Wood/Gas Stove in New Build

[CB07]

ST12AT said:

Any Gas Safe engineer with a modicum of sense would entertain ‘signing off’ work carried out by a DIYer (I mean that term it’s actual sense rather than a derogatory way!)

It would be like carrying out your own breast augmentation and having a random surgeon whose never met you before giving them a quick squeeze and saying “jobs a gooden”.

Some things are definitely work DIYing, gas is most definitely not.

I wholeheartedly agree. I clearly wouldn't actually be getting my hands dirty on the gas side. From what I can tell a lot of the stove showroom places sub contract the gas work and connection side of things out, so I would be getting it to that stage. EG drilling a hollow core in the wall and letting the gas chap have at the rest to commission it.

There is no way I would entertain messing about with the gas stuff!

[ST12AT]

CB07 said:

I wholeheartedly agree. I clearly wouldn't actually be getting my hands dirty on the gas side. From what I can tell a lot of the stove showroom places sub contract the gas work and connection side of things out, so I would be getting it to that stage. EG drilling a hollow core in the wall and letting the gas chap have at the rest to commission it.

There is no way I would entertain messing about with the gas stuff!

Glad to hear it! Good luck with it all.

[Mr Pointy]

ST12AT said:

Any Gas Safe engineer with a modicum of sense would entertain ‘signing off’ work carried out by a DIYer (I mean that term it’s actual sense rather than a derogatory way!)

It would be like carrying out your own breast augmentation and having a random surgeon whose never met you before giving them a quick squeeze and saying “jobs a gooden”.

Some things are definitely work DIYing, gas is most definitely not.

Given the importance of your point did you mean "would" or wouldn't"?

It's actually not that easy to find Gas Safe installers who take on these sort of stoves. They are fine with a hob or combi boiler but not so much with stoves like these.

[ST12AT]

Mr Pointy said:

Given the importance of your point did you mean "would" or wouldn't"?

It's actually not that easy to find Gas Safe installers who take on these sort of stoves. They are fine with a hob or combi boiler but not so much with stoves like these.

Ah yes. I did mean “wouldn’t”......

https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/find-an-engineer...

Select ‘Gas Fires’ and enter your postcode. That’ll show everyone with the correct qualifications to install.

[CB07]

ST12AT said:

Ah yes. I did mean “wouldn’t”......

https://www.gassaferegister.co.uk/find-an-engineer...

Select ‘Gas Fires’ and enter your postcode. That’ll show everyone with the correct qualifications to install.

And by a random stroke of luck my neighbour appears to be just the man for the job! Now I just need to collar him!

[ajap1979]

Mr Pointy said:

ajap1979 said:

Mr Pointy said:

If you lived in the middle of the countryside & had easy access to wood then a wood burner might be an option but unless you actually want the whole experience of finding/buying wood, storing & drying it, bringing it into the house & cleaning out the ash then stick to gas.

It's incredibly easy to buy wood these days. Our guy drops a 300kg bulk bag outside the house, costs £80 for kiln dried ash, plus £3 per bag of kindling. He'll stack it for an extra £10. Cleaning the stove is easy, just buy an ash hoover and clean it out once or twice a week. It's worth the minimal hassle.

I don't disagree with you, but you surely cannot deny that you wouldn't light your fire for a couple of hours on a slightly chilly evening in September (we've had a couple). If the stove isn't one of your primary heat sources (ie you've got central heating) then in the main it's more for effect than anything else. A neighbour has a 5kW woodburner in their lounge & it's way too powerful so they end up with just a couple of logs on it.

In the right situation they are fantastic (I even love the smell of the smoke from the neighbour) but in a town or city & especially a new build I still reckon you get more actual round year use from a gas stove.

Yep, they’re all valid points, and I agree, for us it is mainly for effect. We considered gas, and I think we’d have got more use out of it, but all those concerns and doubts were forgotten the first time I got the wood burner going. I still love building up the kindling and getting a fire going, the smell of it and the sound of it crackling away. It’s much more than just heating a room.

Your point about it heating the room very quickly is spot on. We’ve also got a 5kW burner in an average sized sitting room and it can become uncomfortably hot quite quickly. Luckily we’ve got a big set of bifold doors that open onto the kitchen/dining area, so we can manage the heat by opening them. I’d be sat in my underpants most of the time if we couldn’t do that!

[anonymous-user]

ajap1979 said:

Yep, they’re all valid points, and I agree, for us it is mainly for effect. We considered gas, and I think we’d have got more use out of it, but all those concerns and doubts were forgotten the first time I got the wood burner going. I still love building up the kindling and getting a fire going, the smell of it and the sound of it crackling away. It’s much more than just heating a room.

+1

There’s absolutely no way I would buy a gas stove if my main reason for buying it was the looks, effect, smell and atmosphere in a room.

If I needed it primarily for heating purposes then yes, I would buy gas for convenience, but for everything else, no way.

Anyone complaining about how it’s hard work with a wood burner needs to seriously reevaluate the very meaning of ‘hard work’.

You get kiln-dried logs delivered to your door in dumpy bags, and the guys delivering them will even place them right where you want usually.

Lighting the thing takes 30 seconds with some firefighters under a couple of fresh logs.

Modern stoves are so efficient that they burn almost all their ash and only need cleaned out every few weeks even in regular use. Cleaning out is nothing more than hoovering a small amount of ash out of them.

If that seems like hard work to you, well I have no idea what to say. All that ‘effort’ is worth it even if you only want it on for an hour or two one night.

Lighting a fire is absolutely part of the enjoyment of a real fire.

[mcg_]

CB07 said:

In terms of wood. No problem getting that at all. However having looked at those flue photos I am back to dead against it going up for the outside!

I suppose I could try and run it inside, however I have just been into the loft and there appears to be no way to access inside the chimney at all. So all in all it’s utterly redundant. The flue could just come out of the roof near it though, but it means boxing it in etc in one of the bedrooms.

Have a company coming to survey in a week or so to explore possibilities and want to be armed!

Has anyone got some install photos of a gas one out of interest? The exit appears to look just like a boiler so in terms of actual cutting about it looks like it’s just a hole in the wall and off you go.

Photo for context.. apologies it’s on its side!

Cheers

Weird amount of effort for a fake chimney, normally they're just fibreglass with brick slips, and then craned on top. Wouldn't have been too much effect to remove if that was the case, however that's not going anywhere! I'm guessing it was a planning thing.

[JuanCarlosFandango]

If you're going for effect then surely it's got to be a woodburner?

I would go twin wall all the way up the outside. The mess and grief of putting the flue up through the house would be huge. IMO the metal flue up the outside would look fine there and after a few weeks you would forget it was ever an issue.

I installed our woodburner up an existing chimney and it is nothing beyond the abilities of a competent DIYer. Your biggest difficulty would be drilling through the wall to get the flue out.

Twin wall just clips together and goes through brackets on the wall.

If I may give a plug (no affiliation) Julian at the Stove Fitters Warehouse was very helpful with advice and supplied everything needed.

Useful guide to pretty much what you would need to do.

https://www.stovefitterswarehouse.co.uk/pages/inst...

The other big consideration is the hearth. It needs to be 6" either side and 1' in front of the stove, and 2" high if it is on a concrete floor. I went for a big slab of sandstone but there are endless options.

[CB07]

Just to update this.

After a few surveys by local companies we have reached a conclusion. DIY - OUT.. Wood IN.

Professional Install due to take place on 25th Nov. Opted for a Stovax Chesterfield 5 Wide. Black Twinwall Flue running outside. False Chimney breast, Hearth and Oak Beam inside.

Cheers for all opinions

[Craigybaby69]

How you getting on with it?