Installing a wood burner - advice please!

jennyjelly

Well everything really, from scratch. We're planning on a maximum of £1000 for the fire, so I suppose in addition to that we would be talking about chimney liner, cowl, labour etc. And the old liner and cowl (from the gas fire) will have to be removed. Complete newbies so not actually sure what else is involved!

muckybutt

Hi JJ, at current prices you can expect to pay between £1200 - £1800 for the fitting including the liner etc

jennyjelly

Many thanks for the info, it all helps us to budget. Slightly shocked at that I have to say, but we really didn't have any idea whether it would be low hundreds of into the thousands. At least we know the worst now!

Leif

muckybutt wrote: »

Hi JJ, at current prices you can expect to pay between £1200 - £1800 for the fitting including the liner etc

I paid about £1700 total including stove (£700), liner (bungalow), granite inner and outer hearth, making good the wall plaster, and installation. Prices varied a lot, and many charged at the top end of your quote. I'm not convinced price was a good guide to quality.

jennyjelly

Leif, I like your figure a lot more! We live in a fairly tall house so presumably that would make a difference, but £1700 INCLUDING the fire sounds quite good to me.

Greenfires

It can vary an awful lot. Installers can use bargain basement liner that will be lucky to last a few years or they can use good stuff. You can buy stoves for peanuts - doesn't mean you'll be happy with them - I did a sweep for an install last week - stove was there waiting so I had a look at it - absolute piece of garbage. None of the internals appeared to fit!

One job I went to as an emergency had cost the customer £1100. For that she got a Chinese stove - probably £300 tops, a register plate and a bird guard!! And they didn't even fit the guard properly - OR remove the nest that was blocking the chimney already, although they had ticked the box to say they had done. No liner, no proper clearances around the stove and a blocked chimney - nice job lads...!

Leif

jennyjelly wrote: »

Leif, I like your figure a lot more! We live in a fairly tall house so presumably that would make a difference, but £1700 INCLUDING the fire sounds quite good to me.

Yes, you'd need more liner, adding to the cost, and it might be harder to install. They might need a cherry picker. I think the installers I used could get away with ladders as the house is a bungalow with a gently sloping roof.

I went to a company with their own shop as I reckoned they were more likely to be kosher and not fly by night. I have had some bad experiences with trades, and having a shop does seem to weed out the cowboys.

They had a showroom, and lots of stoves, many running. A section of liner was on display though to be honest I cannot tell good from bad. I just assume that if they put the stuff on display, chances are it is okay and not carp. I talked to them a lot, and they gave me a lot of information about fireplaces, and so on, and the information was on the level. You will find out than some installers subcontract out some work such as plastering, which adds to the price. The installers I used had their own plasterers, and supplier of hearths. They also swept the chimney first. The local showroom quoted twice the price for a hearth, and sent me an expensive quote with orders to employ a sweep to clean the chimney before they visited. The local showroom also charged £35 for the quote. (Charging for quotes seems to be the norm here for stoves.)

You might also find that price reflects the income level of the neighbourhood. I noticed that in expensive areas they charged more. I should add that I only bothered with stove shops, not independent installers from Yellow Pages etc.

A._Badger

Greenfires wrote: »

It can vary an awful lot. Installers can use bargain basement liner that will be lucky to last a few years or they can use good stuff. You can buy stoves for peanuts - doesn't mean you'll be happy with them - I did a sweep for an install last week - stove was there waiting so I had a look at it - absolute piece of garbage. None of the internals appeared to fit!

One job I went to as an emergency had cost the customer £1100. For that she got a Chinese stove - probably £300 tops, a register plate and a bird guard!! And they didn't even fit the guard properly - OR remove the nest that was blocking the chimney already, although they had ticked the box to say they had done. No liner, no proper clearances around the stove and a blocked chimney - nice job lads...!

Presumably the installer was HETAS registered?

Greenfires

Yes Badger they were which makes it even worse. Makes me bloody mad when you're the one who has to tell the customer they've had their pants well and truly pulled down. She was straight on the phone to them and they said someone would get back to her. By the time I'd visited again, they'd been back and fitted a flue pipe with an access door - still no way of effectively removing anything resulting from the chimney sweep though - apart from what I could pull out by sticking my arm through the stove and up the flue pipe. They'd also asked her to sign something to say that she was fully satisfied with the job - which I was glad to hear she'd refused to do!

If she'd been on to HETAS, they'd have probably told her what they told me last time I phoned up grumbling - "we can't comment on individual business practices"

hethmar

HETAS dont seem particularly hot on culling the cowboys though their recent newsletter declared they were making inroad and that "eight businesses" had been removed from the register in the last 6 months and one application refused.

Considering there must be what 30,000 members now?? this is just a tiny drop in the ocean.