We opened our lounge/dining room up and also opened our old gas fireplace up. That went ok.
I’ve bought a 6 inch twin skin stainless flue as per regs, pulled out the 4 inch single skin gas flue. That all went ok.
Can’t get the new flue beyond the loft, goes in about 8ft then won’t budge. That’s with someone pulling on the rope downstairs in the fireplace. Tried twisting etc. Made a mess and now have 11 metres of flue uncoiled in my garden.

Anyone got any tips?
Failing that is it a grand I’m looking at to have a hetas man come do it?

Thanks.

I managed without one but you can buy a nose cone that fits on one end which helps to stop it snagging. Try one of those. Only a few quid

Yeah got a nose cone. Made no difference.

a cheap usb endoscope off ebay might help to have a look.

photo

I can never get photos to share on here.
But as you can see the rope goes round a real tight turn. That’s where it gets stuck.

It might be that it isn’t 6 inches diameter in places. Had the same issue, had a 6″ outlet stove but my chimney leaked all over the house. Luckily my sweep had a guage and reckoned that the flue was too tight in places for a 6″ flue. It was wide and very narrow, so flowed like a good ‘un but no 6″ flue.
So we had to get a 5inch flue. But that also meant getting rid of my 6″ outlet stove and replacing with a 5″ one as you are not allowed to downsize a flue from the stove outlet size it is designed for..

Do you need a liner?

Do a smoke test and see if your chimney is sound.

Do you need a liner?

Do a smoke test and see if your chimney is sound.
A liner would be preferable as they heat up much more quickly and help with the draw. Can’t offer any further help to the OP though.

Preferable but not essential.

Although most HETAS fitters will tell you different……

No, not essential of course, but in my experience log burners are much easier to light when a liner is fitted.

if it is in the loft that its stuck your other option is to knock some bricks out at the point it sticks, guide the flue past the (hopefully small) tight spot, get it in the whole flue, then put back the bricks you removed. It’ll be messy.

Oh and the other option is try from the other direction. It sounds like you are pullng it down from th roof? try pulling it up from the bottom.

if it is in the loft that its stuck your other option is to knock some bricks out at the point it sticks, guide the flue past the (hopefully small) tight spot, get it in the whole flue, then put back the bricks you removed. It’ll be messy.

At our last place (an end terrace) they went in from the outside to do the work (albeit just a sleeve for a concrete liner) so there was no mess at all.

Make sure you put it in the right way up, unless it’s a Duraflue.

if it is in the loft that its stuck your other option is to knock some bricks out at the point it sticks, guide the flue past the (hopefully small) tight spot, get it in the whole flue, then put back the bricks you removed. It’ll be messy.

this is what my builder said he would do (in a bedroom) if there was any issue feeding the flue thru a dog leg. thankfully, 6″ flue fed thru without issue.

What’s the best place to get liner material from?

stove fitters warehouse is fairly good but can sometimes be beaten, have a search for duraflue

but in my experience log burners are much easier to light when a liner is fitted.

Ime it makes no real difference unless your chimneys massively over size.

Based on the same stove without and with a liner at my folks.

No liner in mine here if it was any easier to light it would self combust 🙂

I bought cheapest 316 I could find (from flexiflue-are-us or something) justification being intending burning premium wood only, but now wish I’d gone for higher grade and/or branded name ie duraflue.

It’s ok
You’ll be able to get a better one when the temporary steel lining fails.

Thanks everyone. Had a real man around to have a look. Looks like it’s a smash through the chimney in the attic job.

Bit annoying as my attic is a bedroom but I’m a dab hand at plastering so making good is not a problem.

B.A.Nana- why is your 316 bad???

not bad, just the most basic and therefore probably needing replacing in 5-10 years. usual analogy, buy right, buy once, spend an extra £200 now, you won’t need to spend another £xxx to replace in 5 or 10 years. My reasoning, at the time, was always burning only good wood at ramming speed will not produce chemicals or much residue to corrode a cheap flue, but now just thinking I should have spent a bit more on better quality first time around.

If you think you might ever burn coal put a 904 grade liner in.

It’s hard to know if spending more is wise, or spending less is a good saving, unless you have a crystal ball.