Gas fire been capped off.

spinningsheep

My parents have a 30 odd year old Flavel Emberglow gas fire and they decuded to get it serviced last week as it hasn't been serviced in well over 15 years or used for that matter. The engineer they used came highly recommend. During the service after removing the fire from the wall she said there was an issue with the flue and was not safe to use, as it doesn't meet current building regs. The flue Is a precast one in the wall cavity (breeze block) with a terminal on the roof. She said that the reason was due to the depth of the cavity behind the fire and the draught required.

She showed my mum something in a book as well as she had just renewed her Gas safe registration. But I am had confused.

The house was constructed in 1977, a detached 3 bed. The original fire was an old teak cabinet one with 3 ceramic bars on. This was replaced by the current cast iron one in 1987. As much as it may not meet CURRENT building regs, surely this is irrelevant in 2017 as it was installed in 1987. Plenty of things in properties fall foul of current regs that were perfectly compliant in years gone by.

They were surprised but said it wasn't the end of the world as in the new year they plan to replace it with a gas fired stove like a wood burner, but she said this wouldn't be possible as the flue won't be usable with any gas appliance.

Is this right? She hasn't mentioned any remedial work to the fireplace, her suggestion was an electric one.

What's people's thoughts?

Debbie_Savard

Make work by the gas industry

Carrot007

There are two possibilities of problems upon checking gas appliances.

Not up to current standards but legal.

Not allowed anymore.

Only the second should have made the appliance be capped off.

bris

The minimum dimensions in block chimneys is not up for debate, if it doesn't meet them then it's dangerous and has to be capped.


There are other ways to install gas fires into the space with flue liners but that's for installers to determine if they want a new fire in it's place.

daveyjp

It looks like a confused message.

The old fire may have failed the smoke test, cast flues are notorious for it and they can fail to draw enough air to ensure fumes are drawn from the fire up the flue and they fill the room.

If it fails a smoke test the fire will be condemned.

If your parents are looking at a replacement they will have to have a cast flue fire.

If the new fire fails the smoke test the flue may need extra work to improve it. This could be either a wider roof vent, or a metal chimney extension installing at roof level.

They won’t know until the new fire is fitted whether the extra work will be required so budget for it.

bris

daveyjp wrote: »

It looks like a confused message.

The old fire may have failed the smoke test, cast flues are notorious for it and they can fail to draw enough air to ensure fumes are drawn from the fire up the flue and they fill the room.

If it fails a smoke test the fire will be condemned.

If your parents are looking at a replacement they will have to have a cast flue fire.

If the new fire fails the smoke test the flue may need extra work to improve it. This could be either a wider roof vent, or a metal chimney extension installing at roof level.

They won’t know until the new fire is fitted whether the extra work will be required so budget for it.

It doesn't look like a confused message, the op clearly states the minimum dimensions haven't been met, this is reason enough to cap the fire.

Owain_Moneysaver

spinningsheep wrote: »

As much as it may not meet CURRENT building regs, surely this is irrelevant in 2017 as it was installed in 1987. Plenty of things in properties fall foul of current regs that were perfectly compliant in years gone by.

Building Regs are not generally retrospective and you could have carried on using it perfectly legally, but gas fitters are required to work to current Gas Safety Regulations. Regs for flues in particular have been updated fairly recently and many older installations are getting failed.

If the fitter has actually disconnected the appliance and capped the pipe she must have considered it to be actually dangerous, not just Not Current Standards (NCS).

Jonesya

Assuming the flue isn't damaged and the issue is just the dimensions - suggest as an example, having a look at the new slimline, glass fronted fires.

For example the Valor Homeflame Dream Slimline will work with flue dimensions of 13,000mm2 which i understand was typical for early prefab flues, it also requires very little depth for the firebox.

Good article here:
http://www.installeronline.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/Stacking-up.pdf

Alex1983

I’ll double check but I think the minimum is 12,500mm2 anything under that is wrong.