Useful Guides
"Help! I've just lit my stove and there's smoke pouring out into the room! There must be a blockage"
Yep, this is probably the most recurring cry for help I get from stove owners. The short answer is yes, there is a blockage. But it’s nearly always not a physical one; the blockage is nearly always a plug of cold air in the liner. WHAT’S JUST HAPPENED? In very cold temperatures, especially if the stove hasn’t been lit for a few days, the flue liner can become too cold to draw. This is a particular risk if the stove is connected to a twin wall flue that exits through the wall of the room it’s in and then continues up the outside of the building. It is also a more likely issue if your stove and stainless-steel flexible liner is installed into a fireplace and through a chimney flue where the chimney breast is constructed on the outside of the property. So what happens is, you light the stove, using any combination of paper, kindling and firelighter. A fair bit of smoke is produced and the stove – with all vents open – does what it’s supposed to do, draws air in through it and into the flue. The flue tries to do what it is supposed to – draw the air (and smoke) up through it and out at the top. BUT that plug of cold air might as well be a physical blockage. The smoke going up the flue has nowhere to go so it just starts coming back down it, into the stove and out through the door seal, the glass seal and often the collar seal. It’s horrible. The only thing you can do is open all the windows and get the smoke out as fast as you can. And start again. Following the back to basics of … … THIS SIMPLE SOLUTION Before lighting the fire proper, gently warm up the flue. With the air vents open, light a firelighter or two in the stove and let them burn through. This generally produces enough warmth to travel through the liner and clear the cold air plug. If you don’t want to waste firelighters in this way you can put a couple or three tea lights in the stove. Burning paper tends to produce a lot of smoke relative to the small amount of heat generated before it quickly burns itself out.
things you can do to keep your stove happy and healthy:
KEEP AN EYE ON THE INSIDES: Over time some parts of your stove can deteriorate with use. It's important to know what you're looking at and what can go wrong with it, as some are more obvious than others. The firebricks are the stones lining the inside of your stove; these can crack and come apart. They won't require replacing until they are broken, but it's good to keep an eye out for cracks. The baffle covers the opening to your liner inside the top of your stove, they're often cast iron, and can warp and even sometimes crack. The rope seal on the inside of the door can fray or come loose, and the rubber gasket sealing the door glass can become compacted. The door glass can crack. You can find more advice on what to do in this situation in the 'Nuggets of Advice and Guidance' section below. All of these things are repairable, but it's important to clean out your stove and have a good look at it from time to time, to ensure you catch any problems developing. BURN IT HOT: We know that the sheer amount of heat a stove can pump out can be overwhelming sometimes. However, when you burn your stove at a lower temperature, creosote tar is produced. Tar is highly flammable and over time can build up in your stove and chimney, creating a dangerous fire risk. Once there it is very difficult to clean off and in some cases we may have to declare your stove unsafe to use. With this in mind, it is really important to burn your stove at full capacity whenever possible. GET YOUR LINER SWEPT ANNUALLY: The single best thing you can do to ensure the continuing health and efficiency of your stove is have it swept regularly. The HETAS recommendation for woodburning appliances is once a year. Having your stove swept regularly is one of the best ways to reduce your risk of chimney fires, it's also an opportunity to flag anything that is causing you concern with a professional. You can find Stovely on the HETAS list of chimney sweeps. Remember: if you do see something that worries you, or you have a question about the behaviour of your stove, you can always give us a call, or send us an email with a picture.
what you can expect from your sweep, and how you can prepare for our visit:
We understand that for most people, if you've not had a chimney sweep before, your only point of reference might well be Mary Poppins. So here's a few pointers so that you can know what to expect: Regardless of whether you have a stove or an open fire, all the work happens from beside the fireplace, inside your home - no access to the roof required. Despite the nature of fireplaces and soot, a Stovely sweep is relatively clean and noninvasive. We used specialised sheeting to close up your stove or fireplace, and vacuum any loose soot before it becomes airborne. We also take all the waste away with us. If we discover anything that causes us concern or we feel should be flagged, we will let you know on the day of your sweep. When we leave you'll receive a Visit Report with a complete rundown of your sweep and any advisories. THINGS YOU CAN DO TO PREPARE: There are two main things you can do to ready your home for our visit. Firstly, we will need access to power reasonably close to the stove / fireplace. It is of great help to us if you can provide clear access to a plug socket, to minimise the risk of us getting soot on your furniture. Secondly, any coffee tables / dining tables / or other pieces of furniture within 2m of your stove or fireplace will need to be temporarily moved aside for us to lay out our hearth sheet. And that's it! We can take care of everything else.
Buying a home with a stove already in situ? Here's what information you can seek / expect from the sellers:
It’s surprising how many jobs we attend for customers who have just moved into a new home where there is already a woodburner or multifuel stove in situ but absolutely no documentation about the installation or recent sweep records. These are the questions to have included in the conveyancing process. If there is more than one, expect the same information for each, regardless of how heavily or not very much they describe its use. Did the sellers have the stove installed? If yes, ask for the HETAS registration certificate and all documentation, including sales invoices for stove, flue parts and installation, including the installer’s HETAS registration number. If the installation is HETAS registered there will also be a metal or metallic plate completed by the HETAS registered installer fixed either in or next to the mains fuse box. Or, if the stove is installed in a fireplace, the dataplate could also be found on the underside of the closure plate or board, which closes up the chimney opening and which the stovepipe goes through it. If the sellers had the stove installed by a builder as part of other building or renovation works, they should have provided the seller with Building Regs sign off in relation to Document J as a minimum. If the sellers inherited the stove installation themselves or, for any reason, the above documentation isn’t available, you can check if HETAS has the address of the property on its database of registered installations (https://www.hetas.co.uk/contact-us/). On the maintenance side, ask for copies of all sweep records and if there are none of these, ask when a liner sweep and stove inspection was last carried out. We go out to many jobs where the customer has no information about the standard of installation or when a liner sweep and stove inspection was last carried out. In most cases we can establish if the stove is directly connected to a flue and comment on the safety of the installation. Notwithstanding any of above, make sure there is a functioning carbon monoxide alarm in the room of the installation before you start using a stove you have inherited. If there is no stove but there are open fires, ask for chimney sweep certificates and any information about the sellers use of the fireplaces over their ownership of the property. The best way to start life in your new home that has a stove(s) and/or an open fire(s) that you think you might want to use is, get a sweep and stove servicing specialist in to sweep the flues and provide any guidance on lighting fires safely.
Removing nests from Chimney flues, and when you can't by law:
While a number of common birds will use the eaves, roof space and crevices around the house to nest in, it’s really only jackdaws that nest in chimneys. Their nesting and fledging season is March to September. If you have an active nest in a chimney it is against the law to remove it between March and September under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.
Some nuggets of advice and guidance we find ourselves regularly passing on to our customers:
KNOW YOUR APPLIANCE (in case you need to source replacement parts down the line): Prior to having your wood burner installed, make a note of its serial number (especially if it is located on the back of the stove) and keep it with your sales and installation paperwork. Keep all your sales and installation paperwork along with any stove manuals in a safe place. IF YOUR DOOR GLASS CRACKS: Don’t order replacement door glass before you know you can remove all of the door glass fixings first. Over time some glass fixings can become fused into the door they screw into. This can lead to them shearing off when attempting to unscrew them which means the bit that is left in the door has to be drilled out, the hole retapped and a different fixing used. Spray a good copper grease or WD40-type spray a couple of times ahead of attempting to unscrew the fixings. NEVER, EVER PRACTICE OVERNIGHT SLUMBERING: There is no way of slumbering – stocking up the firebox and turning the air vents right down, so the stove might stay warm overnight – without very quickly ruining your stove and liner while creating a risk of fire in the flue and an environment where carbon monoxide can build up. At the very least, you will quickly find slick, shiny tar film building up on the door glass, stove interior and flue interior. Persistent slumbering will lead to a build up of clinker solids in the flue which, in some cases we’ve come across, virtually closed up sections of the flue. One of our customers managed to create this dangerous environment in the year between two visits. It was only by showing them the extraordinary pile of deposits we removed from the flue that they got the message.