Decorative gas fires, and flue liners

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have a decorative gas fire, installed by british gas in about 1987, in the living room fireplace. It uses the existing (unlined) flue. IIRC, it's 6kW heat input, but being a decorative fire, it does generate some soot. Since installing central heating, it's only been used extremely rarely (for decoration), but it's a feature of the room, and not one I'm planning on getting rid of.

If this was being installed today, would a flue liner be recommended or even mandatory? Reason for asking is that I currently have scaffolding right up to the chimney pots, and in the interests of bringing it up to current standards, it would probably be easy to do at the moment. If so, what sort of flue liner? Do flue liners always result in an ugly bit of metalwork sticking out of the top of the chimney? With a flue liner in place, how does ventilating the inside walls of the original flue work? Do you add vents to the top and bottom of the original flue to allow airflow around the outside of the liner?

[The Natural Philosopher]

I suspect so.

It depends what 'unlined flue' means.. It is just a brick tube,, unconditionally yes. If its actually a ceraimc block lined solid fuel flue, the answer might be no.

For gas, if te property is old enough a flexible lines is IIRC acceptable, but a double insulated stainless one is ,much better, and much more expensive. You will kiss goodbye to over £500 I would think.

No. Mine endds in a plate with a collar on it, over which a ceramic chimney pot is mortared. Looks JUST like any other chimney. HOWEVER birds do keep falling down it and appearing tn the wood stove, dead or alive, which doesn't happen with the Aga flue, that has a little conical cap on it.

(instead of a pot).

Why would it need ventilating? rain can't get in, and the bricckwork can breathe to inside or outside the house anyway.

[cynic]

I don't think the addition of a liner is required as long as the original flue is in good condition, no leaks and passes flue flow tests. It wasn't previously and alteration would only be mandated at the time of some modification or a replacement fire. The Installation and maintenance leaflet should expand on the matter. A DFE would require any flue to be of a diameter to comply with class 1 requirements. Strangely this would normally be larger than that for a Baxi back boiler and fire

[Heliotrope Smith]

[e-mail] (Andrew Gabriel) wrote in news:hoktt5$b21$1 @news.eternal-september.org:

If your existing flue is in good condition then there is no requirement to have it lined.

It is not mandatory to have a chimney lined prior to fitting a decorative fire.

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[stuart noble]

AIUI, if the chimney fails the sweep's smoke test, you need a liner, even for a living flame type fire. The usual thing in older houses is that the smoke comes out of more than one pot because the feathers have failed. The space between the liner and the brickwork is normally filled with vermiculite and/or the liner has insulation wrapped round it.