I am newly registered HETAS engineer and finally free from Building Control whose fees are now £275 per installation if you are only HETAS qualified but not HETAS registered. This saving will be reflected in our future fees.
Now I am registered I can reduce my installation costs as I can now sign off my own work. However, I would not be willing to sign off work if there is not a stainless steel liner installed. This is because of possible failure of the chimney stack at some future point in time
I don't know if customers realise but if you don't fit a ss liner when you fit the stove you are relying on a chimney that may not have been used properly for over 20 years when there has been a gas fire installed.
We reluctantly agreed to fit a stove without liner in a very good working chimney for an established client. Although it was all signed off by LABC and we could not be held responsible for future failure of pointing to stack etc this did happen. Because they were cherished clients we did the remedial work to their stack for nothing - even though we could have cited the LABC Notice certifying our installation being passed. There was no legal come-back but we treasure these clients so did the remedial work
But after this chimney failure we have insisited on a ss liner being fitted so that we are not called back to failing chimneys.
Nowadays we tell clients that we will not fit stove without ss liner unless the works are subject to building control with a fee of £275. This way clients opting for fitting stove without liners are not able to pursue us if the chimney fails during exteme weather.
The £275 fee is roughly the same as the cost of a liner so it is not in customers' interests to insist they have a perfectly good chimney which does not need a liner.
My advice is whatever chimney you have get a liner fitted - they are usually guaranteed for a min 10 years provided you do not over-fire the stove or otherwise breach the warranty .
You might think your chimney is good enough but it probably isn't and with all the expense of fitting a stove you should not scrimp on a flu liner.
Now I am registered I can reduce my installation costs as I can now sign off my own work. However, I would not be willing to sign off work if there is not a stainless steel liner installed. This is because of possible failure of the chimney stack at some future point in time
I don't know if customers realise but if you don't fit a ss liner when you fit the stove you are relying on a chimney that may not have been used properly for over 20 years when there has been a gas fire installed.
We reluctantly agreed to fit a stove without liner in a very good working chimney for an established client. Although it was all signed off by LABC and we could not be held responsible for future failure of pointing to stack etc this did happen. Because they were cherished clients we did the remedial work to their stack for nothing - even though we could have cited the LABC Notice certifying our installation being passed. There was no legal come-back but we treasure these clients so did the remedial work
But after this chimney failure we have insisited on a ss liner being fitted so that we are not called back to failing chimneys.
Nowadays we tell clients that we will not fit stove without ss liner unless the works are subject to building control with a fee of £275. This way clients opting for fitting stove without liners are not able to pursue us if the chimney fails during exteme weather.
The £275 fee is roughly the same as the cost of a liner so it is not in customers' interests to insist they have a perfectly good chimney which does not need a liner.
My advice is whatever chimney you have get a liner fitted - they are usually guaranteed for a min 10 years provided you do not over-fire the stove or otherwise breach the warranty .
You might think your chimney is good enough but it probably isn't and with all the expense of fitting a stove you should not scrimp on a flu liner.