log burner.

I'm looking to reuse my chimney for what it was intended for. I've had the gas fire removed. Does anyone know if I can just put a log burner in the empty space.

Cheers

 

I wouldn't. You need to have it looked at. A gas fire doesn't send much heat up the chimney but a log burner, even an efficient one, does.

I seem to remember there being concerns about CO2 also. I can't remember the details but I was thinking of doing what you're thinking of doing a while ago, and I looked into it then. There was some compelling argument about CO2 from a log burner vs a gas fire, but I can't remember what it was. Worth getting a suitable engineer in perhaps.

 

Thanks for the reply mate. Think I will get it done professionally.

 

You must use a registered HETAS installer as the installation has to comply with building regs.

 

They have changed the Regulations since we fitted ours. We had an engineer out who did a smoke test on the chimney and said that it was good enough. He also said that we did not need to line the flue. I think that now you have to have a liner. There are rules about the surface on which the stove can stand too.
Room ventilation is the same as it was for the Gas fire.

 

My father in law has one fitted and needed a whole new flue. Best get it checked out.

 

Thanks everyone

 

I find it very strange why a chimney that performed very well a few years ago needs massive amounts of money spent on experts and linings.
I'm assuming this was a gas fire fitted in an existing hearth with chimney.

Oh I know regulations change, but I sometimes wonder what it is all about.
I'm not suggesting you dont need to do things properly Mrtibbs, and the advice given is probably good. It just makes you wonder.

They will probably want to drill a massive hole through your wall, which you cannot close, (unless you stuff a sock in it), just to give you a bit of ventilation.
You could cut a couple of inches off the bottom of your "double glazed" front door, it would have the same effect.

 

Wood burning stove will deposit tar in the chimney (compared to an open fire) and there is a risk of fire an/or the tar (after a few years) coming through the brickwork and staining the walls - by which time it will be impregnated into the brickwork and thus hard to rectify.

Strikes me as daft that installing a stove means that a permanent hole needs to be made to outside, although I understand why. An alternative is to get a stove that has a piped air inlet to outside - then the air is only to the stove, and not permanently to the room.

 

I just had my gas fire plus back boiler replaced with another gas fire. They didn't put in a flue liner and insisted I had the entire chimney swept out before work began.

 

Temperature and Tar buildup are different perhaps? thus different materials required, and diameter to give appropriate "draw" perhaps?

 

When I was a kid we had an open fire and often burnt logs, although we used coal as well.
Had the chimney swept once a year, whether it needed it or not.