Steven P

I find a mix works well - coal for a while then wood for a while (not usually a mix fuelled simultaneously though) - the wood ash will burn through to nothing but kind of 'aerates' the coal ash as it does letting it burn more fully or fall into the ash pan better (dual purpose grids are not so great for coal - gaps are too small meaning the coal ash hangs about above the grate too much) - in my stove anyway

how old is the alarm? They reckon they need changing every 10 years because the sensors can go, just to add another thing to think about.

However, 3" thick silicone? Round the back of the sink is one thing, holding the window ledge on is another.

I'm spending quite a lot of effort to remove the plastics from the house as I do repairs and replacement... and ******** silicone sealant that is used to hold the windows together (and bathroom, some walls, kitchen and even the meter cupboard) instead of doing a decent job

What glass do conservatories use? Might be worth a look at that too. Laminated glass - can appreciate that next to a door the way my boys 'close' it sometimes

playing with the socks lost in the washing machine

I don't believe the government does much unless there is a financial and tax benefit to it, not much tax in wood fuel and they are going to be losing a massive lump of petrol taxes as we go to electric vehicles - and adding tax t electricity isn't going to go down well. So hit what is perceived to be a middle class thing and wood burners... which is I think where they want to go, we all buy wood according to the HETAS scheme, then add tax to that. But the comments above make a good point, years ago the air pollution from everything else was higher, wood burner emissions was nothing in comparison. So let the wood rot in a tip (like Arb waste wood), the methane emissions from that are far worse to the environment than carbon emissions from burning it, let a diesel transit take the waste 30 or 40 miles round trip to a tip instead of round the corner to a bloke with an axe, and then import biomas logs from South America rain forests in a boat so the bloke with an ace can get cheaper electricity and afford heating. Joined up thinking is good but wood burning stoves isn't the right thing to go for just now

From the other side of things, been quite mild the last 2 weeks, I should have been buying coal yesterday but will be leaving it till Friday - the same amount lasting 3 weeks in the winter has lasted nearer 4 this last time around

I'm going to have to get into these, 500g for £7!

Number 2 - apart from a few woods, you can use them all on a BBQ, hot embers are hot embers, managed well you can keep a 'fire' with flames at one end and as you add fuel to this end it will push hot embers along the rest of the BBQ,,, hottest at one end, cooler at the other. Firewood - even in the UK, just don't mention the word firewood in an advert, sell them as logs..... All wood will sell freshly cut but for a lower price than seasoned .. and weird this should come up, was chopping up an Alder yesterday - I'll let you know how it is to burn next year!

Goes back to how much is it costing you.... machine processed and you have a processor to worry about, hand split and your time to worry about, did you buy in the wood or acquire it, what about your storage costs. (I don't need to know the figures) Place near me is dong softwood 'm3' bags for £115 just now, so the £100 above won't be too far wrong, didn't see a 'ready to burn' sticker on the advert so guess that is the cheaper end of things I rarely sell any - personal use - but the other year was doing a 'car boot' of soft wood logs for £15 to £20 (depended on the reply to gumtree advert and if I liked the sound of them!), middle of summer and was selling them too cheap (this was maybe 0.4m3) so this is as an absolute minimum - had the whole drive covered with logs and needed space. All went in about 10 days. And how much would I pay? Couple of pints and a cake do you? Think if I needed it, again £100 sounds OK to me... but make sure you don't make a loss.

That's what a shepherds wife told me a couple of years ago.

So a question back at you... what do you need to know the make for? I am guessing you need new internal parts, fire bricks, glass? maybe and then all you need is a tap measure.

n+1, where n is the number you have.

I'm with coppice cutter, experience of the past means I regularly let the tank get to it's last litre before filling up - stops the muck accumulating. Not sure what the cost and effort of a clean is and what the cost and effort to fit a new fuel gauge? You'll know. Failing that looking at the what MPG do you get thread, might be worth doing a few sums to figure what a tank should get and run it to 3/4 empty more regularly?

Stolenim then?

and the sports hall.... our school had 2, 1 with a wooden floor (for the exams, so it creaked nicely as the teachers walked up and down). Pallet wood - a pain to do. De-nailing is OK, and I have seen lever things to take them apart, but the sanding to get any kind of finish to them. I'd also be tempted to pressure hose them clean - all sorts of stuff on them (the nicest would be gunk from the roads as they are driven about), and also treat them for woodworm and so on - you never know. Without the work they will always look like pallets.

Man in Aldi the other week was buying a bag of logs, £11 (maybe 2 bags), If I had spare in the garage I would have had a word - could have filled his car boot for not a lot more than that. I am going to make my logs into Swedish candles, £10 each, 6 of them a month will pay to heat my house in the winter

Yup, guess that must be so, a bloke down the pub told me so.

That's my first thought, if they are coming back to finish the job but have cut the slate then they need to put the slate somewhere till today? That is of course assuming that it is just placed in place. My only other thought is is it thick enough? Tricky to tell from the photos but I thought there had to be 25mm of non combustible area a certain distance in front of the stove -have to check - and of course if it is an existing fireplace then this should all ready be there and under the slate (and carpet)

Do you have time to go back to them for a clarification? When I was a buyer / purchaser I was happy to send a reply - often it would be a reply to all who had expressed an interest though so the competition gets that too - a level playing field. Second thought I would put sections in the quote if the council allows for that - Tree work - Traffic management a (stop-go boards) -Traffic management b (traffic lights) - Disposal of waste and so on With subtotals - easy to read, I used to love that (and hated hand written quotes, jumbled up ones, or ones that used different units and so on - had to think to compare like for like) and add whatever else you might think could get missed / hidden by others highlighted - of course that doesn't get you out of the cost to get the quote for traffic lights in the first place. Maybe possible to specify stop-go boards and a note that other traffic management can be provided at cost + 10%. Worst case is your are too expensive, best case the procurement department think a little and ask questions improving your chances.

Cheers Gimlet, I should have asked here for advice first - tried the insulation manufactures and retailers (the experts) and.. nothing. Should have known better

Different houses, locations, insulations, firing regimes and definitions of 'really cold', my 5kw stove is doing OK, stop fuelling it at supper time this week, and it is 5 to 6 degrees outside. Really cold the other week, -7 to -10 and it struggled we had to use the electric heater. Looking back at this, you might cost up the work to get a larger stove, and any changes, decorating and so on to the fireplace, might be cheaper to upgrade all the insulation, same effect of a warmer house with ongoing energy savings? Not sure if you have a suspended floor - we insulated under that and it made a noticeable difference. Cost about £2 a sq m, DIY 100m rock wool, next job is insulating under the eves and not just the ceiling joists and I'd guess will be about £3 a sq m (cause it slopes, costs more) for 100mm rockwool (probably go better and thicker up there next though)

... 21cm is about half way..... doesn't matter where the cut is if they are shorter? I tend to stack and dry mine at double length - they stack better, and when they come in for the winter cut them in half (electric saw in the garage, but the sawdust is more contained, easier to sweep up) - but can understand reluctance if you have already cut them all to a finished length and have to do it all again..

Of course, you can shorten them all by 5cm or by by 21cm.....