Replacing wood burner with smaller one - costs?

lindsaygalaxy

We are buying a house with a large woodburner that comes out into the room. We want to replace it with a smaller one that fits in the fireplace. The house is a probate sale and the people managing the sale do not know when it was put it or by whom (so we are not sure if it has been done properly).

Any ideas on how much it would cost to get this done?

Thank you.

silverwhistle

Might be worth asking on the wood-burning section of the Green Living Forum: plenty of expertise there. They will ask questions though: is the chimney lined, pictures of the existing set-up perhaps? Do you know what the existing stove is? For more recent installations there should be a plate giving installation details: mine is affixed to my meter boards.

You're going to have the cost of a new stove but beyond that it's difficult to say.

lindsaygalaxy

Thanks for your help. We're still waiting to exchange and can't see behind it (board up to block rest of fireplace) so no way to know at the moment.

Swipe

I hope that is not your only source of heating. Replacing a large free-standing stove with a small inset stove is going to leave a huge difference in heat output. I'd trial the big one first for a few winter months and see how you get on. Mid winter is a much better time to get this sort of work done when demand is lower, which means a better price and the fitter is less likely to rush off early to another job.