1) No person shall carry out any work in relation to a gas fitting or gas storage vessel unless he is competent to do so.

Taken from

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si1998/98245102.htm#3

Also get a HETAS engineer to check your installation once completed.

 

[scrogger]

Yeh Rich like I can see Lesley going with that one!!!. I have already been labled as been a tight git as I will not bend over for this expensive company. I am glad I posted as she has read these replies and is now happy to have a shop around.

As regards the chip shop type look the flue will be down a narrow alley between the two houses and I would go for black it will not look much different to a stench pipe from a typical bathroom.

I would have been happy with a couple of grand as I reckon we could sell the old fire for a couple of hundred ish and reckon that would it would save us that amount over a number of years in gas savings.

Plus I like real fires!!!

 

[scrogger]

Cheers for that link Bob!! good info there mate.

 

[wingstoo]

Just found some more info on black powder coated SS flue pipe and fittings at :-

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Selkirk-flue.html

It costs 25% extra compared to the regular stuff, so £125 per mtr (ish)

 

[scrogger]

Cheers Stoo how does that differ to the piping in the link that Bob put up for Machine Mart.? Is it the double walled bit?

 

[wingstoo]

Cheers Stoo how does that differ to the piping in the link that Bob put up for Machine Mart.? Is it the double walled bit?

Bobs link is for single wall flue which is generally the first bit from the stove to the twin wall or brick flue.

The link I put is for the outdoor part, if going that way or through the rest of the building if indoors.

If you have a local merchant, something like "Pipeline" then have a word with them and see if they can do it any cheaper for "Cash" and if going for the plain SS then you might get some cheaper lengths if they have a bit of a dent in the wall, just turn it to the back where it can't be seen, might get you a discount of 50% if you work on them a bit

 

[robin wood]

It needs to be twin walled and insulated because otherwise the flue gasses would cool very quickly causing them to stop rising and condense all the crud on the inside of the flue. On top of your £100 per meter each joint has a strap which is about £20 then there are fixings every so often up the wall and they are expensive too, a cap for the top is £50, the bracket to support the weight of the flue is £85 it all adds up though I have no doubt if you get a few quotes you'll get some for less. I just bought some off ebay £70 for 2 1m lengths second hand, it is expensive stuff. Of course the other thing is this should all have building regs sign off which is another £250, you can do it yourself and if no one complains you will be OK till you sell the house.

 

[scrogger]

Cheers guys I had forgot about building regs That may also all be included in the price though I still think its a bit steep.

Andy

 

[CaptainBeaky]

Andy

If your installer is HETAS registered, you don't need building regs approval - that is covered by their registration.

My woodburner gets delivered tomorrow, chimney getting swept nest week, installation the week after...

904 liner going into existing chimney, Westfire stove, new fireplace, hearth and mantel.

All I have to do is lift the flooring, take the (bagged) debris to the tip and re-do the floor at the end and the Management is doing the re-decoration.

 

[patjenkins]

We used this company who had a great selection of Wood Burning Stoves. They installed a stove into our holiday cottage on Anglesea and also in our main home in Cheshire.

One job was a knock out with a full liner which came to about £2400 including the stove and the other job was a twinwall flue free standing stove through a single story extension which came to about £2100. Both stoves were AGA Little Wenlock Stoves

Hope this helps. I spoke to a guy called Ben who was very helpful and their parts seemed very cheap. Might be worth seeing if they will quote you, if not show them your quote and they might be able to get the parts sent to you much cheaper...