Logburner install. Seal or not seal?

[piper64]

A Hetas fitter has installed a logburner in my home, but not sealed the join at the collar to stove pipe. I didn't see him seal anything at the join between the stove pipe and flue adaptor either. He didn't use anything when joining the flue liner to the adaptor, as he said its not needed.

He claims that the stove pipe joins are "self sealing these days", which contradicts everything I've read or been told prior.
I realised after he left that he also failed to install a Carbon monitor.

I have contacted him, but he has not been gracious enough to respond as yet.

Cn anyone confirm that these two metal items are somehow self sealing?

 

[Exedon]

Some clear pictures of said joints would be useful.

 

[piper64]

This is the logburner to stove pipe. The upper end is covered by a debris collar, so not visible, but it's the same steel stove pipe just slid over the spigot of the flue adaptor.

 

[piper64]

Some clear pictures of said joints would be useful.

I'm guessing not that useful then?

 

[Mr Chibs]

On my stove that spigot to flue joint is filled with fire cement. That said my old stove didn't have a spigot, just a seal of stove rope.

The pipe to liner joint is not filled as the flue pipe sits inside the flue liner.

You can buy fire sealant, but not something I've used.

Carbon monoxide detector is a must, even a basic one, fit it yourself, two screws.

 

[piper64]

The fitter said the liner to adaptor didn't need sealing, but the way he cut the liner was not straight, so some was pushed into the adaptor a lot, some less so, before he bolted it up.
I know I can seal the spigot myself and fit the CO monitor, but isn't that what I paid a lot of money to a HETAS installer to do and isn't he breaking the law leaving the install in an unsafe condition?
I could have done the whole job myself (as I did most of it ) but that little piece of paper means I couldn't.
He has overcharged me, underwhelmed me and now it seems to me, he has broken the law.

 

[Mr Chibs]

I agree, sounds like he's done half a job to be polite.

Is he Heatas approved, you can check on their website, if so, speak to them.

Have you asked him to come back and rectify the elements you are not happy with?

Perhaps others have comments how to proceed with regard to the law, as it's not something I have knowledge of.

How did you pay? credit card? if so you might be able to use them.

 

[piper64]

He is HETAS apparently, he went on about it enough
Im just waitng for the certificate to arrive.
I have asked him to come back, but he is not responding. When he left he even commented that I had got off lightly with what I'd paid. I paid him a 50% deposit of £1000 (bank transfer at his request), but then had to buy the hearth and the stove myself as well as rectify most of what he had done. For £1000 he has messed about for nearly 3 months, doing what he wanted ( very little) when he 'wasn't busy'.

He even tried to palm me off with a rusty old piece of stove pipe he foind in his shed, claiming it was 'better because it had a sweeping door on it'. When I commented on the state of it, he stated that he could ' spray it up' !

He really is an arrogant, deluded conman.

I will be reporting him to HETAS if he doesn't respond this week.

 

[Madrab]

What is the model of the log burner, do you have the MI?

Not sure why there's any ambiguity, most if not all solid fuel stoves/fires must be installed "in accordance with the manufacturers instructions" or in the absence of them, the regs that cover the appliance and that will cover how the flue will need to be installed. If the MI hasn't been followed and states that sealant/cement should be used and it hasn't, then it hasn't been installed properly.

You need to be sure that it hasn't been installed properly before any complaint is progressed.

 

[piper64]

I do have the MI in an envelope, I will check them. I have spoken to the manufacturer and they have no knowledge of 'self sealing' pipes, so I doubt the MI will say different.

The fact he failed to install a CO monitor is enough to report him I would imagine.

 

[Madrab]

If the manufacturer asks for the flue to be sealed at the stove>flue connection point then there's you answer. As far as further up is concerned then again I would expect the MI to specify what flue is required. If that hasn't been followed then that needs to be pointed out to him and give him the opportunity to correct it, or prove to you in writing that it isn't required, if there is still no answer then it would further.

I don't believe there is any 'legal' requirement for him to install a CO detector. As a professional fitter though, he should either fit one and add that to the invoice or recommend to you that one is installed before the appliance is used, as I am sure that will also be in the MI given it's 'open flued'

 

[piper64]

The regulations state that a CO monitor must be fitted in the same room as the solid fuel burner. HETAS installers are supposed to fit one before sign off.
He is not returning messages or calls so I am not able to give him the opportunity to correct anything.

He brought a few boxes to my house with the pot hanger, flue liner, stove pipe and all that in. A CO monitor, still in ts packaging, was in one of those boxes, but he took them all away when he installed the liner.

I've paid for it, he hasn't fitted it.

 

[muggles]

Ask HETAS to inspect the installation as it stands. They can suspend his registration (if he is registered) and take a very dim view of people who aren't registered claiming that they are. If he is registered and the work isn't good he'll be forced to put right at his own expense

 

[piper64]

HETAS want to give him the opportunity to sort his mistake, but I dont really want him back. He is confrontational, arrogant and if he couldn't do it right first time, why should I trust him to now?
Had it been another family or an older person maybe, he would have left it unsafe, with no means of warning and the results could have been lethal.
I have to abide by HETAS rules though.