Walesy

Wow, you wouldn't get any tree surgeons giving it away around here!

I know how you feel jamiehamy, I was pretty excited to get the fire installed, like I said before they're good for so much more than just heat. We put central heating into the house when we renovated it so we didn't particularly need the burner to keep the place warm but it's saving us a fair bit on our heating oil bill, the one thing I would say though is that if you have no access to free firewood then burners are pretty expensive to run - I was certainly shocked at how much they go through (again, I have to work out a way of limiting the draw in my place, that will make it run more efficiently) We never used to use the room that the burner's in, we fitted it in there because it's in the middle of the house so we thought it was best for dispersing the heat, but since fitting it we all now use that room far more than any others in the house! The added bonus is that we don't have a TV in the room so we'll just sit watching the wood burn and listening to music etc etc, a much better way of spending the evening IMO! The dog and cat are pretty chuffed with it too :lol: ---------- Post added at 11:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:56 AM ---------- When you bought your house, I'm assuming the insurance company didn't come around and check it? they also probably didn't ask if you have a fire/burner and if so how it was installed? If (god forbid) there was a problem then how would the insurance company prove that the fire wasn't there when you bought the house? Obviously with something like a fire, you need to be extra careful that it's fitted properly etc, but a lot of regulations are just ridiculous, people have been using fires/stoves in these houses for hundreds of years without problems, as long as you keep the thing swept properly and the chimney's doing what it's supposed to do I wouldn't worry.

Yeah, like I said, if anything the chimney draws too much and I could do with limiting it to mellow the fire down sometimes! Im not sure i'll be putting any glass bottles on it though! :lol:

Yeah I have CM detectors both in the room with the burner and upstairs, and the chimney was swept and smoke bombed before lighting it the first time and it's all completely fine :) My burner's a multi-fuel but I only really burn wood because I get an endless supply of it for free, I've used coal a few times, but thought that the coal burnt hotter than wood?

Yeah I've had the chimney swept and the sweep said there was no problems whatsoever, if anything there's too much draw due to the house being in an exposed position on top of a hill! I need to fit a baffle to the flue so I can control the draw on windy days really. I knew about the heat in the room to up the chimney ratio which is why we went for a burner as opposed to open fire, and it kicks the heat out almost instantly, although granted it certainly gets hotter with time, a few times we've had to leave the room due to it being too hot after a few hours! :lol: I'll be pulling the burner back out in the summer and doing a few jobs to it and fitting a solid liner all the way to the top, I just threw it in on the cheap a couple of months back because my missus wanted it in before Christmas (well, she actually wanted it in for Christmas 2010 but that never happened! :lol:) - now it's in I don't know how we lived without one, it provides so much more than just heat! As for the open fires and repointing the inside of the chimney, yep, you need to poor it down from the roof, it's not cheap! I would suggest you're better off spending the money on fitting a burner and solid liner all the way up if your chimney is buggered.

Excellent, thanks for that! like I say, we've only had it installed for a couple of months so i'm still learning my way around it, I was surprised at how hot the chimney breast was last night and was a tad worried! I'll stick another few logs on and get it stoked up again now! :D EDIT - just to check, do you mean the chimney breast in the room with the fire in, or the room upstairs, our chimney breast directly above the fire doesn't get that hot, it's the one in the room above that does.

Hi all, I installed a wood burner in my house a couple of months ago, after doing a fair bit of research and taking advice from 3 seperate 'experts' I didn't put a solid liner all the way up the flue, just 1m of it up to the register plate. Anyway, over the last week or so I've been lighting it a fair bit earlier than previously, and getting it raging hot due to the cold weather outside. I was lighting it at about 4pm until 10pm(ish) whereas over the last week I've been lighting it at about 10am until 10pm(ish) - since having it lit for longer I've noticed that the chimney breast in the room above the room with the burner in it is getting REALLY warm, as in almost as hot as a radiator to the touch. Having done a bit of reading online (always the worst thing to do!) apparently hot chimney breasts (thank god Dinkus doesn't come on here any more, he'd have a field day!) are a sign of damage to the mortar in the flue. So onto my question, those of you with wood burners, how hot do your chimney breasts get in the room above the fire? slightly warm, or hot to the touch?

Yeah, assuming it's only damaged the roof :)

Down on Porthtowan beach yesterday, this fella obviously forgot he had a pop-top when going through the barrier :( Nightmare! My van just about gets under these, I get some funny looks from people as I drive through them without flinching because I know I'll get under, I think there's about 2-3 inches in it :lol:

Thought they were, I've got a set of 18x8.5 on my van, they look great on your rado.

Are they RX2's?

No room for a ramp but what about putting a pit in there?

Just one mate :)

LOL, £8 delivered starting bid for a used clip? I've given these away from cars I've broken over the years to people on here, I'd rather go without than pay that, but thanks anyway and good luck with flogging it. Anyone else got a used one at a more sensible price, at this rate I'm just gonna no-nails the bloody thing on! :lol: ---------- Post added at 05:42 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:41 PM ---------- Cheers for the link mate, i'll use that as a last resort (before going for the no-nails!) :)

Hi all, I've given up waiting for the parts I paid for nearly 2 months ago from a member on here and I just want to get the bloody cover back on! :lol: so has anyone got one of these lying around, new or second hand I'm not bothered - I need the male and female parts.

You're better off bartering with hard cash rather than an old car :)

I was offered £1000 as a p/x for mine recently at a VW dealer, I didn't think that was too bad.

But either way, no I didn't ever get these sorted, but nevertheless I did manage to introduce this smiley - :awesome: - to the forum, which i'm quite pleased with, and have just been reminded of.

To be fair, if the original seller couldn't be arsed to even clean it up for sale then he deserves the low price he's got, the dealers price isn't too bad either :)

Errm, well looking at the bodywork it needs a bit of money spending on it, and with the tax and test about to run out I'd say you'd be lucky to get £1200 at the moment - although you never know your luck. I think if you got a full ticket on it you may be able to get £1400-£1500? baring in mind, I'm no expert.

CCGB is more nose heavy, but has more power as standard and only needs timing chains looked at every 100k or so, whereas the CF is more nimble with it's smaller engine but is more easily modified for more power but needs the charger serviced every 45k miles.

Thanks very much for the tips and links fellas, great help as usual - I'm off for a search around those forums right now, I didn't manage to get time to pop to the bodyshop today so it'll be good to have as much info as possible before going to see them.

Cool, sounds OK for the dosh, if the bodywork and interior are in good nick and you like it enough then you could stick a 1.9TDI in it fairly cheaply/easily, I've driven one with the conversion and they go quite well.

Yeah if you'd just be using it for the odd weekend away or to shift stuff about or whatever it doesn't really matter, they're good strong engines and the T4 is a great van overall, although an N reg 2.4D won't be the best, it'll definitely feel like a van, whereas the more modern/quicker TDi's can be more like driving a car. Having owned mine for 3-4 years now I really wouldn't be without it, best vehicle I've ever owned by a country mile, and I've owned a good few! :lol:

He did use an epoxy primer, and waxoiled it all etc :( strangely though it's only come back on the one arch, the others and the rest of the van are fine.