Fancy a surprise £2K bill?
That is unfortunately what this new customer is facing after operating their new stove for less than a year. The picture is a CCTV snap of the inside of a stove liner. You should see a nice circular, well defined metal tube, what you can actually see is an almost completely blocked and deformed line[…]
Birds nesting in chimneys, Spring 2018
It’s now mid April and we are starting to get calls from people about birds, mainly jackdaws, starting to nest in chimney pots and can we come and remove them. In short we cant, nor can anyone else. Once certain birds start nesting then a nest, eggs or birds cannot be killed, damaged or destroyed.[…]
Why you should look up at the sky.
A single pot chimney stack can let gallons of water into your house each year. The rain soaks into the old mortar joints, porous bricks and the lining of the chimney, it usually runs down the inside of a chimney for 2 or 3 meters unless the flue is dead straight. If it is, you[…]
When to sweep your wood burning stove
Many people don’t realise that stainless steel flexible liners are not a permanent fix, they have a limited lifespan. I need to qualify that statement with the fact that you can now purchase flexible liners that do have a lifetime guarantee (If you follow the terms and conditions) Click HERE for a good example. Most[…]
Tar Removal
A sure way of making a chimney unsafe to use and unsafe to install a stove liner is to tar it up. Incomplete combustion of wood creates tar (creosote) which coats the walls of a chimney leading to a serious risk of a chimney fire, wet tar soaking into the fabric of the building, creating[…]
When you have a chimney fire in a stove liner
A build up of soot and/or tar, infrequent sweeping, burning unseasoned timber or slumbering your stove (particularly trying to keep it going overnight) can lead to a chimney fire within the flexible liner of your stove. The picture above shows the typical evidence of at least one chimney fire in a liner. Sometimes you can[…]
Dangerous Stove Installations
Installing a stove, liner and associated parts is not brain surgery. All parts are freely available, specific training is provided on ‘how to do it’ and the government has provided free online guidance on what standards need to be met. It is called Approved Document J. Given that parts, training and guidance is available it[…]
Calling Housebuyers and Estate Agents
If you are looking to buy a house in the Bristol area Andy the property benefits from an open fire or wood burning stove but there is no documented history showing it’s installation or regular sweeping then call us in BEFORE you complete. Time and again we are called after purchase to sweep or inspect[…]
The value of professional stove installation
Almost on a daily basis we come across stove installations that are unsafe, do not meet requirements or are shoddy. In some cases all three. You have little chance of come back, after sales service or getting matters rectified unless you use a reputable qualified or experienced installer. Self installations rarely demonstrate quality. Here is[…]
Pre-sweep CCTV surveys
This shows the value of inspecting a flue liner before you sweep. Here the liner has started to unravel where it enters the connector to the stove pipe. It had been power swept for example if it probable that it would have tangled and been damaged beyond repair. Surprisingly CCTV equipment isn’t mandatory kit for[…]