How to install your solid fuel stove - simple answer – don’t do it yourself!!!!
Please let me explain why:
I have had two phone calls this week from customers seeking advice about why their newly installed stoves are causing concerns. In both cases they were installed by their partner, both were very similar, let me give you an indication of one:
First phone call:
Me ... "Morning, can I help?"
Client 1 ... "Yes, I hope you can. I’ve just had a stove fitted and I have smoke in my child’s bedroom above, is this normal?"
(Seriously!!! That was the exact conversation.)
Me ... "No ... how was the flue tested and who actually installed it?"
Client 1 ... "Erm ... my partner installed it last night and said since it burned OK, it was alright."
Me ... "OK, when did you notice the smoke?"
Client 1 ... "When my daughter came downstairs, probably a couple of hours after we lit it, she said her room was foggy - she was coughing quite a lot come to think about it."
Needless to say I informed the client that she was lucky her daughter was still alive!!!
Unfortunately, during my working life I have had three requests from the Police to investigate fume problems from solid fuel appliances that we later attributed to the deaths of the householders. In two cases I believe that these were self installed appliances.
As a side note a few hours later I had the very irate partner of the above client on the phone, he called me a few choice names for "causing concerns and upsetting his partner!!!"!
After he had finished his tirade I simply asked if he had ever seen a death attributed to asphyxiation? Unfortunately I have. I also informed him of the law regarding the installation of stoves and asked if he wanted ourselves to check the installation, as I had previously asked his partner.
I was told categorically that he did not, that I was just looking for work and that there was nothing wrong with how he had installed the stove.
Unfortunately his phone number was withheld. What can I do? No name, address or phone number.
Building regulations and hence the law are quite clear on the installation of ALL solid fuel (yes this includes multifuel and woodburning stoves). They MUST be installed by a certified professional person; usually HETAS registered.
Failing to do so requires planning permissions to be obtained and approved. When you come to sell your house, HIPS now requires all certificates for ALL appliances installed into the fabric of the house.
- Who is going to provide a certificate for a self installation?
- Worse still ... who brings back the family member who has died from a faulty installation?
At the end of October the various stove manufacturers were showing the following lead times from their factories:
