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Hi everyone. I really apppreciate any advice.
I have a wood burning stove with a flue that terminates just above a sealed fireboard. I've had a WBS company check it out and they said this is unusual, and it needs a whole new flue liner etc to meet modern regs and to brun properly. They say as the short flue could deposit soot onto the fireboard, build up over time, and then cause a chimney breast fire.
However I have just discovered an access hatch hidden behind a mirror on the chimney breast, which they, nor I had previously known about. This means I could periodically sweep up built up deposits from the fireboard, and assumingly reduce that risk significantly.
I include a diagram of the arrangement and photos further below:
My questions are:
* Does my mitigation of risk sound reasonable? That if I use this hatch to clean deposits regularly, then the chance of fire is significantly reduced?
* Can a sweep still clean the brick chimney by using brushes up the WBS. Or would they have to go up via this small acccess hatch - is that even possible?
Of course I could ask a stove supplier, but two have already failed to check for a hatch and quoted me £1800 for a new flue liner, aire vvent in the room, etc.
Note: I only really intend to use this fire once or twice a week during the winter. I have decent central heating and the fire iis more of an occasional nicety for winter evvenings.
Background:
I moved into my house about a year ago. And I was already aware that the WBS in the living room didn't have any HETAS paperwork (discount on sale was appplied!). An old friend of mine who has had stoves all his life said let's run a few tests... see if it's drawing. We did a smoke test, and sure enough looking from outside it was drawing well enough. Then we lit a few fires over the course of a week and it burned reasonably well. The ropes on the doors were falling off, which I think contributed to a lot of smoke smell in the house from the fire. But 3x Carbon Monoxide detectors dottted around the fire room, room above and hallway didn't ping once.
I have a wood burning stove with a flue that terminates just above a sealed fireboard. I've had a WBS company check it out and they said this is unusual, and it needs a whole new flue liner etc to meet modern regs and to brun properly. They say as the short flue could deposit soot onto the fireboard, build up over time, and then cause a chimney breast fire.
However I have just discovered an access hatch hidden behind a mirror on the chimney breast, which they, nor I had previously known about. This means I could periodically sweep up built up deposits from the fireboard, and assumingly reduce that risk significantly.
I include a diagram of the arrangement and photos further below:
My questions are:
* Does my mitigation of risk sound reasonable? That if I use this hatch to clean deposits regularly, then the chance of fire is significantly reduced?
* Can a sweep still clean the brick chimney by using brushes up the WBS. Or would they have to go up via this small acccess hatch - is that even possible?
Of course I could ask a stove supplier, but two have already failed to check for a hatch and quoted me £1800 for a new flue liner, aire vvent in the room, etc.
Note: I only really intend to use this fire once or twice a week during the winter. I have decent central heating and the fire iis more of an occasional nicety for winter evvenings.
Background:
I moved into my house about a year ago. And I was already aware that the WBS in the living room didn't have any HETAS paperwork (discount on sale was appplied!). An old friend of mine who has had stoves all his life said let's run a few tests... see if it's drawing. We did a smoke test, and sure enough looking from outside it was drawing well enough. Then we lit a few fires over the course of a week and it burned reasonably well. The ropes on the doors were falling off, which I think contributed to a lot of smoke smell in the house from the fire. But 3x Carbon Monoxide detectors dottted around the fire room, room above and hallway didn't ping once.