Oh I know how heavy it is bear. It took me 15 minutes to shift it from the garage and into the house a few steps at a time then a rest! Its been in, out again and finally in today.

It will need to come out again to fit the hearth anyway.

Smoke test was eventful. first did the appliance leak test, so all vents shut, smoke pellet in. pass, no smoke leaks. then do the chimney draw test, so open the vents, shut all windows and doors to the room, shove pellet in and see it draws, open a window to check it doesn’t speed up (indicating lack of ventilation). passed even with a cold flue. Now, since I have an open plan house I then have to repeat that test with the bathroom, cloakroom and kitchen extractor fans on, and doors between fans and stove open. It initally looked to be passing, smoke was coming out the chimney but then flow reversed and billowed out the airwash and primary air control into the lounge. Poo. Ok, do it again after warming the flue with a blow torch for 2 minutes, passed. Just to be sure I repeated it again, passed again. So its good to go once I get a battery in the CO alarm, However being a belt and braces kind of guy I’m going to stick another airbrick in the kitchen …it is the large kitchen extractor fan which is open plan with the lounge that was the problem so let’s help that bit of the house get its fresh air.

Yeah, you’ve got to get the cold air out of the flue first of all with a small fire. That’s to be expected from any install.

Sounds like you’re going well OTT with precautions; good work 😀

Building control will want to see a smoke test on that before full install. I’d stick a building notice in pretty soon.

Looks like a tidy job, mind. What’s the specified air gap to the side for that stove? I assume it’s bigger than 5kw because of the additional ventilation.

Yeah I guess your right bear, I was just being too lazy to fetch the blow torch and from feeling the draw at the end of the flue with my hand I knew it was good and thought it would pass the test cold, which it did for the first version, the extractor fan was too much though.

martin, no its only 5Kw. I was always nervous the kitchen extractor may cause an issue as its not far away and is a biggy over an 8 burner hob (just visible in the photo with the liner extending down the hallway). So i thought I’d stick the airbrick in to the hearth while easy to do, rather than fit the decorative hearth and then find I had a ventilation issue. I’m almost certainly going way OTT with the airbricks, but then again in a way all I’m doing is reopening airbricks that previous owners have blocked up. The house was built with fires in every room more or less, so the airbricks were needed back then, but I guess when it got central heating a previous owner has blocked over several of the airbricks, I’m opening them again, but putting one in the hearth should avoid annoying drafts across the room.

Air gap is, err 50mm to each side iirc. I’m only just there…a mm or 3 short if I measure to the bits of brick that stick out a wee bit more. Its why the fireplace is left as just brick even though its only old fletons, not well/neatly bricked and not well pointed (they were never intended to be on show when the brickie built this house in 1936). Its not a particularly pretty bit of brickwork but I din’t want to start doing structural work to narrow the jams and widen the opening. I’ve set the stove with a larger gap behind of 75mm, but still far enough back to have the flue straight up from the top exit.

Good lord, I just looked up the building control application fee on Croydon’s website, and nearly fell off the sofa! After VAT it looks like £216. wowzers. I hope OH likes one of the cheaper hearths.

That stove looks a bit tight in that opening – won’t you lose loads of radiated heat straight into the surrounds? I thought more space was needed for air flow???

You work with what you’ve got. More clearance would be nice but its not a big deal, I know from my parent’s experience, their stove (franco belge belfort 4.5Kw) is more tightly installed, it still heats the room (a bigger room than mine) very well indeed. Stovax recommended minimum clearances to allow installation and for convection/good operation are just 25mm to the rear,50mm to the sides and 100mm above. I’ve just got the minimum to the sides, 75mm to the rear and 380mm above, so it will be fine. I wanted plenty of space above so I could use a stove fan, that’s why I raised the opening. With a fan to aid convection the heat will come out into the room nicely I’m sure

I just looked up the building control application fee on Croydon’s website, and nearly fell off the sofa! After VAT it looks like £216

The only other issue is whether you’re in a smoke control zone. I’ve got the Stockton 5 and was ‘required’ to fit the adapter which stops you shutting down the burner vents completely. BC may well want to see that in place to sign it off.

Yes I am, and I have the smoke control kit bought and fitted, I included the cost of that in the total for the stove (it was £40 for the smoke control kit)

Thinking about it I’d expect they should sign off on a non-approved stove or one without a smoke kit as long as you has the multifuel/coal grate as you could legally burn smokeless coal, however I’m going to be using wood so I got the smoke control kit.

Having checked the building control website the drop down menu for ‘type pf work’ didn’t include wood burning stove, the closest seemed to be ‘boiler installation or unvented HW tank’. So before paying £216 and maybe getting the wrong fee I phoned to check. Yes that is the right fee, and I asked about when inspections were required and he confirmed it just final commissioning/smoke testing. Phew. So fingers crossed OH will choose some stone for the hearth soon, and it won’t be long before I get that in and we are all done other than the chimney notice plate that is purchased and in the post, and the CO alarm I just returned from Wickes with needs putting up.

BTW, can anybody advise on how hard fire cement goes and how easy it is to clean off to reapply? I’ll need to lift the viscous enamelled stove pipe off the stove to slide the stove out and fit the hearth. Doing so will break the fire cement seal at the stove collar and at the stove pipe to flexi liner adaptor, so I’ll need to clean the fire cement off these 2 joins and reapply as the stove goes back in. My dad is nervous the fire cement could go really hard making all this very difficult and reckons i shouldn’t light the stove until its all done and in for the final time. I’m keen to light the stove as its getting colder and my OH is not to be rushed on interior design stuff, so it could be a while before she is happy with her decision on the hearth. Anybody able to advise?