Wood burner chimey lining - Help!

MikeycIOM

Hi all,

I am aiming to install a multi fuel stove and have obtained a quote to have my chimey lined. We live in a victorian townhouse and the chimney has failed (smoke leaking in to bedroom above!) so we have no choice about re-lining the chimney.

I have received a quote of £100 per metre installed and they are using a stainless steel flexible liner (5" 904/316 grade) with a 25 year guarantee.

The chimney is 14m so £1400 total - ouch!

Has anybody had any experience with these flexible liners before? I read somewhere that 5" is the absolute minimum size but I assume this will be sufficient for a 6-8kw stove?

Also, the installer did not mention about insullation and reading other posts / sites, this seems quite important.

Hopefully someone can set my mind to rest that I'm not being ripped off or having the wrong thing installed

Thanks

Mike

w50nky

There are lots of posts regarding liners in this forum. If you search through you will find lots of opinions regarding liners.

Not all liners are of the same quality IMO. I spent ages looking into this prior to fitting my own six inch 904/904 grade liner as I intended to burn smokeless fuel as well as seasond wood. Cost of this top quality liner was £38 per meter I think.

If you search for the part j building regs it will help regarding flue sizes. Click this link for lots of useful info on stoves and fitting..
http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/stove_building_regulations.html

You can not fit a chimney liner smaller than the outlet size of your stove and most fitters will not fit a liner below six inch diameter regardless of stove spigot size.

A hot flue will draw better than a cold flue and insulation will keep your flue gasses hotter so should help to provide a good draw. This is especially true with longer flue runs like yours.

You do not state what stove you are interested in but if you look at
http://www.whatstove.co.uk/ there are many reviews from people who have bought various makes, it may be of some help.

I would recommend that you obtain several quotes prior to going ahead with this first quote. If you can find a recommended installer from friends or family all the better.

I am sure you will get a few more helpful replies from others in this forum shortly.

Good luck.

A._Badger

I think w5onky has pretty much covered it. I would only add that, in the case of my current and previous properties (the current one has a very tall chimney) I insulated neither, nor was it suggested that I should do by the installers.

It may be that there are circumstances where it's a good idea - there may even be some where it is necessary - but I can't help wondering just how many of these ever increasing 'must haves' from the stove business are as much, if not more, to do with increasing their profits than they are increasing our value for money.

For that reason, if I were in the OP's shoes I would get another two quotes.

crphillips

I'm assuming they're scaffolding the chimney if it's 3 storey. If so and the price includes scaffold then i think it is a good price. If it doesn't include scaffold then it's a bit on the high side but at the end of the day it's high season for us guys and a lot of fitters will take advantage of that and charge a fair whack for jobs that they don't really want to do. Unfortunately 3 Storey town houses come under the category of 'jobs they don't really want to do'.