On Sun, 23 Dec 2007 13:54:14 +0000, The Natural Philosopher
wrote:

Thats interesting, so it is not essential for building regs to line a
chimney before a stove is put in. I have friends who have a big old
chimney very similar to mine, they didnt line their chimney and it
works perfectly well with a woodburner

It certainly is if its a new flue, I was made to line mine.

Where does it say there that you do not need one?

Nowhere. But equally it doesnt say that you do need one

It also does not mention flue heights above thatch either. Thats a
fairly crucial part of 'safe practice' for thatch.

It mentions height above combustible surfaces like thatch in the 'flue
outlet heights' section

However being as two of our neighbours are voluntary firemen, the number
of fires started from solid fuel in bad stacks is an extremely large
part of their duties..

There are regular pictures of such cases in the Bury Free Press, but
every single one I have seen has been in a house with a thatched roof
which makes me extremely suspicious that the problem is not with the
flue but with sparks shooting out the top, in which case a chimney
with a liner could be worse than one without

So I'd like to know just what do your firemen mean by _bad stacks_?

and having had sister in laws house burn down due
to unsafe operation of an unattended wood fire..

But was that anything to do with the flue????

I am inclined to think
that a proper liner if there is ANY doubt, is something I would do
automatically.

Go on ... convince me! I'm interested in this cos I shall be putting a
woodburner in myself next summer and I dont want to do any unnecessary
work but on the other hand I dont want to be left with a dangerous
system either

I've set chimneys alight on more than one occasion too. Is your
brickwork capable of sustaining a red heat..

It sustained a red heat when the bricks were made so I suppose so

how much timber is in
contact with it ?

Some ...

No. double skinned insulated stainless steel flues. I am not interested
in what you *might* get away with legally.

hmmm. You might be right ... but then you might have just fallen for
the hype :-)

Anna
~ ~ Anna Kettle, Suffolk, England
|""""| ~ Lime plaster repair and conservation
/ ^^ \ // Freehand modelling in lime: overmantles, pargeting etc
|____| www.kettlenet.co.uk