Wood burner dilemma

Author
Discussion

bmwmike

Original Poster:

6,918 posts

107 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
Long story short I'd like to install a wood burner in rear living room of my bungalow. The obvious place is the chimney breast which is central in the room but unfortunately it is a fake stud and plasterboard effort. It is approx 31cm deep.

Issue is, I've had 3 quotes and two of the installers say it is impossible to fit inside the stud wall breast. The one installer is quite happy to fit the burner inside the breast but using twin wall flue from the burner right up through the roof. He is adamant he can get the requisite 60mm clear around the twin wall and where not possible will use fire proof board.

My dilemma is who to go with? I don't want the house burning down but I don't want the expense of rebuilding the fake chimney breast in brick as suggested by one of the other installers. There is no actual chimney on the roof BTW so the flue length is going to be the minimum of approx 5m with 3m free standing above the roof line.

Either that or I give up on the idea entirely..


Thanks
Mike

Tom_C76

1,923 posts

187 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
Clearance between twin wall and any combustible material varies from 60 to 75mm depending on brand, so it is feasible to do in a false boxing. Watch the interface between the stove pipe and twin wall though.

roofer

5,136 posts

210 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
quotequote all
As long as the hearth is lined in cement board, and the single wall from burner to twin wall is 3 times its diameter from any combustible , it'll be fine. I wouldn't twin wall straight off the burner, you need the single skin to get the draw going.

herewego

8,814 posts

212 months

Saturday 1st October 2016
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Can you just remove all that palaver and use a plain pipe up through the ceiling?

CorradoTDI

1,432 posts

170 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
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Pictures might help...

The stainless flue's don't look bad on show but depends on the property really... other option might be to just build a new fireplace on an external wall and go straight up or out, maybe buy a nice bit of oak for a mantelpiece...

Don't give up though - they're awesome and fitting one's been one of the best things we've done to this house!

dickymint

24,096 posts

257 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
quotequote all
roofer said:
As long as the hearth is lined in cement board, and the single wall from burner to twin wall is 3 times its diameter from any combustible , it'll be fine. I wouldn't twin wall straight off the burner, you need the single skin to get the draw going.
Correct but this distance can be halved if lined with "A1" with a 12mm air gap.

bmwmike

Original Poster:

6,918 posts

107 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
quotequote all
Thanks for the replies

Sounds like it's possible then provided the installer knows what he's doing?

Dimensions are 30.5cm deep and 153cm wide. In that 30.5cm depth there is obviously 2x4 battons etc.

Alternative is to put burner in the corner of the room but that probably look odd with the fireplace in the centre of the same wall?

Not keen on getting rid of the box completely as wife not keen on pipes on show in middle of room but OK if they are in corner.

Clocks ticking as I know the installers are getting busy. Tempted to go with the installer who said OK to box section but watch the clearances like a hawk. Not sure how I feel about the clearances being bang on the minimums either, no margin..

AndyTR

516 posts

123 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
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Have you thought about removing the 'fake' chimney breast and going with something like this. We've have one inset in the chimney breast but they do freestanding as well.


bmwmike

Original Poster:

6,918 posts

107 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
quotequote all
Yeah not keen on the exposed pipe in the middle of the room.

Been looking at this all morning and think we are going to go with corner installation facing into centre of room and later remove fake fireplace and put a big central cabinet type thing with the TV on top.

All this is slightly complicated as we're changing the upstairs (huge) bedroom into 2 smaller ones with inset storage so we need the stove and flue installed before that work and final layout can proceed.

Corner installation means the 3m free standing flue is in the corner of the building and rear so less visible from the road.

Looking at contura 810 - any good?




roofer

5,136 posts

210 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
quotequote all
bmwmike said:
Thanks for the replies

Tempted to go with the installer who said OK to box section but watch the clearances like a hawk. Not sure how I feel about the clearances being bang on the minimums either, no margin..
If he's a proper Hetas fitter, should all be good.

bmwmike

Original Poster:

6,918 posts

107 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
quotequote all
roofer said:
bmwmike said:
Thanks for the replies

Tempted to go with the installer who said OK to box section but watch the clearances like a hawk. Not sure how I feel about the clearances being bang on the minimums either, no margin..
If he's a proper Hetas fitter, should all be good.
Yeah you'd think.. but all 3 are hetas fitters.

Decided to go corner now anyway which gives us the advantage of the cheapest quote too... hopefully get it fitted soon.

marcusgrant

1,445 posts

91 months

Sunday 2nd October 2016
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No advice on location, but I would say do it!

We've got ours on now and it's lovely.

We also had a right palava getting ours done and spent a small fortune. Had it done once in plaster board, only for the log burner man to come round and tell us we needed to rip it all out as it didn't comply with hetas (doh - zero research and the plaster knew this when I rang him up after). I redid it in brick slips and quarry tiles. Pictures to show off, before, during and after






bmwmike

Original Poster:

6,918 posts

107 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
quotequote all
Any experiences of contura 810? Fitter recommending it. I torn between a MF and a wood burner. Doubt I'll burn coal but nice to have the option ?

richatnort

3,018 posts

130 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
quotequote all
bmwmike said:
Any experiences of contura 810? Fitter recommending it. I torn between a MF and a wood burner. Doubt I'll burn coal but nice to have the option ?
Never heard of them but a quick Google would show they're not British and not to sound snobbish but my stove shop said to always buy British and you'll get a much better quality stove and life time guarantee. If it helps ours is an ACR.

kryten22uk

2,344 posts

230 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
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marcusgrant said:
Wow, that looks great. Did you really clean up the brickwork from the prior picture to look like that in the end?

RammyMP

6,729 posts

152 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
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kryten22uk said:
marcusgrant said:
Wow, that looks great. Did you really clean up the brickwork from the prior picture to look like that in the end?
I agree, looks smart!

TonyToniTone

3,420 posts

248 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
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marcusgrant said:
Sorry to go OT but how did you clean the soot of the bricks?

LeadFarmer

7,411 posts

130 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
quotequote all
bmwmike said:
Any experiences of contura 810? Fitter recommending it. I torn between a MF and a wood burner. Doubt I'll burn coal but nice to have the option ?
Contura are very good stoves. I wanted one, but I didn't have a constructional hearth so I needed a stove that was suitable for a hearth with minimum thickness of 12mm. I ended up getting a Woodwarm Phoenix Firegem multifuel stove which is brill.

Id say go for multifuel, that way if you run out of logs you can buy sacks of coal.

B17NNS

18,506 posts

246 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
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This is gas but hopefully shows that a pipe on show doesn't have to look bad.

S6PNJ

5,157 posts

280 months

Tuesday 18th October 2016
quotequote all
marcusgrant said:
I redid it in brick slips
kryten22uk said:
Did you really clean up the brickwork from the prior picture to look like that in the end?
marcusgrant said:
I redid it in brick slips
TonyToniTone said:
Sorry to go OT but how did you clean the soot of the bricks?
marcusgrant said:
I redid it in brick slips
HTH! wavey