I am buying a house and I am considering installing a stove in the living room.

If I get a check and the chimney is sound do I need to line it?

The chimney is in a bungalow and is on an internal wall, so it shouldn’t be too cold.

Or is the expense of a liner worthwhile as it makes the stove more efficient?

Also, what is a fair price for stove installation?

Any recommendations for stove installations near Tonbridge?

depends on the flue and if you can get an honest appraisal. my father in law is a sweep, we have two stoves – one burns wood the other coal – neither flue is lines nor did we need to line the chimney in our last house.

a stove is pretty easy to self install, however if you are planning to sell the property you will need the building regs which you can either pay building control to come sign off and issue the certificate or you can pay through the nose with a hetas registered installer.

my father in law showed me how to install a stove, i’ve done a few and i’d will do more. but i’m not certified. the one stove/flue we have that i could’ve installed but as the property is a rental we went with a large local hetas registered company, was bodged so much that it took the threat of legal action to have corrected. and that one cost me 1k.

No need to line if the chimney is sound.

When i fitted mine, i smoke tested the chimney and did a visual check in the loft etc, fitted the stove then kept an eye on things for a couple of weeks. All ok

Mate did the same thing with his, unfortunately he was getting signs of his chimney leaking (marks coming through the wall paper) so had to have it lined.

If you live in a bungalow then if it needs it do the lining yourself.

We paid a firm £1000 for the job and they were crap. Had to threaten them with a solicitor to get them to sort it.

Basic rule was 5kw and under, no need for a vent in the room. Anything over, vent required.

Smoke test it and use carbon monoxide detector as back up.

however if you are planning to sell the property to be covered by your building’s insurance should there be a fire related to the stove installation, you will need the building regs which you can either pay building control to come sign off and issue the certificate or you can pay through the nose with a hetas registered installer.

I was under the impression that its needed to help it draw air, and prevent soot building up, which can cause a chimney fire (not sure of the risk but hetas have a vested interest in lining chimneys!)

For our place the roof is quite steep and not easy to get onto, and I don’t have the guts to do it just with a ladder! The liners are bulky and pretty heavy I think.

The quotes we got were about £1k labour plus the stove, and I think most of the labour was in getting up there and needed 2 men.

If yours is easy to access, go for DIY and get it signed off. I think zokes is right about the insurance

You’ll need to get it swept anyway, so ask the sweep to do a smoke test and to give you a view on whether it would need to be lined.
If the draw is OK, and the chimney is not leaky, then no need, as long as you’re getting it swept quite regularly.

But you’ll still need to get it signed off by building control to make sure your buildings insurance covers you in the event of a fire. And I’d advise getting them in to witness a successful smoke test rather than them coming in after you’ve got the thing fitted with register plate etc and then demanding you line it.

If you’re not lining, DIY it. Read part J of the building regs to see the requirements (hearth size, thickness, proximity to combustible materials etc). If you go through a HETAS installer you will pay through the nose.

Even if it needs lining, you can do most of it yourself and get your sweep or a roofer to help you drop the liner and fit the cowl.

I am in the exactly the same situation, except that the chimney is built on the outside of the bungalow. It is sound, has been smoke tested but we were advised by different installers, and a sweep, that installing a liner would mean the chimney heats up qiuckly leading to a better draw as the chimney is only 12.5 feet high…..

We had our chimney assessed by both the installer and a sweep and both assured us that there would be no need for a liner. However the heat generated by the stove lead to the old tar in the chimney softening and after a few cold days without a fire, the smell of this would fill the room. So if your chimney has been well used burning coal in the past you may need a liner to avoid this ‘feature’, which the installer later said is quite common in older (1920’s) houses – but then wanted to charge us to reinstall the stove this time with a liner. The smell has faded with use to be fair and still lovin’ the stove.

In some cases, the tar from the chimney can leach through to the wall on the inside – can’t it Drac 😉

We had our chimney assessed by both the installer and a sweep and both assured us that there would be no need for a liner. However the heat generated by the stove lead to the old tar in the chimney softening and after a few cold days without a fire, the smell of this would fill the room.

The heat going up the chimneys is lower with a stove than an open fire (which is why the former are more efficient), so I doubt it was due to this. We used to have problems with a ‘reverse draft’ on on eof our fires during the winter if it wasn’t used for a couple of days – it also made the room smell slightly sooty. Cleaning the chimney and fitting a stove has fixed a number of problems but we haven’t lined the chimney ….. yet.

I am in the exactly the same situation, except that the chimney is built on the outside of the bungalow. It is sound, has been smoke tested but we were advised by different installers, and a sweep, that installing a liner would mean the chimney heats up qiuckly leading to a better draw as the chimney is only 12.5 feet high…..

This is true. A lined chimney will warm up quicker leading to a better draft which is important on a bungalow chimney becuase shorter chimneys are inherently less efficient than longer chimneys.
Also an external chimney is possibly only 4.5″ thick so it will cool down quicker than a thicker or internal flue. On the plus side, you can fit a soot door so all cleaning is done from the outside so no mess.