Preparing for Winter V

SuzeQStan

Ye our sweep tried to raise prices by 25% (!!) last year and we looked elsewhere like many of their other clients and they backed down thankfully. They like everyone else have gone very expensive.  

fionaandphil

It's only £10 extra so will be £80 next year. Our wood is generally free and it saves us on the cost of oil so probably saves us more than that. We've been having it done for 20 years and it's only gone up £20 in all that time so I can't grumble too much.

Laura_Elsewhere

If you’ve ever seen a chimney fire, then you’ll know how vital it is to keep the chimney swept!! 

The last time I was somewhere with a fire and chimney, I had it initially inspected (entire flue and stack), certified and swept, and that was £150, and then having it swept after that was about £50. That was between 2000 and 2005, so it sounds like 80 quid as the new price is indeed pretty good! 
I cat-sat, for five years, ranging from a week to five months at a time, in a little cottage in the woods, a lodge-house for a ‘big hoose’ on a small estate. The actual renting tenants were Australian and warned me of the very expensive heating-oil costs and how much they got through, so I asked the owners for permission to get the fireplaces checked and working, and then I just gathered firewood in the surrounding woods and had very cheap oil-bills! Also, I greatly enjoyed the wood fires…

Cherryfudge

That sounds incredibly cosy @Laura_Elsewhere!