Can you tell if this would be suitable for Wood Burning Stove?

optimusgrime

Hello ,

Our house was built around 30 years ago.

I suspect it originally had an open fire but has had a gas one put in since:



I'm just wondering if it was originally an open fire does this make putting in a wood burning stove a simpler job?

I had a feeling that going from a gas fire to stove was more complex.

If anyone happens to know about this I'd appreciate it.

We're keen to get a wood burning stove in in place of the gas fire, but possibly not if it's very complex/expensive.

Thanks!

dathi

you will need an rgi to remove the gas fire and make the gas line safe,if you are putting stove on the hearth where the gas one you will need to extend the hearth to comply with building regulations as you need a min of 300mm of hearth in front of stove. and you will need to replace the gas flue with a solid fuel stainless flue,

Rows Grower

dathi wrote: »

you will need an rgi to remove the gas fire and make the gas line safe,if you are putting stove on the hearth where the gas one you will need to extend the hearth to comply with building regulations as you need a min of 300mm of hearth in front of stove. and you will need to replace the gas flue with a solid fuel stainless flue,

The hearth is fine if an insert stove is installed.

blackbox

Get professional advice on the flue.

My understanding is that a solid fuel stove requires a higher standard flue than gas as it must be able to withstand a chimney fire.

.

optimusgrime

Thanks very much for the reply guys.

If it was originally an open fire and had a gas fire put in would they have to have put in a flue when installing it?

Assuming I'd need to replace the flue how complicated/costly would that roughly be?

I'm just trying to get a feel for what the total cost would be to swap from what I have to wood burning stove.

I have done something similar OP.

I had an open drafty chimney with a gas fire (false coal thingy) in the fireplace and decided to get a solid fuel insert stove put in. I got the chimney inspected and they told me the chimney was leaking so I would have to get it lined.

The installation work was fairly straightforward as far as I can remember. They took the fireplace off the wall, removed the gas supply (stove installer was also RGI) and the fireback, the flue was just a flexi steel pipe that was dropped down the chimney. Install new insert stove and put the fireplace back together.
The whole job that was done in a few hours, I cant see removing an old flue adding much to it either.

As other posters have said, first step get someone who knows their stuff to check the chimney and find out exactly what is in there, anything else is pure speculation. From that you can decide what has to be done and get some quotes.

optimusgrime

Thanks for that, I was just keen to get general advice before finding someone to do the job.

I generally prefer to get impartial advice here as opposed to relying on the person selling the service, just in case they say "you need to do x" when its not needed etc.

Thanks again for the replies.

Rows Grower

One thing that hasn't been mentioned and it won't be a sales pitch is you will need to have the chimney lined outside the new flue with vermiculite.