Installing a wood burner - advice please!

wintergirl

Greenfires wrote: »

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"

Agree with the above. When we had our twin walled flue put in the installer put in a 5 inch diameter one. By chance we found out that the minimum should be 6 inch for a non Defra woodburner. We went to HETAS first to see where we stood, as it technically wasn't building reg complient, and we weren't sure what response we would get from the installer. HETAS didn't want to know. Weren't interested that it would have failed building regs. Said perhaps we should tell the installer so 'he knew for the next time he had to put in a similar system' :eek:
As it was, the installer came up trumps, and when told him, he came back and replaced with the 6inch. Same hi-end spec flue as well.
I think you are better off getting referrals from happy customers than just assuming that if someone is HETAS they will be ok. Even though ours made a mistake, we would recommend him, because he made good his error quickly.

Leif

wintergirl wrote: »

Agree with the above. When we had our twin walled flue put in the installer put in a 5 inch diameter one. By chance we found out that the minimum should be 6 inch for a non Defra woodburner. We went to HETAS first to see where we stood, as it technically wasn't building reg complient, and we weren't sure what response we would get from the installer. HETAS didn't want to know. Weren't interested that it would have failed building regs. Said perhaps we should tell the installer so 'he knew for the next time he had to put in a similar system' :eek:

Shocking. More interested in job's for the boy's than protecting the consumer. Perhaps you should complain to the governing authority? There must be some body that regulates Hetas?

wintergirl wrote: »

As it was, the installer came up trumps, and when told him, he came back and replaced with the 6inch. Same hi-end spec flue as well.
I think you are better off getting referrals from happy customers than just assuming that if someone is HETAS they will be ok. Even though ours made a mistake, we would recommend him, because he made good his error quickly.

muckybutt

Greenfires wrote: »

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"

Been there a few times mesen recently, so much so that I now stopped recommending this particular set of hetas registered installers, having a shop is nothing to go by either....they have two !

Instead I now recommend a couple of independant hetas lads from one of the local towns, ive seen their jobs and they are bang on, they also install your own stuff if you decide to buy buy have claused to say we will fit but on your head beit if the materials fail we wont be responsible.

hethmar

I often wonder if people saying they are HETAS registered are genuinely so, or whether dodgey ones just give out duff certs and never register? The biggest shops round here tend to farm out the actual installations though they appear to do it in house, its just not so. The recent case where we found a stove connected to a gas liner :eek: was a job done by an installer sent out from a stove shop.

Just received the christmas HETAS newsletter:

"

PROTECTING THE HETAS BRAND

We processed a record number of applications for HETAS registration in 2012, and are proud to say that the HETAS brand is highly valued both by industry and consumers. However, not all installers make the grade and some are turned away as soon as we receive their applications. We spend a significant amount of time working with Trading Standards to help prosecute cowboy installers and those who pretend to be HETAS registered. We have used our trademark attorneys and solicitors for three separate cases this year, and two web sites have been closed down where they were abusing our brand and making false statements."

Leif

It sounds as if Hetas is almost as bad as CheckATrade.

hethmar

I think the biggest joke is the Guild of Master Craftsmen. The number of times that customers tell us their duff workmen for lots of different things are members.

As far as I can see anyone can join as long as they pay a sub.

mumf

I installed my own , ooh, must be 12 yrs ago now. There were no regulations then, I had to consult a builder,CORGI registered friend, and USA websites. True it is in an existing fireplace that has had 120 yrs of fires up it! I keep it swept and it is trouble free.
This HETAS thing strikes me as a jobs-for -the-boys racket, going on what I read here.

A._Badger

The GMC certainly is a racket. All it means is that a 'member' has paid to join.

The problem with HETAS, as I've said many times before here, is that it has been given powers by the government which no limited company should ever have. It has a virtual monopoly on stove installations and plays a worryingly major role in setting the regulations.

Alycidon

shakeitright wrote: »

We had a Hetas engineer quote us for installation and he said because we had a clay lined chimney it didnt need lining.

Providing you can get an airtight seal around the register plate or clay liner adaptor and the chimney is sound. Would still recommend a cowl for the top of the chimney pot to stop rain running down the chimney into the stove.

You will need a CO2 alarm as well.

A

Alycidon

A._Badger wrote: »

The GMC certainly is a racket. All it means is that a 'member' has paid to join.

The problem with HETAS, as I've said many times before here, is that it has been given powers by the government which no limited company should ever have. It has a virtual monopoly on stove installations and plays a worryingly major role in setting the regulations.

Anyone can install a stove, they need to install it to Approved Document J ( 2010) of the building regs. To do this first seek permission of the local building control to start work, once installed building control will inspect the work and sign it off if safe to use assuming it is safe to use.

An independent building inspector can also be used instead. If its not signed off and you have a fire your insurer may invalidate your insurance cover and you will be prosecuted for breech of building regs, fine can run into several thousand pounds depending on what has been done.

Hetas does not have a monopoly, any building inspector can sign installs off as safe to use. Yes it gives solid advice to govt, advise designed to stop people accidentally killing themselves or their loved ones.

My Hetas registered installer charges less to install a stove that the council building inspector does to visit and sign one off !!, yes I am a Hetas member but I tell it as it is.

A