Chimney Liner insulating regulations??

markus250

Hi all,

As part of money saving long term and the huge gas price increases we're having a wood burning stove in our house very soon while building works are carried out.

We are in a semi detached house and the chimney is in the middle of the two houses. It has an old liner in there from a back boiler and this is going to be removed and replaced with a metal stainless steel liner for our wood burner stove.

My question is do i need to insulate this chimney liner?? Are there any regulations that say i need to? Can't seem to find anything on the internet as so many conflicting views about it!

I don't want to have a liner fitted and then find out that some building regs say i should have insulated it!

I'm trying to money save too so if its not needed then i wont insulate.

Any help or links to any sort of current regs would be great!

Cheers,
Mark

fluffymuffy

Here are the Approved Documents for Combustion Appliances.
http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_AD_J_2010_V2.pdf

Approved Documents are not the Building Regulations. They are "deemed to satisfy" solutions. If you follow the Approved Documents then your Building Inspector will be happy. If you want to do something different then she/he will need to agree with you.

As long as you do not have anything combustible within the distances shown in diagram 21 then you don't need to backfill with insulation. To know that you would need to be certain that your brickwork is more than 200mm thick.

Ask your building inspector as they will need to sign it off in any case.

fluffymuffy

markus250 wrote: »

Can't seem to find anything on the internet as so many conflicting views about it!

Yes. So many "experts" out there. Only look at documents on websites with .gov in the title. Only take advice from a Building Inspector. You can find these at your local authority Building Control dept, and also there are private companies which provide Approved Building Inspectors. You can find them from links here - http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/howtogetapproval/wheretogetapproval/approvedinspector

(note how this link has .gov in it)

sandy2210

think the insulation is more to do with the smoke condensing inside flue and causing a build up of tar so whether required by regs or not it is to your advantage to have it insulated

BuildingFife

The insulation is not a regulation, merely an option. Not insulating the flue will not break any guidelines, and will save you money.

sandy2210

may save money in short term but it will bung up and either cause chimney fire or need replaced sooner

geoff45

Insulating the liner will help both reducing tar deposits, which will result in less sweeping needed and a longer lasting liner, and will also help the draw so it might end up being a bit of a false economy to not insulate it.

Given vermiculite can be found for £20/100lts or less it's not exactly bank breaking given the amount you're going to be forking out for the rest of the lining? Particularly if you're getting someone else to fit it (fires/stoves etc are a controlled thing so you should either be using a HETAS person who can self cert, or notify building control before you start and go through that route).