Twin wall insulated chimney

Bluesky15

I have had a quote for £1900 to install a twin wall chimney for a wood burning stove. This price does not include cost of scaffolding, stove or hearth. its to fit the stove in downstairs lounge of 2 storey house in south east without a chimney. Can anyone tell me if this sounds reasonable please? Also if anyone can recommend any fitters, stove & hearth suppliers that would be great. The maximum output I have been advised to have is 5kw & needs to be DEFRA approved. Any stove recommendations would also be helpful thanks

Robwiz

It sounds on the pricey side to me so I'd definitely get a few more quotes. Where in the south east are you?

The make/model of stove is secondary to the quality of installation so finding an installer you can trust is most important. Word of mouth recommendations and online review sites are a good starting point (although some of these can be rigged).

We chose a Dowling stove. I liked the fact that steel stoves are more durable than cast iron and that they don't have any rope seals that need replacing. Plus they look a bit different and Steve Dowling gave great pre-sales advice and support.

Ask any potential installer to give you a few references of recent customers for you to call.

matelodave

We had a twin-wall flue fitted a year ago in a bungalow - so didn't require scaffolding.


I got four quotes, all from HETAS registered installers, £1685 inc Vat (EcoID flue), £2400 _ Vat (EcoID flue), £2200 + vat (Stovax Flue) and another one for "about £2-2.5k mate"


I actually chose the £1685 quote, he did a good job and the stove works perfectly.
(we sourced the stove ourselves - A Mendip Churchill 6 Pedestal - convection stove from Simply Stoves, the cheapest supplier by far incl free delivery). I suppose I could have sourced the flue myself as well and probably have saved the mark-up on it

suki1964

We paid £70 a metre. And hubby fitted it himself. Council signed it off

It's not a difficult job if you are at all DIY competent

Mister_G

I assumed that if the OP didn't have a chimney, this price was for an external flue.

These are considerably more expensive than a twin wall liner for an existing chimney.

suki1964

Mister_G wrote: »

I assumed that if the OP didn't have a chimney, this price was for an external flue.

These are considerably more expensive than a twin wall liner for an existing chimney.

Like I said , ours was £70 a metre, external twin walled flue As ours is upstairs it goes up through the ceiling, out of the roof and is anchored to the existing chimney stack. That chimney already has a stove

Bluesky15

Thanks for all the info, yes it is for an external twin walled flue. Have had another quote for £3.5k (eek) but this does include moving the radiator, slate, granite or glass hearth & a charnwood stove. They also said the plasterboard on the wall that the stove will be in front of has to be removed & the wall rendered as plasterboard is combustible & the quote includes this. The other installer did not say anything about the plasterboard so I wonder if this is necessary?

I am able to do basic DIY but do not feel able to do this myself, not good with heights & ladders !!

suki1964

Plasterboard is not combustible. With the right clearance you will be fine. Our stove is in the corner of a lounge , plasterboard behind. We tiled behind the stove just for appearance. The flue goes up through the ceiling and out of the roof.

I think you need to download the regulations for installing a stove because there are a lot of cowboys out there taking the unknowing for a ride. They are easy to understand ( even I could and I've no aptitude for DIY ) and will help you pick your installer. A good builder will do. You don't need a HETAS installer, you just pay the council to sign it off

There is an old thread on here with pictures of members stoves and installations. Try and find it to give you an idea of what you can have. Mum paid thousands for a sandstone installation and although it looks lovely in the summer when the stove isn't in use , it's a mare to keep clean in the winter. Hubby made our hearth out of tiles and plywood, cost around £50. We do have concrete floors

alleycat`

Suki is kind of right in as much as plasterboard actually has a fire "check" rating of about 30 minutes.
On that basis it can withstand a fair amount of heat before failure but it is not considered to be A1 fire rated (which i think is what your installer / quote is talking about).

One of the local stove shops near us has a stove with plasterboard almost directly behind it to show what happens.

It doesn't catch fire but it drys out and looks cracked and awful.

I used a product called "brick slips" to get around this.

The best advice, as Suki has given, is to have a good read of Document J -

http://www.planningportal.gov.uk/uploads/br/BR_PDF_ADJ_2002.pdf

You may then find you wish to tackle the job yourself or at least know who's stretching the truth a little when you get quotes in.

I suspect this time of year is also probably the "worst" time for you getting quotes.

It's the equivalent of buying an open top car in the middle of the summer.

Greenfires

A combustible material is any material that is not A1 fire-rated or to as high a specification as this. Plasterboard is officially a combustible material. Materials might have increased levels of fire resistance but this does not make them A1 fire-rated (e.g. pink plasterboard might be rated as holding back fire for “x” minutes but this is not the same as A1 fire-rated). A1 fire-rated means that it will not catch fire, full stop and it will not fall apart under fire

Chimney_Sweep_3

As Greenfires says its not classed as a noncombustible, it is coverd in paper after all, its a firecheck at best for 30-120mins on type. If you keep proper clearances it will be fine just may look poor after a year or 2 but the proper distances could be a meter depending on stove, also is it a stud wall ? more combustibles.
I have seen a few stoves that building control have passed they all had problems some dangerous ie beam close to flue pipe, flue terminal incorrect or wrong height. That said I weekly see poor installs by HETAs people.