multi fuel burner, do I need a chimney liner?

[DavidD]

We have a very old, timber framed house (tiled roof) and have two fireplaces. One has a woodburner which is not much cop (Nestor Martin, looks nice, lots of flame, sod all heat), this chimney is lined. The other room has a nice open fireplace with a full functioning chimney which has not been used since it was last swept last year. A mate has offered me a multifuel burner for this room.

I was going to make up a plate and instal it this weekend, however a builder mate seems to think that it must have a liner or it will be a serious fire risk, I don't see why it will be any more of a risk than the fire that has been burnt in the fioreplace for the last x 00 years.

Anyone care to comment?

Thanks

David

[The Natural Philosopher]

You must line it with a flexible liner. Building regs. You may invalidate house insurance if you don't.

Flue temps on closed stoves can be VERY high indeed - higher than an open fire which sucks in more air and sweeps it up teh chimney.

[Rick Dipper]

Building Regulations overide normal sensible behavor, therfore you need it lined.

Rick

[DavidD]

Thanks for the responses, the word bugger springs to mind...

D

[Grunff]

It isn't very difficult or expensive. We lined our chimney a few months back when installing a wood burner. The liner (twinwall 916 SS) was only ~£150 from these people:

And took about 2 hours to fit.

[DavidD]

Really? How on earth did you do it? I assumed scaffolding etc, etc. The chimney is huge, I could probably crawl up it :) (kidding) so I did wonder about shoving some up it, although how would I secure it at the top?

D D

[Grunff]

Bah! Tall ladder, rope, hammer. Tie hammer to rope. Drop hammer down chimney. Remove hammer, tie rope to end of liner. Pull liner up, while an assistant pushes it from below. Ours was a very tight fit, but we wriggled it up there. Fit register plat at the bottom Fit closure plate and cowl at the top. Done.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yes, but its a lot nicer if you have scaffold, and prfessioals may insist - insurance cover etc.

Otherwsie, yes, thats how we did ours, but we had to use double insulated, not flexible, and it was a bugger to get round the kinks...

>

[Grunff]

I'm sure. It would also have been a lot nicer if it hadn't chucked it down while we were in the middle of doing it.

[Anna Kettle]

I was wondering about hiring a cherry picker but I haven't compared prices yet. I'm guessing that a cherry picker would be cheaper than having a proper chinmey scaffold installed and there is no way I'm going up a ladder

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[Dave Liquorice]

Hum, if you're a bit iffy about ladders bear in mind that cherry pickers wobble about, not much but as you move from one side of the bucket to the other they will move. And if you are leaning out heaving on a rope attached to 30' of liner it'll definately move... Scaffold is very stable in comparision.

[Anna Kettle]

Good point. I've never actually been up in a cherry picker, just seen one. Maybe what I need is a cherry picker and a friend, so I can say "Go up and feed the liner in the top and I'll pull it through at the bottom :)"

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[The Natural Philosopher]

Not a bad idea if you have access close to - the pickers can't go sideways very far.

It is a gable end chimbly with a drive down the side u can get a 20 tonner, its ideal.

Scaffolding is not THAT expensive - its a half days work for a couple of men to erect and half day to take down - say 300 quid abs max.

[Anna Kettle]

It would have to stretch across half the roof cos the chinmey os on the middle

Not too bad then if I save up all the chimney jobs to do in one hit. I thought the scaffold would cost more than that. To my untrained eye a chimney scaffold looks complicated

Anna

~~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England |""""| ~ Lime plaster repairs / ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantels, pargeting etc |____|

01359 230642

[sylva]

The cheaper ones from the hire shop, e.g. the Nifty 120 we hire has a reach of ~4m from the outrigger and costs about GBP160/week. The self propelled ones with tracks (R18 at our local access hire) reach go 18m high with an outreach of 8m but cost ~GBP200/day.

AJH

[The Natural Philosopher]

Sounds ideal Anna, get reponting/repotting/liners installed and flashing all done in one hit.

Get some quotes from scaffold companies too - they are not normally too bad.

[Dave Liquorice]

The big ones, 200' high, really move. Tiddly ones aren't so bad.

Not sure I'd like to trying to man handle a liner up on cherry picker with no where to put it down to take the weight. Far better to have it down at the bottom lying on the floor and haul it up. For a woodburner the regs insist on a twin wall insulated liner, this isn't going to be particulary light I would have thought.

[Janet Tweedy]

In article , The Natural Philosopher writes

We've had a hunter multi fuel stove for about 20 years in a 1934 detached house. Has never been a problem apart from when the chimney got a bit gunged up as I was given a load of wood and it seemed to create a fair bit of tar. We have the chimney swept every 18 months and use it from October to about April, plus we keep the fir banked up at night. No problems so far, did the regulations for lining the flue come in after 1985? It was installed by a professional firm from whom I also bought the Hunter.

Janet