Replacing an old gas fire with a multi-fuel burner

Ectophile

My house was also built in 1968 and has a "pot lined" chimney, which I guess was standard at the time.

Both the salesman from the fireplace company, and the HETAS registered installer, had a look up the chimney and decided no liner was needed.

My stove just has a small section of flue pipe cemented into the bottom of the chimney.

laura1976

We had a little Stovax multifuel burner fitted about a year ago. For the complete job we paid £1680 which included the stove itself, the flue/liner which is like a thick double layer foil tube thing, the fitting, and they laid slate tiles we had bought to create a hearth which is really effective. Also we had to have a bar put in as a support where the fireplace has been opened up and bricked back up before, this was our choice because we weren't sure how solid it was. We also had a chimney sweep out to clean it before the pipe went up, but we paid him separately i think. So i think we paid about £30 for the tiles, so all together around £1800 for the whole thing including hearth. Still not had it rendered so it's a bit of a mess but that's just cosmetic and we are waiting to get dosh together for plastering the whole room, but the fire itself is lovely:)

Mojisola

Ben84 wrote: »

I'm wondering why change from gas to multi-fuel? Solid fuel is more expensive per kW than gas and requires storage space somewhere. Multi-fuel stoves tend to cost a lot more than gas appliances too and they use more expensive chimney liners as well. There's also the extra work involved with using and cleaning them.

We took out a gas fire and installed a stove. We have gas central heating but wanted to have some other form of heating in the house in case of power cuts, problems with gas supply in the future, etc.

What we've found is that the stove is so nice that we're using it more and more. When it's a horrible cold or wet day out and we've got the stove on with a casserole gently cooking using the same heat, we're very happy with our choice.

Ben84

Mojisola wrote: »

We took out a gas fire and installed a stove. We have gas central heating but wanted to have some other form of heating in the house in case of power cuts, problems with gas supply in the future, etc.

What we've found is that the stove is so nice that we're using it more and more. When it's a horrible cold or wet day out and we've got the stove on with a casserole gently cooking using the same heat, we're very happy with our choice.

In all these years of having mains gas, the supply has never stopped once. I guess it could happen though, I wonder if anyone has had their gas supply stop working and if so why it happened?

Mojisola

Ben84 wrote: »

In all these years of having mains gas, the supply has never stopped once. I guess it could happen though, I wonder if anyone has had their gas supply stop working and if so why it happened?

As we do renovations, we're trying to "future-proof" the house as far as possible. The UK is now buying gas from Russia and, having seen the Ukraine's supplies cut off, we thought we'd like another option.

Just because something hasn't happened to us yet doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.

Anyway, we love our stove. It looks good, works really well and we're using it a lot just for the pleasure of having it on.

Mojisola

Added to the above - the central heating needs electricity to function and we have had quite a few power cuts over the years. It's nice to know that next time it happens, we can just light the stove and keep snug.

funstuie

I recently purchased a house which had an old gas fire installed. On the survey it was suggested we should bin it as soon as possible.

I looked at the options and decided on getting a wood burner installed. I have access to about 6 months of wood and a tree surgen lives nearby and sells wood very cheap. I then went about researching stoves and chimneys etc, contacted as many local installers as I could find on the Hetas website but I could not get one out to even quote for the job. They were all so busy and as I wanted to buy my own stove didn't seem interested in the work.

In the end I purchased an Esse 125 stove, chimney liner, flue pipe, cement, fire proof render, fireboard (for the register plate), silicone, fire rope and am doing it myself.

I got the chimney liner in just before xmas with the help of a local roofer (£50 for use of his ladders but he ended up doing all the work). The liner was pretty easy until the last 4 foot from the fireplace it would just not move so I had to take some brinks out of the chimney put my arm through and pull the liner down. It's in now and sealed at the top. I haven't gotten any further as the builder I got to sort out the fireplace did it wrong. It's now too high so I have had to order another enamel flue pipe which hasn't turned up yet.

I am pretty satisfied with my option to go it alone. I will get building regs in when I am finished but as I will be doing everything by the book I am confident all will be good on that one.

I think most people are scared off by putting the chimney lining in but as I live in a bungalow it's not that high to be clambering about with a bit aluminium pipe. Rest is easily DIY work if you read up about it. It's something I wouldn't do half arsed as I have a wife and child and I have ordered alarms for all the rooms just to be safe.

Gloomendoom

Ben84 wrote: »

In all these years of having mains gas, the supply has never stopped once. I guess it could happen though, I wonder if anyone has had their gas supply stop working and if so why it happened?

I have had it happen... once in thirty years. It was off for five days when the temperature outside dipped as low as -7. Apparently, some plonker with a JCB ripped a big hole in the main supply pipe nearly ten miles away. Thousands of people were affected.

I wasn't too bothered. They paid me £30 a day compensation.

Contrary to what a lot of people would have you believe, wood is not a normally a cheap fuel and, with increased demand, it's only going to get dearer but if you've got access to free supplies it makes perfect sense.

muckybutt

funstuie wrote: »

fireboard (for the register plate)

Better off using a piece of sheet metal imho