Woody and I both grew up with open fires and Rayburns in the house and it's something we always wanted in our own home. The land buying plan was always to buy woodland to be able to produce "free" heating for our home. (We know most things are never truly free but buying petrol to run the chainsaw, and the labour involved in processing the wood was just a part of the fun of being landowners).
Our land has allot of trees but no real woodland, something we are working on with a crop of baby Birch we are protecting with the gorse we have left in place - method to our madness in keeping some of the dreaded gorse! We will be planting further quick and slower growing species over the next few years. Plus we have been hoarding a couple of trees worth of wood Woody felled and split in 2013 from our old house, it is lovely and dry and ready for use.
So we have the means to fuel a fire cheaply and a house in need of renovation. Luckily our little house once had an open fire with back boiler fire and then a nasty 90's gas fire that was duly ripped out the day....the hour...we got the keys... so it was easy to site the stove.
We knew from the moment we walked in the house that we would be putting a wood burner in. The pipes and gas had been disconnected so ripping it out was a fairly painless job, however to sure up the rest of the chimney breast the front lintel needed replacing and Woody invested in additional side lintels.
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| Caught in the act.... what a bloody mess! |
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| view up the chimney with the new lintels |
Woody carried out the work over the summer when he was able to get home. Using an SDS drill to cut through the old concrete and bricks was a dirty and back breaking job in such an awkward space. I was in charge of the cement mixer. Woody did a grand job....and managed not to take any limbs off, but after hours of back breaking and hand blistering work we decided to pay the extra and get someone to finish the job with the installation of the new flue, stone hearth and burner. This would guarantee that the entire set up complied to Hetas regulations and therefore building regs, essential if we ever rent or sell on.
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| A very exciting delivery!!! |
Installation day started well with a very exciting delivery! Jollied on with cups of tea the workman set to work. It was not all plain sailing and by lunchtime there was a difference of opinion regarding the stone hearth....
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| before... |
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| ...and after some very awkward negotiations! |
After the awkward interlude work carried on and thankfully the result was just what we wanted. The whole room still needs rewiring and re-plastering to get rid to the artex but the room is now transformed into a cosy nest. Our house is only a three bed semi and we did worry that the 5Kw stove would be too powerful. We could have gone for the smaller 4Kw stove, Charnwood C4, however the firebox was significantly narrower so the logs would have to be cut much smaller and the fire filled more often. The logs we have at the moment are cut to 12" and last about 30min (this will vary depending on the seasoning, water content, weight and variety).
The burner has been in a month or so now and we have found it is incredibly easy to manage, it is almost "automatic". I remember fighting with air valves, bellows and newspapers to encourage draw with other fires in the past but this little fire, once lit, is a one button, three setting machine. We (and the dogs!) thoroughly recommend this clever british stove.
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| Wall colour samples. |
