Get your chimney cleaned

Now that it's summer time (ahem) it's the ideal time to sweep the chimney. Even if your appliance is gas you should have it checked and swept periodicly. The reason for this on gas appliances is to ensure there is no blockage in the flue that could lead to fumes coming back down the flue, even Duncan on TV advises getting it done.
If your appliance is solid fuel either an open fire or a stove its crucial as it will impact on the performance of the appliance but if not done could lead to chimney fires. The reason for a chimney fire is that soot builds up in the flue and gradually over the years accumulates and heats up everytime you have a fire. Eventually this takes light and then increases the draw of the chimney drawing up for unburnt fumes from the fire below which then ignit in the flue and increase this happening again. It's self perpetuating and thats what gives the roar associated with chimney fires. When the fire brigade come they will know what to do but you could end up with a cracked flue pipe and need to reline the flue costing major money as well as pay for the fire brigade call out.
Get it swept which leads me nicely on to our new promotion. Buy an insert stove this summer and we will sweep your chimney before we start, free, gratis and for nothing. At the end of the day it makes sense.

High temp plaster

More and more customers are looking for hole in the wall solid fuel fires and of course we are only too happy to sell them. Theres always a proviso and here it is. The look of these units stems from the gas fired units. The solid fuel units give off a lot more heat and can on occasion crack the plaster surrounding the insert stove.

This can be caused by several reasons.

1. The fires lit have been too big too fast and cracked the plaster instead of gradually having a bigger fire each time.
2. The wall or plaster or screed below the plaster had not fully dried out and when heat was added the moisture expanded cracking the wall.
3. The heat generated was just too much for the gypsum plaster.

So we usually say to our customers ensure a high temperature plaster is used around the stove area. When they ask their plasterer or builders merchant for this they are often left with a blank stare and told no such item exists. Well here it is and can be bought directly from the website.

www.vitcas.com

I should add we are not endorsing this particular manufacturer in any way and all the rules regarding proper drying out and gradual adding of heat still apply. The company also advocates using a high temp screed before the plaster and while it's certainly more expensive than ordinary gypsum plaster you are only covering a small area.