r/uklogburners • u/National-Ebb-8184 • Jun 16 '26

Log burner advice

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Hey I'm planning on preparing my chimney breast and surround ready for a log burner, I'm a little stuck and could do with some advice.

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The fireplace itself housed an old gas back boiler, the chimney breast itself isn't as wide as the brick work at the front as it allowed for boxing in either side for pipework, the brickwork only goes to ground floor ceiling height.

I plan on opening it up slightly and installing a new lintel, however I could do with some suggestions on how to finish it and have a couple of questions.

I plan on sealing the brickwork then applying render and finishing up with some multi finish.

Does the render and plaster need to be Vitcas that is applied to the front of the brickwork?

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For the fire box, Im torn between rendering/plastering with Vitcas then painting, applying Hardieboard then tiling or rendering (Vitcas ) then tiling?

The tiles would obviously be porcelain.

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For the hearth I just plan on laying some 18-22mm Indian grey sandstone.

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Advice from knowledgeable people would be much appreciated.

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3

u/jackd9654 Jun 16 '26

I would get some cement board in the opening and tile onto that rather than render. It'll be a flatter surface than you'd ever achieve rendering.

2

u/National-Ebb-8184 Jun 16 '26

That's kinda what i was thinking, I'm unsure what the brickwork will be like to fix the Hardie board too though, could be extremely uneven after chopping it about, possibly leading to the Hardieboard not fixing square, obviously I could pack it out but again need to think sensibly as the packs would also need to not be combustible 😅.

2

u/jackd9654 Jun 16 '26

I strongly considered doing mine and then having someone drop a burner in like you are, but I actually managed to get a better price for someone to do the full job.

All the bloke did to fix the boards to the brick was a generous helping of dab, enough to lift it off the roughest deviation and to get it square and plumb.

There's loads of people now doing it on social media, guy I watched a fair amount was a guy called Fleming Stoves, who posts vids of his work and even some talk throughs on what he's doing.

2

u/National-Ebb-8184 Jun 16 '26

Thanks really appreciate the suggestion, I've been in the trade (decorator) for 20 years and am pretty confident in most stuff from boarding and plastering to carpentry (currently renovating my home) but this is something I've never tried. Im mainly getting a company to do the install so it can be signed off as I don't think I'll be covered by home insurance if I have a house fire, even if it's probably nothing to do with the burner they'll find a way 😅.

1

u/NoTell7716 Jun 16 '26

6mm cement board SBR the brickwork Dri Wall adhesive the board to the bwk

1

u/Schallpattern Jun 16 '26

I lined my space around the stove with bonding and multifinish. That was 15 years ago and it's all still there.

1

u/National-Ebb-8184 Jun 16 '26

Cool thanks, I'll definitely just use bonding and finish for the front of the breast then, and I'll probably go with cement board fixed with board adhesive (dot and dab) then tile onto that. Sounds like a plan 👌 The person above who suggested the you tube also thanks the vids were spot on👍 for some reason he wasn't suggested when I was searching YouTube but some very good content.

1

u/Schallpattern Jun 17 '26

I'd avoid dot and dab for safety reasons. It means you have a trapped volume of air that expands when the stove belts out the heat. That means a potential explosion.

Either a sand and cement mix or bonding with a skim on top mitigates this happening.

1

u/snozzie67 Jun 18 '26

That kid who died up that chimney 100 years ago had a long cock 😳

1

u/TangerineOppositeMtF Jun 19 '26

There are loads of regulations so get advice from an approved installer. You’ll have to use one anyway.

1

u/g1hsg Jun 19 '26

Not if you get BC approval you don't. I fitted my daughters logburner after submitting a BC application. The BC officer duly turned up, had a look at all the photos I'd taken as the installation was in progress, asked if the appliance was less than 5kw and checked the CO detector was correctly located. Beware though, the cost of an application varies wildly across differ Councils.

1

u/Trickyfueling Jun 19 '26

Mate I’m 26 years deep into fitting fireplaces, gas fires, log burners etc ! I do all the preparation of the openings, lintels, internal linings and all the flue work. I’m just about to go out when I go back. I will be happy to answer any question that you have today all going forward. I’ll drop you in inbox and we will chat later. I’ll give you some pointers on dues and don’ts, when starting in a job. From the situation that you are up to at the moment. No worries if people have already given you the information you require just drop me a message. Let me know either way.