Enjoyable video to watch as a log burning guy myself. I live in Brittany (France) which is a damp region and cut, split and season my own wood and would like to point out that in order to season your wood effectively you need to do the following; Cut it to size ( interior of burner less a little for ease of loading), split it immediately as green wood is easiest to split with an axe, stack the split logs on a pallet or anything that keeps them from contacting the ground, leave a gap of 1-2" between each log for airflow. The next layer up is laid on the opposite direction (90 degrees to the previous) . Air flow is what dries wood most effectively - not sunshine. If the bark is rotted - remove it as this is protecting the insects and holding moisture in. If the wood is dense (oak etc.) rotate the stack once a year so the wood at the centre becomes the external wood for a season. The smaller the log the fiercer it burns but doesn't last as long however pellet stoves are proving the effectiveness of burning smaller pieces of wood. Hope this helps anyone with a log burner 👍
I was quoted £4500 a few years back from a big company. I decided to open the chimney, plastered with lime, installed flagstones from a local stone yard. I simply had a small company install the stove and flue all for £1250. That includes a Hamlet HETAS eco stove!. I was very happy. So began trying to do everything myself. Too many companies try ripping you off.❤
How are they ripping you off, you done the chunk of the work yourself and paid someone to finish it so the costs would obviously be lower than paying a company to do the whole lot.
If you have time to spend on all of that good for you, but why should others do it for peanuts? Being in business is a constant expense with money leaking out of your account like a bucket with holes shot through it. If I do not turn over (turn over, not profit) 15k a month I start to slowly go broke and within a few months would be out of business. But it is all so so simple to you, it is simply greed and ripping people off. No one ever mentions how customers try to engage you in fraud against the government by asking for cash prices, oh no, the customer is snow white and full of righteousness! I have to embarrassingly correct them that I do not engage in that sort of stuff and I have to declare everything.
Furthermore, if a company and yourself agree to defraud the government together, what does that tell you about their character? (not to mention yours.) It tells you that they would rob you just as quickly if they can and they are more likely to be a cowboy and do sub-standard work which you would have no right to complain about afterwards.
Thanks and agree! I also like the fact that I can only be annoyed with myself over a finish as opposed to nitpicking someone else's work after paying a fortune!
If anyone is thinking of having a log burner installed they are brilliant but very costly to run. I have a multi fuel burner and now mostly burn coal. I live on a smallholding and have access to plenty of trees but the sheer hard work of cutting them up. Splitting them and then stacking became too much for me as I got older. Always split the logs before stacking as once they have dried out they can be difficult to split. Very nice job of installing the fire.
@@2frogland. Very low cost, we get free logs from local farmer when we let him use our field, it does take time, splitting, storing etc but it’s well worth it.
We're 80 and 77yrs, health problems, husband has to use tractor mower to get around, but we just love logging. Nothing better on wet days than getting down the barn and splitting logs, a pleasant change from stock fencing which is really hard work. Getting out there as much as we can is what makes life worth living, and the satisfaction of knowing we are independent is priceless.
gathering logs should be accomplished before the leaves fall.
9 дней назад
Burn un treated pallets mate.👍 most are free and easy to cut. You go through more but it’s worth it for free heat. Iv done it for 20 years 👍
9 дней назад+1
I was quoted silly money 15 years ago so I got a builder to drop a flue liner down then I looked up the REGS for other things and did it myself. I saved a small fortune. Still to this day I have had zero problems👍
I went a similar route as you, removing an open fire, enlarging the opening and installing a slate hearth. I then had the 5kw stove installed professionally. That was more than 15 years ago and we have had no issues. We do get it cleaned and swept annually.
Years ago i bought an old cast iron stove which after installed i stacked sauna stones either side. After the fire was out it radiated heat for upto four, five hours. Looked a bit rough but saved me a fortune.
I have so much respect for you doing a great deal of the work yourself. I have been in the building trade all my working life. I can say you done mostly everything right, well done.
It cost me less than £2000 for the wood burning stove, Hart and installation. All I had to do was build a fire surround that I wanted to look antique. It's amazing what you can do with some 2x4 and some trim. I'm loving my stove. It's used to make coffee, toast, fry eggs and I've recently cooked jacket potatoes in the fire. Fantastic investment.
i fitted an insert stove Myself , was a lot of work , And i am a Bricklayer. You Done a Great Job , only prob i had was when the Liner sent was wrong diameter , they just said bin the liner and sent the size i ordered , Your Cost figures are pretty spot on , Mine cost £160 .00 to get inspected and passed by local council planning . Great vid . 👍
Recently replaced my open fireplace with a multi fuel stove, though I use mostly wood. Total cost £3k.including a very efficient stove from Saltfire. I enlarged the fireplace and rebuilt the hearth myself and got a good local HETAS installer to line the chimney etc. fire-board the internal fireplace and do a bit of plastering. Very pleased with the result.
We use those fire logs. Used to use a whole one each time. But then we cut them into thirds, and they work perfectly. Our burner is larger than yours, so I would defo recommend doing that as would be sure to work for yours too. Makes them last longer, and is better value for money.
Good on ya, Girl, doing it yourself. I'd been quoted silly money from a tiler to put heat resistant glass tiles around my fireplace. One guy said he'd do it, then didn't show and blanked my calls. The second guy wasn't available until mid December, and hadn't sounded too confident initially. So, I did it myself. Cut the hardie board with an angle grinder and used a wet saw for the 'infamous for splintering' tiles. I have to say, I've done a great job. Much better than I reckon the tilers were gonna do with all their humming and arring about working with glass. I'm so glad I tried it, as not only do they look amazing, I've saved a ton of cash too.
Brilliant video, i had a log burner installed 4 years ago. The installation refused to give us a HETAS certificate, i phoned HETAS up, and they told me that it was not compulsory.
They are really lovely for a feature addition to a central heating system - to heat a home and provide hot water they are a full time job and need to be a lot bigger than yours. I had a huge cellar based woodburner as a plumbed in addition to a gravity heating system which worked well when needed, I also had access to free hardwood by the tonne - only had to chainsaw it and split it - a couple of weeks in the summer saw 8 tonnes done and stored - 25 years later things are different. Once the novelty wears off, the mess and blowback smoke starts to rankle - I moved to a smaller property and fitted a multifuel stove with backboiler which should have coped with heating and hot water . It did not, unless completely stoked - which then overheated the room it was in. Then the wood source dried up - another thing about wodburners is if you go out for more than a few hours, they have to be re-lit - that was the reason I fitted a multifuel stove - initially this was OK - 25kg of smokeless fuel in the UK was £ 4.50 - fast forward to 2024 and the price is £ 14.50. Not only that , coke is no longer made in the UK - the only fuel available in my area is a molasses bound briquette of questionable content that produces about 50% ash and very little heat. Just fitted a Worcester Bosch 30kw combi - the stove has been taken outside , sanded and re-sprayed with hi-temp anthracite paint, re-installed, a new cowl on the chimney - and best of all a lcd fire effect screen installed in the firebox. A load of hardwood logs arranged around the stove so I can take out the lcd screen and fire it up if I feel like it - best of both worlds.😮
Fantastic job, you should be very proud, not many people would tackle this kind of DIY project. I did mine about 15 years ago and of course things were much cheaper then but it's still there burning away in winter and makes Christmas that little bit more special. Stove prices have tripled in that time, so have commercial fuels. Many people are under the impression a stove will save them money, but that is very unlikely. My daughter has a huge log burner installed that heats the entire house through warm air ducting, but that's on an entirely different scale.
Hi Vikkie, Your log burner and fire surround looks amazing, I would love that in my house. Thanks for showing the break down on the costs and every thing involved with this build project, enjoy. Great video, take care
Out of the three of you, we believe Hans is the happiest ~ We can see his bed being in a permanent pride of place next to the front of the fireplace ~ You should be very proud of yourselves for such a fantastic job and all that you've accomplished ~ Not withstanding the hot tub and gardening installations ~ Sending a round of high fives your way🙌🙌🙌 ~ Lacy, Mike & Hamish🐾 Be well ~
Excellent work on the build. doing it yourself mean you can build it to your own specifications and with the materials you prefer. A builder will use what they can get cheaper but charge you a premium. and unless you know the quality of the builder, you could be left in a right mess. I have been enjoying these videos and learning along with you has been a pleasure. Well done to you both.
Thank you and I absolutely agree! I'd much rather be disappointed with my finish than paying a premium for something I'm not happy with and possibly could have done netter myself
I put my own stove in back in 1997 before it was a "big thing". I can see how prices have skyrocketed since then. The only work I had done was the builder opening up the fire place which had been closed off for a shitty gas fire. Other than that I did it all myself. Saved me a fortune over the years.
To be honest most of the jobs you do are way beyond my skill levels but the knowledge you share is invaluable in helping to reduce the chance of getting ripped off.
Another fantastic video fire and end product looks fantastic. Showing all your costings and pointing out mistakes along the way. A true example of how it should be done saving money and giving people who like DIY the courage to give it a go. A fantastic DIY role model 👍🏻👍🏻
Nice job one tip when you’re cutting the tiles with a wet tile cutter stand the other side of the cutter an pull the tiles towards you and you won’t get wet
To use a wood burner regularly, you will be ordering a few loads of log over the winter. Try to order in the summer months if you have the storage. Also, a multi fuel burner will give you more options for fuel, and save having to load up every hour or so with wood
I had a price for a full install of a gas flame fire installer, £8,500 for them to come in and open up the fireplace, close it down to a hole in the wall set up, then install a £600 gas fire. They wanted, and told me I had to have it, £1,800 for an inspection of the work THEY DID, to certify it fit and ready to install the fire. As you can guess, I did the building work myself, had the chimney swept, brought the fire for £600 on line, and had a gas engineer for it for £275 and certify his installation. Shops just think we are mugs and push the price sky high.
Great video with quality post production on the script! Very precise on the important parts... saves time of the viewers taking the full advantage of the time!!
Nice work! Grabbing a copy of Part J helped me - managed to do ours for just over £500 and £120 of that was for Building Control to "approve" it - fortunately I already had a clay-lined flue so the only costs were the stove (5kW so no air brick needed) and the pipes to go from the outlet and expand out to 8 inches to connect properly to the chimney with the cleaning trap below - the enamel pipework came to almost as much as the stove did...the inspection was basically me sharing some photos to explain what I'd done and the clearances etc, then a spotty teen from the council came and took a photo and it was signed off 😅Been installed for 12 years now (BC was happy with dot and dab plasterboard on the breast, no issues), I sweep it myself and there's minimal tar build up - a stainless and insulated liner would be a nice future addition and relatively easy to do being a bungalow. It seems to be one of the few things that can still be done DIY rather than farmed out to so-called professionals...
I got installation quotes for my wood burner in our bungalow. They seemed outrageously expensive. One installer tried to tell me how difficult these things were. I decided to install it myself. I downloaded the part J regs and made sure everything I did was going to be compliant. The whole installation took me less than a day and the trickiest part was cutting a ceiling joist and boxing back around it to maintain integrity where the flue passed through. I only had to remove one roof tile. The council inspector signed it off without any problems at all.
@@alanhat5252 indeed, but that is also a cause of potential tar build up as the heat is lost into the chimney breast and subsequently causes the flue temperature to drop and thus condense out the vapours in the exhaust - had my existing clay lining not been relatively new and sound then the only option would be to line and insulate around it as recommended…a bit more heat lost but less chance of tar forming as the hot gases are exhausted properly 👍
I simply dismantled the fire place and put the stove straight into the chimney hole on the ceiling. No hearth, no backplate, no tiles, no nothing. Its going absolutely fine for the past 3 years. Laminate flooring with just a BBQ antifire mat. I use it the whole winter too, 12kW stove the only heating in the house.
I agree, smaller stoves burn very efficiently because you don’t have to put a whole tree in to get them combusting correctly. The large ones seem like a good idea, but if you only burn a few splits at a time it’ll just smoke and look awful, or extinguish itself. 👍🏻
Started watching this and thought you were just prepping the area for a pro to come and do it all! Fair play to you girl, you've done an excellent job there!! We had an old Charnwood multi stove with a back boiler in the kitchen of our old Cotswold stone cottage when we bought it 18 years ago. Took it out to refurb the cottage and wrapped it in plastic bin liners and was in the outhouse for 2 years. There's a massive fireplace in the lounge, so I took the stove apart, stripped and repainted it in heat resistant paint, new glass, re-ropped it and had a liner dropped down the chimney, then all fitted up by a HETAS fitter all for £1250-00. Just lit her now for the first time this winter, bliss!
We installed a large fully eco wide screen log burner (on special offer) and a complete new double wall flue for £2,200. I did the work to get through the wall but the did everything else. We were quoted £6,000 by another local supplier who made everything sound like a big deal. The flue is easy to sweep and I can do it myself, or pay £70 a year to have it done. Logs cost us around £200 a year - though we have space to store and season a lot and we buy cheaply from timber fellers. We have an electric splitter that cost £70 and is very good, though the woodsmen usually deliver them ready split by the lorry load. Good value all round and very effective.
Im impressed i used to fit burners you done well. The company i worked for used to buy the chimney liner for £150 and sell it to the customer for £1,000
Lovely job well done! Save yourself the annual cleaning costs too by buying the rods and brush. We bought the one you connect to your drill and slowly spin as you push it up the flue. Just make sure to seal off the stove as much as possible because the soot travels a few metres. It's amazing how much heat they output, we only have an 8Kw and it gradually heats an entire 4 bed old stone cottage. Motorised log splitters are great, but we found putting a few into an old tyre and striking them with a splitter maul was faster and sometimes they are too simply big for a splitter. Sourcing, splitting, stacking and burning wood warms you a few times 😂 enjoy the reward of your great efforts!
@Tonisuperfly works really well, especially with a larger tyre but don't pack them too tight else the head will get stuck in a log. If you can, try to keep the tallest logs in the center, or if you cant fit many in keep them to the back, basically so the handle doesn't catch on the taller logs as you strike the shorter ones. You can always walk around and strike from different angles. Far easier to pick everything up after, beats it going everywhere 😂
The final product looks so nice and cozy, and I am slightly jealous. I am okay with general DIY and mid-level carpentry, but I would not tackle this job. I don't have the time, for starters, or confidence to get it anywhere near you level of finish. You are a talented person.
Hi Vicky, you do not need a Hetas installer if you are competent and can do it yourself, I did mine myself and involved building control from the start, I have a certificate issued by building control so all above board. You didn't mention having a CO meter or having the relevent notice plate fixed to the wall in one of the designated positions either, maybe you could add those points in a later episode, keep up the great renovation work. 👍
Personally I wouldn't tackle anything like that, but I also wouldn't spend that much on one area of the house decor either. I spent £12,000 modernising the entire house. Anything that wasn't possible with cheap materials was ruled out from the start. That said, homes are personal, and we all think differently about what we want and are prepared to spend. Looks lovely 👍
A really good and thorough job. I did a similar thing 10 years ago for 1600 including the stove, but I wasn't tiling much and used the original victorian hearth so saved a lot there. I got an ex-demo stove too, which saved me about 600 quid! Your installation is clearly correct and part J compliant, but you don't mention getting building regs signoff? I did this direct with local building control officer, but I understand you can also use an independent inspector. Mine cost 300 or so, and that means you can complete the obligatory boiler plate which needs to be kept with the stove in the alcove or in the electricity meter cupboard. Best tip I had for the whole job was: find a paint tin just slightly bigger than your flue diameter, then lower it down the chimney to check the flue will pass before you spend 400 quid on a stainless flue!!
Created an Inglenook fireplace Stone clad with wooden lintel all in excluding fire fitting but including cost of new fire Just under £4000 whilst I was Building a new fireplace I took a feed from the 240 V electrics and put a spare inside the top of the fireplace which I now use to plug-in ambient Mood lighting. All in all looks absolutely amazing and far better from the 1970s fireplace that was Here when we moved in
If you feel that your fire isn’t quite warm enough….may I recommend the Recoheat. They are brilliant in adding another kilowatt to the output of your stove BUT it helps to heat far more than your one room! Have a look at them…they are brilliant and can be retrofitted.
If i may add my tuppence worth! I've lived with wood burners most of my life and i think a lot of people under estimate the cost and work involved feeding these beasts. If anyone thinks they are cheap to run, think again, the cost of seasoned hardwood has rocketed in recent years because of the rise in popularity of these burners. Do the maths, gas most of the time believe it or not is cheaper. I collect my wood throughout the year from where ever i can get it free. I work in the building trade and 2 years ago gutted a 250 year old cottage that was full of huge oak timbers and that will last me 3 seasons easily. 10 years ago i brought a whole oak tree that had been felled due to rot, that tree lasted me 6 seasons! For free.. And, wood takes up a lot of space, a lot, and is hard work to cut up and stack. Great work by the way, i'm a tiler and very familiar with those tiles and they are not the easiest to work with. Enjoy your burner, and the dust!
Excellent job - very well done. We had to have two flues relined, a multifuel transferred from one room to another and a new multifuel installed (both were 5KW), two new registration plates, and the top of a chimney rebuilt (with scaffolding). I didn't feel that I could do the job myself and would certainly have needed an engineer to commission everything. The breast of one was covered in horrible plaster, which I removed by hand to expose beautiful victorian stone work (which I cleaned, restored and repointed myself). The other breast, an inglenook, we were simply able to use as it was. I think we ended up paying about eight thousand for everything. This is in the centre of Devon. I didn't feel ripped off, everything was done properly and the new fire was a very decent make. One thing I noticed, and I may have missed it : we had both of our flue liners insulated as we were told that it would improve efficiency. Were yours insulated? One recommendation regarding the logs: we harvest wood from our land in a similar fashion to yourself. I'm pretty handy (and careful) with our chainsaws but cutting branches and trunks safely can be problematic and slow. Whipping is a particular problem with irregular shaped branches , as is cutting the wood to the correct length consistently so that it fits in the fire. We bought one of these www.truncator.co.uk/product/4-fold-chainsaw-sawhorse/ . It is utterly brilliant and so, so much safer. I have no affiliation to the company, so there is nothing in it for me. Regarding log splitters, yes they make a massive difference. It would be hard to make a recommendation as we have a hydraulic one which we connect to the aux spool on our tractor. A decent electric one which can be set to a given depth of plunge and then just used with what comes off the truncator would make short work of log splitting. We now have approximately three years worth of logs stacked and drying for use - all free of charge - once the cost of the equipment has been recovered.
Good morning 🌅, very nice job, 👍🏻, I live France, I installed my log burner myself, free standing in the room, 18 Kw , I think it was few years ago, it heats my lounge dinner and kitchen, 7X12 Mt , I am in the process of insulating my walls and ceilings and floors, Pity you couldn’t remove the whole of your chimney stack , and install a modern wood burner play very nice feature for decor, Good luck with your future projects , and yes a log splitter is very well worth the money, I’ve got a quite large electric one, I can’t remember if it’s eight or nine ton, ❤ from France.
It's gorgeous! We have a log burner in our holiday home here in Sweden. At first we had planned to build it in like this until we started collecting quotes. Finally we had a free standing one, that can double as a stove, installed by a proffessional. My father built the foundation, tiled the surrounding walls and constrcted a rather nifty wood storage from mostly recycled materials. Total cost was roughly £800 when we had it done 10 years ago.
@TheCarpentersDaughterUK My brother reminded me that we installed a cover-thingie above the chimney as well for an additional £200 a few years later after the chimney sweeper recomended it.
In England we say 4x2, just in case you think you are in the US ;) IF you render at 7:1 it rarely cracks. I did my own using 6in steel pipe with a 3mm wall for the liner, I don't like those flimsy stainless things. It took some doing but I managed it in the end and now my 12kW log burner is roaring nicely without the worry of those flimsy liners breaking, I know some chimneys don't have the gauge to fit a 6in steel liner but mine will last over 2 lifetimes, which is ideal for anyone who comes after me.
Always buy the best stove you can afford. fitted our Clearview 650 34 years ago never needed any maintenance used 24/7 throughout the winter months the best £800 I have ever spent.. it’s a brilliant piece of kit and keeps the whole house warm.
Hey Vikki. Amazing job, looks fantastic. Just in the process of starting this project myself and was doing some googling after having rip off quotes thought id do it myself!! Came across your video which already has helped me immensely. Looking forward to watching some of your other videos as a media wall is next on my list and see you have done one of those too. lol Thanks for such detailed and informative videos. Wish you all the best!
I got a dik geurts Ivor 8 installed earlier this year, it’s fantastic. The Yorkshire flu specialist did it, I’m in Slaithwaite. Good price, nice clean job and sound advice, I recommend them👍🏻👍🏻
brings back memorys of being in my grandparents cottage with a proper open wood/coal fire at christmas time snow outside and my sat inside making toast on the fire.... Great times.
*Vikkie, a great break down overall for the cost factor, in your neck of the woods in England.🙂 You &MCD both did an amazing job and your fireplace looks absolutely amazing.🙂 Plus you also have heaps of wood around your property to last you a very long time.🙂 RE: Log splitter will you look at a big one or look at getting the genuine NZ invented and made by a kiwi teenager Ayla Hutchinson, 'Kindling cracker'. Originally all made in NZ,. Sadly others are copying and selling it cheaper... but not of the same great quality..🙂nz*
Well me and my mate installed mine ..... so no certificate. This might be a problem when (or if) I sell, but I knew that beforehand! There is a big difference to the ventilation required compared to the size of the burner. Larger need an outside vent. This seems to defeat the purpose when you suck cold air into your room to heat it up and throw then then throw hot out of the chimney. I did research the regs and complied with them so it was done properly. They do change the regs but there is usually a legacy clause so that it is OK if it was OK at the time of instillation. My 5Kw burner is enough to heat my main room of 12" x 25". I have a couple of those heat operated stove top fans and this year I have repurposed a fan used for blowing air around in the summer heat. I did get a speed controller for it so I can have it set just right ....... and it works Brilliantly! My burner is a dual fuel type. I have burned wood both bought and harvested myself (I got 2 years of heat when two old terraced houses had their internal joists replaced) 100 year old oak is Really good! Cutting them down whilst missing all the nails was interesting though! The last couple of years I have seasoned wood bought and pallated in. This too works well but is not so cheap. Using wood I have felled and seasoned myself works well too ...... but you need to watch what type of wood you put in there! This year I have turned Heretic and gone for coal! There are several makes of smokeless fuel available and it works out (up to now) on a par with wood price wise. The main difference I have found is wood lights easily but you can't just stoke it and leave it for more than an hour! With coal you need to learn how to light it and once it is burning well you can forget about it 6 hr burns are a reality ...... and you can easily stoke it after that and have it going all day! If anything I have found bed calling me whilst the coal is still burning ..... but with a closed burner that is not a problem eather! The biggest drawback is Ash! If I have it in all day and night i need to empty the ash pan whilst it is still burning so not the best and care is needed. Some folks used to have a metal bucket by the fire for this purpose! One task you do need to keep up with is sweeping the chimney! Professional cleaning is quick and easy but I suspect I may be part Yorkshire and so begrudge the expense and do it myself (cough) ...... I mean I take great pleasure in being self sufficient enough in my 60's to clean my own! I got a "Chimney Typhoon" brush set on e-bay and with a drill can do the whole thing in half an hour! I would get less than a pint of ash out after a year (well a few months because Summer). I did get a special ash attachment for my vac though for £30. It is just a cyclone that you plug your hose into and hoover all the ash up without it clogging the filters up. I do have to say yours looks better than mine though! Jealous? Moi? ....... Dead right I am ;o)
If you haven't had your stove installed by a professional HETAS registered installer and certificated, your home insurance company will not pay out if you have a fire. The risk of a fire is also higher if you're burning coal on a regular basis as the heat is on another level compared to wood.
@@StephenOverthrow You are not wrong ..... although I knew this when I did it. I am not in a normal situation and could afford to make any insurance prove that my instillation was at fault in order to not pay! Good point about the coal. Also if you have a brick flue and have run gas heating through it it can combine with the soot and form an acid strong enough to demolish your chimney over time! You should research before you do anything!
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK Fresh-cut logs are easier to split than seasoned. If you buy a good axe, you will be able to cancel your gym membership as well 😁.
Great video Vikkie this really showcases how much work and effort you put into a beautiful finished project and is inspiring to people to have a go themselves - If you want some lovely heat I recommend coffee logs I brought some for a friend last Christmas and were blown away at how much heat they create and they didn't cost a lot
Try a bag of hotmax, if the sell them near where you live, certainly the best wood based briquettes I’ve used. Prices vary so shop around. They do throw out some heat so make sure you keep an eye on you pipe thermometer and regulate your stove to suit.
You will be surprised how quickly you get through logs, start planting some trees for the future. Great job on the fire place. price for 12kw fire looked a good price TBH. That's a lot of heat BTW, 5kw is more than enough if you want to sit in the room, even on the coldest days we have to have all the doors in the living room open.
Hi Vicky. Of all the issues you've expertly addressed in this video, I'm sure the ones you'll get the most comments about are how to best light the stove & how to split / season the logs!
Kind of over engineered because you only really needed cement board for the opening. The facing doesn't get anywhere near hot enough to need it. However, that said you ended up with a very nice result. Double sided would have been fine as long as you sized the lintels properly. With a burner and stainless flue there is no issue with toxic gasses escaping so double sided opening wouldn't be a problem. One thing to make sure with any burner is that you have adequate ventilation in the room and have a carbon monoxide detector installed just to be on the safe side.
Looking really nice Vikkie 💜I would do the same as you.... have a go myself 💜a massive saving on the quote 💜plus you know it was done properly 💜 a nice place for Hans to snuggle up on his bed 😊xx💜xx
Hi Vicky absolutely well done. If you had a look through you tube clips on granite kitchen tops you would find it is also possible to cut and finish granite to a fully acceptable standard at home, though it is heavy and requires patience.
There is quite a lot of work involved to install a log burner , the price quoted is not out the ballpark . Of course if you started to include all the extra work you have done yourself then I would think you would probably be getting into the £10k territory . Definitely the key to the success of your project is the installation of the cement board , which should prevent any future cracks . Ironically it’s the sides that take the most heat . I must admit I’m all four just exposed brickwork in the opening, which can be painted with just plain old mat emulsion . Yes you can play a blowtorch on a painted brick , till the cows come home and will never catch fire . As for the finished job it looks very impressive , and probably better than many so-called trades people would produce . Best wishes and kind regards
watched a post in passing the other day and they showed that it was worth doing your moisture content test on the split log so you are testing inside the log rather than just the surface, he was checking whether covered or uncovered stacks were better too, might be worth a look ,sorry but I dont know the title as I say it was just a quick look in passing.
Love the little fan. Makes such a difference to the room temperature. I use a double, though because my stove is in a nook between the chimney and the wall. (The hatch we use to remove the soot after the chimney is swept is on the other side of the chimney.) Had a guy build heat-resistant walls around the nook to follow local regs. Then I tiled the floor to fulfill fireproof requirements there, and heaved the stove into place. Then it was just a question of drilling lots of holes in both the outer and inner section of the chimney, make a mess with a hammer and chisel, fit a collar on the inner tube using special cement, and fitting the smoke tubes. Does NOT look as nice as your does... ;-) That log burner is it a Clean Burning Stove? It doesn't look like it(I only see one air adjustment) We're only allowed to install Clean Burning stoves here in Norway. A CBS that's used correctly produces only a 10th of the soot as a regular stove. And they can reach efficiency of up to 80%. A regular woodstove gets up to 50%, and an open fireplace is around 30%, and also draws so much air that it can drop the temperature in neighboring rooms. Of course, a CBS that's misused is more properly labelled a CO generator. None of that 'stuff it full of wood in the evening and close it almost entirely' like people used to do. That kills the secondary ignition zone, and it starts spewing smoke and CO.
It seems to be this one from Chesney so I believe so? “The Beaumont 5WS MK3 Series wood burning stove is DEFRA exempt for use in smoke control areas which means it can be safely and legally used in all major towns and cities throughout the UK. It produces minimal emissions that are one tenth of the level that a comparable DEFRA exempt stove is permitted to produce and has an efficiency rating of 86.4%. 4.9kW Output 86.4% Energy efficiency rating”
@@nicolad8822 That sounds like a CB type stove. I'm still puzzled by only one easily visible adjustment, though. England began requiring these in 2022, but only in certain areas? We got a blanket ban on installing older model woodburners in 1998 here in Norway. The only exception is 'historical' stoves in old buildings. And by 'install' it even counts if you just want to move the stove to another side of the chimney(if the chimney is part of the wall between rooms, for example) or any other operation that requires a new hole in the chimney. So there's still a lot of older wood burners around.
I always use manufactured wood briquettes, they have better environmental credentials being made up of waste material, they’re more calorie dense than natural logs and they create such a small amount of ash that you only have to clean the fire out once every couple of weeks. AND they’re cheaper to buy than logs! :D
Hi Vikkie i said it would good and it does, fantastic job, proud of you having ago with these projects that some could not do, keep it going the house will be beautiful in the end😀
I believe you're talking about the bricks, that in my case go back and forth sat on top of the lintel. (You're probably better watching the full lintel video with drawing) but the only thing not necessarily supported is a mortar join, but because the chimney is so narrow, the other half of the bricks are either tied into the back of the chimney, or resting on my lintel. You'd need to watch my video and see my sketchup drawing. I did consider adding another 2 lintels (one sat on my new lintel, either side going backwards) but found it didn't need it.
@TheCarpentersDaughterUK yeah, possibly called feathers when they separate two chimneys I see that now , all tied in throughout so should be solid enough 👌
We have a log burner due to the simple fact we live in a forest and can access firewood cheaply (£50 license for 3 months of 'gathering' in areas that have been farmed - leaving 1m lengths of logs as scrap). One licence is usually enough to gather wood for 2 years burning. That said, if we have to buy processed wood it costs £60-80/bag (about a cubic metre) and we need 8 bags for a season so £500+. If we installed a flueless gas fire (about £1,000) we would use only 6 bottles (47kg) for the season and at £70/bottle is CHEAPER than buying processed wood, a LOT cleaner and a LOT less trouble. We're getting old enough to be considering simplifying our lives so a new gas fire is right on the cards.
For people who are going to sell later it’s better to get a professional installer. Mine was signed off and certified. They also have to add a carbon monoxide detector. I will be selling in future years so it was worthwhile in the long run it was £4300 approx in 2022
We had a stove fitted last year. We went for a local independant company. Some larger companies sub contract the work out so no guarantee they know what they are doing . You also need a reliable log delivery company. Wouldn't be without our stove
Enjoyable video to watch as a log burning guy myself. I live in Brittany (France) which is a damp region and cut, split and season my own wood and would like to point out that in order to season your wood effectively you need to do the following; Cut it to size ( interior of burner less a little for ease of loading), split it immediately as green wood is easiest to split with an axe, stack the split logs on a pallet or anything that keeps them from contacting the ground, leave a gap of 1-2" between each log for airflow. The next layer up is laid on the opposite direction (90 degrees to the previous) . Air flow is what dries wood most effectively - not sunshine. If the bark is rotted - remove it as this is protecting the insects and holding moisture in. If the wood is dense (oak etc.) rotate the stack once a year so the wood at the centre becomes the external wood for a season. The smaller the log the fiercer it burns but doesn't last as long however pellet stoves are proving the effectiveness of burning smaller pieces of wood. Hope this helps anyone with a log burner 👍
I was quoted £4500 a few years back from a big company. I decided to open the chimney, plastered with lime, installed flagstones from a local stone yard. I simply had a small company install the stove and flue all for £1250. That includes a Hamlet HETAS eco stove!. I was very happy. So began trying to do everything myself. Too many companies try ripping you off.❤
How are they ripping you off, you done the chunk of the work yourself and paid someone to finish it so the costs would obviously be lower than paying a company to do the whole lot.
Good on you mate, everyone out to rob you today they dont deserve business 👍🏼
Did you expect them to work for free?
If you have time to spend on all of that good for you, but why should others do it for peanuts? Being in business is a constant expense with money leaking out of your account like a bucket with holes shot through it. If I do not turn over (turn over, not profit) 15k a month I start to slowly go broke and within a few months would be out of business. But it is all so so simple to you, it is simply greed and ripping people off. No one ever mentions how customers try to engage you in fraud against the government by asking for cash prices, oh no, the customer is snow white and full of righteousness! I have to embarrassingly correct them that I do not engage in that sort of stuff and I have to declare everything.
Furthermore, if a company and yourself agree to defraud the government together, what does that tell you about their character? (not to mention yours.) It tells you that they would rob you just as quickly if they can and they are more likely to be a cowboy and do sub-standard work which you would have no right to complain about afterwards.
When checking the moisture content of the logs, split them first. The exposed ends will always be lower than the centre.
The satisfaction of the final look must be included. It really does look superb.
Thanks and agree! I also like the fact that I can only be annoyed with myself over a finish as opposed to nitpicking someone else's work after paying a fortune!
If anyone is thinking of having a log burner installed they are brilliant but very costly to run. I have a multi fuel burner and now mostly burn coal. I live on a smallholding and have access to plenty of trees but the sheer hard work of cutting them up. Splitting them and then stacking became too much for me as I got older. Always split the logs before stacking as once they have dried out they can be difficult to split. Very nice job of installing the fire.
but very low cost if you do process your own wood like we do
@@2frogland. Very low cost, we get free logs from local farmer when we let him use our field, it does take time, splitting, storing etc but it’s well worth it.
We're 80 and 77yrs, health problems, husband has to use tractor mower to get around, but we just love logging. Nothing better on wet days than getting down the barn and splitting logs, a pleasant change from stock fencing which is really hard work. Getting out there as much as we can is what makes life worth living, and the satisfaction of knowing we are independent is priceless.
gathering logs should be accomplished before the leaves fall.
Burn un treated pallets mate.👍 most are free and easy to cut. You go through more but it’s worth it for free heat. Iv done it for 20 years 👍
I was quoted silly money 15 years ago so I got a builder to drop a flue liner down then I looked up the REGS for other things and did it myself. I saved a small fortune. Still to this day I have had zero problems👍
You done a lovely job, nice to see a confident woman taking on tasks like these, well done you.
I went a similar route as you, removing an open fire, enlarging the opening and installing a slate hearth. I then had the 5kw stove installed professionally. That was more than 15 years ago and we have had no issues. We do get it cleaned and swept annually.
Years ago i bought an old cast iron stove which after installed i stacked sauna stones either side. After the fire was out it radiated heat for upto four, five hours. Looked a bit rough but saved me a fortune.
DONT ALLOW THE STONES TO BE IN CONTACT WITHE SIDES OF THE STOVE. LEAVE AN AIR SPACE BETWEEN OR THE SIDES OF THE STOVES WILL BUCKLE OR FRY.
@@doonthepan1290the stones are naturally different shapes and sizes so air flow isn't restricted. Finnish saunas are no different and work just fine.
I have so much respect for you doing a great deal of the work yourself.
I have been in the building trade all my working life. I can say you done mostly everything right, well done.
It cost me less than £2000 for the wood burning stove, Hart and installation. All I had to do was build a fire surround that I wanted to look antique. It's amazing what you can do with some 2x4 and some trim.
I'm loving my stove. It's used to make coffee, toast, fry eggs and I've recently cooked jacket potatoes in the fire. Fantastic investment.
Don’t tell Starmer you cheated and used wood. He’ll condemn your house and throw you in prison for two years 😅
i fitted an insert stove Myself , was a lot of work , And i am a Bricklayer. You Done a Great Job , only prob i had was when the Liner sent was wrong diameter , they just said bin the liner and sent the size i ordered , Your Cost figures are pretty spot on , Mine cost £160 .00 to get inspected and passed by local council planning . Great vid . 👍
This video randomly popped up on my feed, never seen your content before. What a fantastic, informative video 🙂
Recently replaced my open fireplace with a multi fuel stove, though I use mostly wood. Total cost £3k.including a very efficient stove from Saltfire. I enlarged the fireplace and rebuilt the hearth myself and got a good local HETAS installer to line the chimney etc. fire-board the internal fireplace and do a bit of plastering. Very pleased with the result.
We use those fire logs. Used to use a whole one each time. But then we cut them into thirds, and they work perfectly. Our burner is larger than yours, so I would defo recommend doing that as would be sure to work for yours too. Makes them last longer, and is better value for money.
Good on ya, Girl, doing it yourself. I'd been quoted silly money from a tiler to put heat resistant glass tiles around my fireplace. One guy said he'd do it, then didn't show and blanked my calls. The second guy wasn't available until mid December, and hadn't sounded too confident initially. So, I did it myself. Cut the hardie board with an angle grinder and used a wet saw for the 'infamous for splintering' tiles. I have to say, I've done a great job. Much better than I reckon the tilers were gonna do with all their humming and arring about working with glass. I'm so glad I tried it, as not only do they look amazing, I've saved a ton of cash too.
Brilliant video, i had a log burner installed 4 years ago. The installation refused to give us a HETAS certificate, i phoned HETAS up, and they told me that it was not compulsory.
I would recommend a log splitter as soon as you can! We got one last year and it makes life so much easier and safer wouldn’t do without it now
They are really lovely for a feature addition to a central heating system - to heat a home and provide hot water they are a full time job and need to be a lot bigger than yours.
I had a huge cellar based woodburner as a plumbed in addition to a gravity heating system which worked well when needed, I also had access to free hardwood by the tonne - only had to chainsaw it and split it - a couple of weeks in the summer saw 8 tonnes done and stored - 25 years later things are different.
Once the novelty wears off, the mess and blowback smoke starts to rankle - I moved to a smaller property and fitted a multifuel stove with backboiler which should have coped with heating and hot water . It did not, unless completely stoked - which then overheated the room it was in.
Then the wood source dried up - another thing about wodburners is if you go out for more than a few hours, they have to be re-lit - that was the reason I fitted a multifuel stove - initially this was OK - 25kg of smokeless fuel in the UK was £ 4.50 - fast forward to 2024 and the price is £ 14.50. Not only that , coke is no longer made in the UK - the only fuel available in my area is a molasses bound briquette of questionable content that produces about 50% ash and very little heat.
Just fitted a Worcester Bosch 30kw combi - the stove has been taken outside , sanded and re-sprayed with hi-temp anthracite paint, re-installed, a new cowl on the chimney - and best of all a lcd fire effect screen installed in the firebox.
A load of hardwood logs arranged around the stove so I can take out the lcd screen and fire it up if I feel like it - best of both worlds.😮
Fantastic job, you should be very proud, not many people would tackle this kind of DIY project. I did mine about 15 years ago and of course things were much cheaper then but it's still there burning away in winter and makes Christmas that little bit more special. Stove prices have tripled in that time, so have commercial fuels. Many people are under the impression a stove will save them money, but that is very unlikely. My daughter has a huge log burner installed that heats the entire house through warm air ducting, but that's on an entirely different scale.
Hi Vikkie, Your log burner and fire surround looks amazing, I would love that in my house.
Thanks for showing the break down on the costs and every thing involved with this build project, enjoy. Great video, take care
Thanks so much 😀 hope you can install one very soon! 😍
Out of the three of you, we believe Hans is the happiest ~ We can see his bed being in a permanent pride of place next to the front of the fireplace ~
You should be very proud of yourselves for such a fantastic job and all that you've accomplished ~ Not withstanding the hot tub and gardening installations ~
Sending a round of high fives your way🙌🙌🙌 ~ Lacy, Mike & Hamish🐾 Be well ~
Excellent work on the build. doing it yourself mean you can build it to your own specifications and with the materials you prefer. A builder will use what they can get cheaper but charge you a premium. and unless you know the quality of the builder, you could be left in a right mess. I have been enjoying these videos and learning along with you has been a pleasure. Well done to you both.
Thank you and I absolutely agree! I'd much rather be disappointed with my finish than paying a premium for something I'm not happy with and possibly could have done netter myself
I agree, the job you did is way better than an installer. You took more time and used better products. Well done.
I put my own stove in back in 1997 before it was a "big thing". I can see how prices have skyrocketed since then. The only work I had done was the builder opening up the fire place which had been closed off for a shitty gas fire. Other than that I did it all myself. Saved me a fortune over the years.
To be honest most of the jobs you do are way beyond my skill levels but the knowledge you share is invaluable in helping to reduce the chance of getting ripped off.
Another fantastic video fire and end product looks fantastic. Showing all your costings and pointing out mistakes along the way. A true example of how it should be done saving money and giving people who like DIY the courage to give it a go. A fantastic DIY role model 👍🏻👍🏻
Nice job one tip when you’re cutting the tiles with a wet tile cutter stand the other side of the cutter an pull the tiles towards you and you won’t get wet
To use a wood burner regularly, you will be ordering a few loads of log over the winter. Try to order in the summer months if you have the storage. Also, a multi fuel burner will give you more options for fuel, and save having to load up every hour or so with wood
I had a price for a full install of a gas flame fire installer, £8,500 for them to come in and open up the fireplace, close it down to a hole in the wall set up, then install a £600 gas fire.
They wanted, and told me I had to have it, £1,800 for an inspection of the work THEY DID, to certify it fit and ready to install the fire.
As you can guess, I did the building work myself, had the chimney swept, brought the fire for £600 on line, and had a gas engineer for it for £275 and certify his installation.
Shops just think we are mugs and push the price sky high.
Bunch of bloody rip-off whole HETAS operation. 👍🏻
Fantastic result for all your hard work Vikkie. You deserve a well earned gold star! It looks so inviting too. 😊
Great video with quality post production on the script! Very precise on the important parts... saves time of the viewers taking the full advantage of the time!!
Glad it was helpful! ❤️
Nice work! Grabbing a copy of Part J helped me - managed to do ours for just over £500 and £120 of that was for Building Control to "approve" it - fortunately I already had a clay-lined flue so the only costs were the stove (5kW so no air brick needed) and the pipes to go from the outlet and expand out to 8 inches to connect properly to the chimney with the cleaning trap below - the enamel pipework came to almost as much as the stove did...the inspection was basically me sharing some photos to explain what I'd done and the clearances etc, then a spotty teen from the council came and took a photo and it was signed off 😅Been installed for 12 years now (BC was happy with dot and dab plasterboard on the breast, no issues), I sweep it myself and there's minimal tar build up - a stainless and insulated liner would be a nice future addition and relatively easy to do being a bungalow. It seems to be one of the few things that can still be done DIY rather than farmed out to so-called professionals...
The chimney breast holds a lot of heat so think carefully where you want the insulated parts of flue.
I got installation quotes for my wood burner in our bungalow. They seemed outrageously expensive. One installer tried to tell me how difficult these things were. I decided to install it myself. I downloaded the part J regs and made sure everything I did was going to be compliant. The whole installation took me less than a day and the trickiest part was cutting a ceiling joist and boxing back around it to maintain integrity where the flue passed through. I only had to remove one roof tile. The council inspector signed it off without any problems at all.
@@wheater5 indeed I suspect it’s a “lifestyle” addition for some customers so installers use that as an excuse to see ££££ in their pockets 😳
@@alanhat5252 indeed, but that is also a cause of potential tar build up as the heat is lost into the chimney breast and subsequently causes the flue temperature to drop and thus condense out the vapours in the exhaust - had my existing clay lining not been relatively new and sound then the only option would be to line and insulate around it as recommended…a bit more heat lost but less chance of tar forming as the hot gases are exhausted properly 👍
Your attention to detail is amazing and it looks great. Thanks for sharing the cost breakdown.
I simply dismantled the fire place and put the stove straight into the chimney hole on the ceiling. No hearth, no backplate, no tiles, no nothing. Its going absolutely fine for the past 3 years. Laminate flooring with just a BBQ antifire mat. I use it the whole winter too, 12kW stove the only heating in the house.
You've done a lovely job on that, looks amazing!
2800 nearly 10 years ago and never looked back. All winter our house stays snug and cozy.
Nicely done Vikki. I imagine the stove is getting a lot of use right now and makes a huge difference to the room. Those little fans are great too.
Did though research first. Did all the work myself . Three years on, still very pleased.
Great job! I think you made the right choice of 5kw - easily hot enough. Mine heats whole house🔥
I agree, smaller stoves burn very efficiently because you don’t have to put a whole tree in to get them combusting correctly. The large ones seem like a good idea, but if you only burn a few splits at a time it’ll just smoke and look awful, or extinguish itself. 👍🏻
Started watching this and thought you were just prepping the area for a pro to come and do it all! Fair play to you girl, you've done an excellent job there!! We had an old Charnwood multi stove with a back boiler in the kitchen of our old Cotswold stone cottage when we bought it 18 years ago. Took it out to refurb the cottage and wrapped it in plastic bin liners and was in the outhouse for 2 years. There's a massive fireplace in the lounge, so I took the stove apart, stripped and repainted it in heat resistant paint, new glass, re-ropped it and had a liner dropped down the chimney, then all fitted up by a HETAS fitter all for £1250-00. Just lit her now for the first time this winter, bliss!
Did you include your labour in your costs, remembering that a quote from a trade includes their overall business costs as well.
We installed a large fully eco wide screen log burner (on special offer) and a complete new double wall flue for £2,200. I did the work to get through the wall but the did everything else. We were quoted £6,000 by another local supplier who made everything sound like a big deal.
The flue is easy to sweep and I can do it myself, or pay £70 a year to have it done. Logs cost us around £200 a year - though we have space to store and season a lot and we buy cheaply from timber fellers. We have an electric splitter that cost £70 and is very good, though the woodsmen usually deliver them ready split by the lorry load.
Good value all round and very effective.
Im impressed i used to fit burners you done well. The company i worked for used to buy the chimney liner for £150 and sell it to the customer for £1,000
Looking good for a cosy Christmas. 😊🤗 Fantastic job.
Lovely job well done! Save yourself the annual cleaning costs too by buying the rods and brush. We bought the one you connect to your drill and slowly spin as you push it up the flue. Just make sure to seal off the stove as much as possible because the soot travels a few metres. It's amazing how much heat they output, we only have an 8Kw and it gradually heats an entire 4 bed old stone cottage. Motorised log splitters are great, but we found putting a few into an old tyre and striking them with a splitter maul was faster and sometimes they are too simply big for a splitter. Sourcing, splitting, stacking and burning wood warms you a few times 😂 enjoy the reward of your great efforts!
Nice idea with the tyre to hold logs for splitting. I'm going to try that!
@Tonisuperfly works really well, especially with a larger tyre but don't pack them too tight else the head will get stuck in a log. If you can, try to keep the tallest logs in the center, or if you cant fit many in keep them to the back, basically so the handle doesn't catch on the taller logs as you strike the shorter ones. You can always walk around and strike from different angles. Far easier to pick everything up after, beats it going everywhere 😂
The final product looks so nice and cozy, and I am slightly jealous. I am okay with general DIY and mid-level carpentry, but I would not tackle this job. I don't have the time, for starters, or confidence to get it anywhere near you level of finish. You are a talented person.
Hi Vicky, you do not need a Hetas installer if you are competent and can do it yourself, I did mine myself and involved building control from the start, I have a certificate issued by building control so all above board. You didn't mention having a CO meter or having the relevent notice plate fixed to the wall in one of the designated positions either, maybe you could add those points in a later episode, keep up the great renovation work. 👍
11:52 for the CO detector
Well done that was a huge effort. Looks really good too.
Personally I wouldn't tackle anything like that, but I also wouldn't spend that much on one area of the house decor either. I spent £12,000 modernising the entire house. Anything that wasn't possible with cheap materials was ruled out from the start. That said, homes are personal, and we all think differently about what we want and are prepared to spend. Looks lovely 👍
Thanks for your honesty. If I was doing this to sell the house, I definitely wouldn't have spent this. Just basic render and plaster finish 😀
A fellow skinflint! Cheers 🥂 😂
A really good and thorough job. I did a similar thing 10 years ago for 1600 including the stove, but I wasn't tiling much and used the original victorian hearth so saved a lot there. I got an ex-demo stove too, which saved me about 600 quid! Your installation is clearly correct and part J compliant, but you don't mention getting building regs signoff? I did this direct with local building control officer, but I understand you can also use an independent inspector. Mine cost 300 or so, and that means you can complete the obligatory boiler plate which needs to be kept with the stove in the alcove or in the electricity meter cupboard. Best tip I had for the whole job was: find a paint tin just slightly bigger than your flue diameter, then lower it down the chimney to check the flue will pass before you spend 400 quid on a stainless flue!!
You put a lot more into it than a contractor would have. It turned out wonderful!
Created an Inglenook fireplace Stone clad with wooden lintel all in excluding fire fitting but including cost of new fire Just under £4000 whilst I was Building a new fireplace I took a feed from the 240 V electrics and put a spare inside the top of the fireplace which I now use to plug-in ambient Mood lighting. All in all looks absolutely amazing and far better from the 1970s fireplace that was Here when we moved in
My advise split the logs when in the round then test for moisture they'll dry much quicker that way.😊
I just had my woodburning stove £2500 exactly the same thing different we didn’t have tiling up the wall we had it all plastered.
If you feel that your fire isn’t quite warm enough….may I recommend the Recoheat. They are brilliant in adding another kilowatt to the output of your stove BUT it helps to heat far more than your one room! Have a look at them…they are brilliant and can be retrofitted.
If i may add my tuppence worth! I've lived with wood burners most of my life and i think a lot of people under estimate the cost and work involved feeding these beasts. If anyone thinks they are cheap to run, think again, the cost of seasoned hardwood has rocketed in recent years because of the rise in popularity of these burners. Do the maths, gas most of the time believe it or not is cheaper. I collect my wood throughout the year from where ever i can get it free. I work in the building trade and 2 years ago gutted a 250 year old cottage that was full of huge oak timbers and that will last me 3 seasons easily. 10 years ago i brought a whole oak tree that had been felled due to rot, that tree lasted me 6 seasons! For free.. And, wood takes up a lot of space, a lot, and is hard work to cut up and stack. Great work by the way, i'm a tiler and very familiar with those tiles and they are not the easiest to work with. Enjoy your burner, and the dust!
Excellent job - very well done.
We had to have two flues relined, a multifuel transferred from one room to another and a new multifuel installed (both were 5KW), two new registration plates, and the top of a chimney rebuilt (with scaffolding). I didn't feel that I could do the job myself and would certainly have needed an engineer to commission everything. The breast of one was covered in horrible plaster, which I removed by hand to expose beautiful victorian stone work (which I cleaned, restored and repointed myself). The other breast, an inglenook, we were simply able to use as it was. I think we ended up paying about eight thousand for everything. This is in the centre of Devon. I didn't feel ripped off, everything was done properly and the new fire was a very decent make.
One thing I noticed, and I may have missed it : we had both of our flue liners insulated as we were told that it would improve efficiency. Were yours insulated?
One recommendation regarding the logs: we harvest wood from our land in a similar fashion to yourself. I'm pretty handy (and careful) with our chainsaws but cutting branches and trunks safely can be problematic and slow. Whipping is a particular problem with irregular shaped branches , as is cutting the wood to the correct length consistently so that it fits in the fire. We bought one of these
www.truncator.co.uk/product/4-fold-chainsaw-sawhorse/ .
It is utterly brilliant and so, so much safer. I have no affiliation to the company, so there is nothing in it for me.
Regarding log splitters, yes they make a massive difference. It would be hard to make a recommendation as we have a hydraulic one which we connect to the aux spool on our tractor. A decent electric one which can be set to a given depth of plunge and then just used with what comes off the truncator would make short work of log splitting. We now have approximately three years worth of logs stacked and drying for use - all free of charge - once the cost of the equipment has been recovered.
Good morning 🌅, very nice job, 👍🏻, I live France, I installed my log burner myself, free standing in the room, 18 Kw , I think it was few years ago, it heats my lounge dinner and kitchen, 7X12 Mt , I am in the process of insulating my walls and ceilings and floors,
Pity you couldn’t remove the whole of your chimney stack , and install a modern wood burner play very nice feature for decor,
Good luck with your future projects , and yes a log splitter is very well worth the money, I’ve got a quite large electric one, I can’t remember if it’s eight or nine ton, ❤ from France.
It's gorgeous! We have a log burner in our holiday home here in Sweden. At first we had planned to build it in like this until we started collecting quotes. Finally we had a free standing one, that can double as a stove, installed by a proffessional. My father built the foundation, tiled the surrounding walls and constrcted a rather nifty wood storage from mostly recycled materials. Total cost was roughly £800 when we had it done 10 years ago.
Wow, that is an absolute bargain and sounds lovely 😍
@TheCarpentersDaughterUK My brother reminded me that we installed a cover-thingie above the chimney as well for an additional £200 a few years later after the chimney sweeper recomended it.
In England we say 4x2, just in case you think you are in the US ;) IF you render at 7:1 it rarely cracks. I did my own using 6in steel pipe with a 3mm wall for the liner, I don't like those flimsy stainless things. It took some doing but I managed it in the end and now my 12kW log burner is roaring nicely without the worry of those flimsy liners breaking, I know some chimneys don't have the gauge to fit a 6in steel liner but mine will last over 2 lifetimes, which is ideal for anyone who comes after me.
Very well done what a brill job. I like the batten above the lintel idea . I have a multifuel stove but find wood creates more ash :)
Always buy the best stove you can afford. fitted our Clearview 650 34 years ago never needed any maintenance used 24/7 throughout the winter months the best £800 I have ever spent.. it’s a brilliant piece of kit and keeps the whole house warm.
Hey Vikki. Amazing job, looks fantastic. Just in the process of starting this project myself and was doing some googling after having rip off quotes thought id do it myself!! Came across your video which already has helped me immensely. Looking forward to watching some of your other videos as a media wall is next on my list and see you have done one of those too. lol Thanks for such detailed and informative videos. Wish you all the best!
I got a dik geurts Ivor 8 installed earlier this year, it’s fantastic.
The Yorkshire flu specialist did it, I’m in Slaithwaite. Good price, nice clean job and sound advice, I recommend them👍🏻👍🏻
Hi Vikkie, the stove looks brilliant, well done.
That looks phenomenal. Love it!
Thanks so much ❤️
brings back memorys of being in my grandparents cottage with a proper open wood/coal fire at christmas time snow outside and my sat inside making toast on the fire.... Great times.
*Vikkie, a great break down overall for the cost factor, in your neck of the woods in England.🙂 You &MCD both did an amazing job and your fireplace looks absolutely amazing.🙂 Plus you also have heaps of wood around your property to last you a very long time.🙂 RE: Log splitter will you look at a big one or look at getting the genuine NZ invented and made by a kiwi teenager Ayla Hutchinson, 'Kindling cracker'. Originally all made in NZ,. Sadly others are copying and selling it cheaper... but not of the same great quality..🙂nz*
it looks like an ordinary splitting maul requires less effort than her club hammer
Well me and my mate installed mine ..... so no certificate. This might be a problem when (or if) I sell, but I knew that beforehand!
There is a big difference to the ventilation required compared to the size of the burner. Larger need an outside vent. This seems to defeat the purpose when you suck cold air into your room to heat it up and throw then then throw hot out of the chimney. I did research the regs and complied with them so it was done properly. They do change the regs but there is usually a legacy clause so that it is OK if it was OK at the time of instillation.
My 5Kw burner is enough to heat my main room of 12" x 25". I have a couple of those heat operated stove top fans and this year I have repurposed a fan used for blowing air around in the summer heat. I did get a speed controller for it so I can have it set just right ....... and it works Brilliantly!
My burner is a dual fuel type. I have burned wood both bought and harvested myself (I got 2 years of heat when two old terraced houses had their internal joists replaced) 100 year old oak is Really good! Cutting them down whilst missing all the nails was interesting though! The last couple of years I have seasoned wood bought and pallated in. This too works well but is not so cheap. Using wood I have felled and seasoned myself works well too ...... but you need to watch what type of wood you put in there!
This year I have turned Heretic and gone for coal! There are several makes of smokeless fuel available and it works out (up to now) on a par with wood price wise. The main difference I have found is wood lights easily but you can't just stoke it and leave it for more than an hour! With coal you need to learn how to light it and once it is burning well you can forget about it 6 hr burns are a reality ...... and you can easily stoke it after that and have it going all day! If anything I have found bed calling me whilst the coal is still burning ..... but with a closed burner that is not a problem eather! The biggest drawback is Ash! If I have it in all day and night i need to empty the ash pan whilst it is still burning so not the best and care is needed. Some folks used to have a metal bucket by the fire for this purpose!
One task you do need to keep up with is sweeping the chimney! Professional cleaning is quick and easy but I suspect I may be part Yorkshire and so begrudge the expense and do it myself (cough) ...... I mean I take great pleasure in being self sufficient enough in my 60's to clean my own! I got a "Chimney Typhoon" brush set on e-bay and with a drill can do the whole thing in half an hour! I would get less than a pint of ash out after a year (well a few months because Summer). I did get a special ash attachment for my vac though for £30. It is just a cyclone that you plug your hose into and hoover all the ash up without it clogging the filters up.
I do have to say yours looks better than mine though! Jealous? Moi? ....... Dead right I am ;o)
What’s your ash attachment called? Sounds marvellous! (Asking for a friend *cough* fellow skinflint 😳)
If you haven't had your stove installed by a professional HETAS registered installer and certificated, your home insurance company will not pay out if you have a fire. The risk of a fire is also higher if you're burning coal on a regular basis as the heat is on another level compared to wood.
@@StephenOverthrow You are not wrong ..... although I knew this when I did it. I am not in a normal situation and could afford to make any insurance prove that my instillation was at fault in order to not pay! Good point about the coal. Also if you have a brick flue and have run gas heating through it it can combine with the soot and form an acid strong enough to demolish your chimney over time!
You should research before you do anything!
Wow you are a very adventurous young women! That looks like a challenging project. Well done! 😂
I installed a 5 Kw multi fuel by myself, total around £2500 including granite fire place and oak lintel. The stainless flue liner was the hardest job.
I think that look the hardest and most awkward!
Another job finished to a top standard
What a tremendous job.
You could look at a recoheat system, well worth adding at some point.
Second hand Jotel 602 , grate polish flue ... 400 nicker job done
We have one with a back boiler and it does all our underfloor heating too via a hot water cylinder
We light with a plumbers Rothenburger Top down as your self , Split the logs a soon as possible & they will season in Half the time
Thank you for the tips! Hopefully we'll have a log splitter soon!
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK Fresh-cut logs are easier to split than seasoned. If you buy a good axe, you will be able to cancel your gym membership as well 😁.
@@TheCarpentersDaughterUK Get a decent Maul far quicker & far more satisfying
Great video Vikkie this really showcases how much work and effort you put into a beautiful finished project and is inspiring to people to have a go themselves - If you want some lovely heat I recommend coffee logs I brought some for a friend last Christmas and were blown away at how much heat they create and they didn't cost a lot
Try a bag of hotmax, if the sell them near where you live, certainly the best wood based briquettes I’ve used. Prices vary so shop around. They do throw out some heat so make sure you keep an eye on you pipe thermometer and regulate your stove to suit.
Worth it and if you do a proper job it looks so much better, our hearth is a one piece slate and it was heavy but looks great
Excellent video, well presented and informative.
You will be surprised how quickly you get through logs, start planting some trees for the future. Great job on the fire place. price for 12kw fire looked a good price TBH. That's a lot of heat BTW, 5kw is more than enough if you want to sit in the room, even on the coldest days we have to have all the doors in the living room open.
Love the end result Vikkie !
Hi Vicky. Of all the issues you've expertly addressed in this video, I'm sure the ones you'll get the most comments about are how to best light the stove & how to split / season the logs!
Give it time... 🤣🤣🤣 There's always one lol.. but more fire building tips are always welcome 😍
Kind of over engineered because you only really needed cement board for the opening. The facing doesn't get anywhere near hot enough to need it. However, that said you ended up with a very nice result. Double sided would have been fine as long as you sized the lintels properly. With a burner and stainless flue there is no issue with toxic gasses escaping so double sided opening wouldn't be a problem. One thing to make sure with any burner is that you have adequate ventilation in the room and have a carbon monoxide detector installed just to be on the safe side.
Looking really nice Vikkie 💜I would do the same as you.... have a go myself 💜a massive saving on the quote 💜plus you know it was done properly 💜 a nice place for Hans to snuggle up on his bed 😊xx💜xx
Looks great Vikkie
Hi Vicky absolutely well done. If you had a look through you tube clips on granite kitchen tops you would find it is also possible to cut and finish granite to a fully acceptable standard at home, though it is heavy and requires patience.
There is quite a lot of work involved to install a log burner , the price quoted is not out the ballpark . Of course if you started to include all the extra work you have done yourself then I would think you would probably be getting into the £10k territory . Definitely the key to the success of your project is the installation of the cement board , which should prevent any future cracks . Ironically it’s the sides that take the most heat . I must admit I’m all four just exposed brickwork in the opening, which can be painted with just plain old mat emulsion . Yes you can play a blowtorch on a painted brick , till the cows come home and will never catch fire . As for the finished job it looks very impressive , and probably better than many so-called trades people would produce . Best wishes and kind regards
Vickie looking at your room layout I’d have gone for the 12KW it’s a beast. Great job.
Thankfully we have 2 radiators here too, but we're going to have to see how we get on for a few years and hopefully we don't have to upgrade it! 😅
watched a post in passing the other day and they showed that it was worth doing your moisture content test on the split log so you are testing inside the log rather than just the surface, he was checking whether covered or uncovered stacks were better too, might be worth a look ,sorry but I dont know the title as I say it was just a quick look in passing.
Love the little fan. Makes such a difference to the room temperature. I use a double, though because my stove is in a nook between the chimney and the wall. (The hatch we use to remove the soot after the chimney is swept is on the other side of the chimney.)
Had a guy build heat-resistant walls around the nook to follow local regs. Then I tiled the floor to fulfill fireproof requirements there, and heaved the stove into place. Then it was just a question of drilling lots of holes in both the outer and inner section of the chimney, make a mess with a hammer and chisel, fit a collar on the inner tube using special cement, and fitting the smoke tubes.
Does NOT look as nice as your does... ;-)
That log burner is it a Clean Burning Stove?
It doesn't look like it(I only see one air adjustment)
We're only allowed to install Clean Burning stoves here in Norway.
A CBS that's used correctly produces only a 10th of the soot as a regular stove. And they can reach efficiency of up to 80%.
A regular woodstove gets up to 50%, and an open fireplace is around 30%, and also draws so much air that it can drop the temperature in neighboring rooms.
Of course, a CBS that's misused is more properly labelled a CO generator.
None of that 'stuff it full of wood in the evening and close it almost entirely' like people used to do. That kills the secondary ignition zone, and it starts spewing smoke and CO.
It seems to be this one from Chesney so I believe so?
“The Beaumont 5WS MK3 Series wood burning stove is DEFRA exempt for use in smoke control areas which means it can be safely and legally used in all major towns and cities throughout the UK. It produces minimal emissions that are one tenth of the level that a comparable DEFRA exempt stove is permitted to produce and has an efficiency rating of 86.4%.
4.9kW Output
86.4% Energy efficiency rating”
@@nicolad8822 That sounds like a CB type stove. I'm still puzzled by only one easily visible adjustment, though. England began requiring these in 2022, but only in certain areas?
We got a blanket ban on installing older model woodburners in 1998 here in Norway. The only exception is 'historical' stoves in old buildings. And by 'install' it even counts if you just want to move the stove to another side of the chimney(if the chimney is part of the wall between rooms, for example) or any other operation that requires a new hole in the chimney. So there's still a lot of older wood burners around.
I always use manufactured wood briquettes, they have better environmental credentials being made up of waste material, they’re more calorie dense than natural logs and they create such a small amount of ash that you only have to clean the fire out once every couple of weeks. AND they’re cheaper to buy than logs! :D
Hi Vikkie i said it would good and it does, fantastic job, proud of you having ago with these projects that some could not do, keep it going the house will be beautiful in the end😀
Looks a lovely stove done a good job should keep warm 🔥for years
Cracking job, how did you support the feathers i think there called?
I believe you're talking about the bricks, that in my case go back and forth sat on top of the lintel. (You're probably better watching the full lintel video with drawing) but the only thing not necessarily supported is a mortar join, but because the chimney is so narrow, the other half of the bricks are either tied into the back of the chimney, or resting on my lintel.
You'd need to watch my video and see my sketchup drawing.
I did consider adding another 2 lintels (one sat on my new lintel, either side going backwards) but found it didn't need it.
@TheCarpentersDaughterUK yeah, possibly called feathers when they separate two chimneys
I see that now , all tied in throughout so should be solid enough 👌
We have a log burner due to the simple fact we live in a forest and can access firewood cheaply (£50 license for 3 months of 'gathering' in areas that have been farmed - leaving 1m lengths of logs as scrap). One licence is usually enough to gather wood for 2 years burning. That said, if we have to buy processed wood it costs £60-80/bag (about a cubic metre) and we need 8 bags for a season so £500+. If we installed a flueless gas fire (about £1,000) we would use only 6 bottles (47kg) for the season and at £70/bottle is CHEAPER than buying processed wood, a LOT cleaner and a LOT less trouble. We're getting old enough to be considering simplifying our lives so a new gas fire is right on the cards.
I love your confidence, Are you properly in the building trade ?
For people who are going to sell later it’s better to get a professional installer. Mine was signed off and certified. They also have to add a carbon monoxide detector. I will be selling in future years so it was worthwhile in the long run it was £4300 approx in 2022
We had a stove fitted last year. We went for a local independant company. Some larger companies sub contract the work out so no guarantee they know what they are doing . You also need a reliable log delivery company. Wouldn't be without our stove