Wood fire installation

The full install, including the flue

We do the whole installation rather than just part of it, flue included. That matters because the flue is where most wood fire installations go wrong, and where the clearances and the weathertightness have to be right.

A flue penetration through a roof is a hole in the building. Done properly it stays dry for the life of the fire. Done badly it is a leak you find two winters later, usually in the ceiling rather than at the roof.

Wetbacks

If your fire runs a wetback, it ties into your hot water cylinder, and that connection is our side of it. Not every cylinder suits a wetback, and the plumbing has to be set up correctly for it to work safely. This is a good reason to have a plumber doing the install rather than coordinating two trades.

A wetback will give you a useful amount of hot water through winter for nothing. It will not replace your cylinder, and it does nothing in summer when the fire is not lit.

Clearances and the hearth

Every appliance has its own required clearances to combustible materials and its own hearth requirement, and they are not interchangeable between models. That is what decides where the fire can physically go in the room, and it is worth knowing before the furniture gets rearranged around a position that will not work.

The consent side

Wood burner installations are consented work in most cases, and councils have their own rules about which appliances are permitted in which zones. We will talk you through what applies to your property before anything is ordered. Napier and Hastings do not have identical rules, so where you are matters.

Choosing a fire

Output should suit the room, not the catalogue photo. An oversized fire in a small room gets run shut down, which is bad for the fire and bad for the air. We would rather help you get that right first time.

Think about where the heat needs to go as well as how much of it there is. An open plan living area and a villa with doors off a hallway are very different problems.

Replacing an old fire

Swapping an old burner for a new one is not always a straight swap. The clearances on a modern appliance differ, the flue may not suit, and the hearth may not meet current requirements. We will look at all three before quoting rather than after.

What we do not do

Gas fires. Anything burning gas needs a registered gasfitter and we do not hold that licence.