Newbie to open fires - what do you burn?

[Zod]

danger mouse said:

Clean dry wood only our 'sweep said, "NO PAPER, NO PAINTED/STAINED WOOD, NO COAL and most important NO CHRISTMAS TREES... and you'll never need to call me again".

Ah. I always burn the Christmas tree. Last had the sweep in three years ago. I've given up on coal, because it really does emit loads of black smoke.

[danger mouse]

s3fella said:

Pah, we burn everything and anything that burns on our open fire! Tetrapacks for lighting (great as we cannot recyle them) and all my office workpapers go on there, for destruction once finished with, we burned our old staircase on there etc. We have a motto in our house, "if it burns, it burns!"

Mind you we did get the neighbours knocking when I experimented on getting rid of my old engine oil....!! I think they thought we had just picked a new Pope.

We are not in a smokeless zone thankfully!

LOL

The only reason the 'sweep said what he said was that I did exactly the same!

Saved many a run to the tip while I was "doing the house" but the build-up of s4!t3 was slowing the chimney down and the tar from the Christmas tree made sticky deposits that can cause combustible part burned ash, like you get burning paper, to adhere to the flue and increase the risk of a chimney fire

...and that made my outlaws twitchey which translated to avoidable grief... so wood only here now.

Edited by danger mouse on Thursday 10th February 14:33

[danger mouse]

Zod said:

h. I always burn the Christmas tree. Last had the sweep in three years ago. I've given up on coal, because it really does emit loads of black smoke.

There's still a stain on the wallpaper above the coal scuttle from the sulphur fumes after only a couple of months and no it wasn't the cat!

[htid]

You should get your chimney swept once a year if you're using it