A new customer of ours who purchased a Classic 8 Clean Burn Stove today has enquired as to whether they need to have a chimney liner when purchasing a new stove.
Now i know alot of the shops try to get the customers to purchase flue lining kits when ordering a new stove but most of the time this is not required and just adds extra to the installation cost let alone the £500 most of them charge for the liner kit.
We are a little more honest here at Castfireplaces and always advise our customers prior to ordering a stove to get the chimney swept and tested by a decent chimney sweep and they will tell you whether its ok to use.
Our customer was unsure whether this had been done by the fitter but she did say he was there for around an hour surveying it.
A good honest fitter will tell you if it needs lining or not and normally if they say it does require a liner it will do, alot of houses if the chimeny is in good condition do not require on and it can be fiited by using just a flue pipe and a debris plate.
So my advice is have it swept and tested and a report done on your chimney to ensure it can be used ok and if it does need lining at least you can be assured its not something you are wasting your money on.
Todays customer has ordered the stove and contacting fitter for chimney report prior to ordering chimney liner, wwe do keep them in stock so it can simply be added on to an order if required.

Again today we have been rung by a customer asking advice about installing a multi fuel stove into the room they are renovating and asking questions about fitting before they purchase.
Now i have heard all these questions before and can normally grasp when someone is intending doing a DIY fitting job, just because your are good at DIY does not make you a fireplace or stove installer and seeing that these products can produce carbon monoxide and if fitted incorrectly it can be deadly.
So bluntly i asked our customer if he was fitting it himself and informed him about the regulations in place etc and he still intends to fit it to save money, what can you say really it’s a stupid thing to do you would not dream of connecting a gas fire yourself so why connect a multi fuel stove that can also kill if not done right.
So Mr DIY Dan has not purchased from us as he thinks i am being unreasonable by not supplying him detailed fitting instructions that would render me liable in todays blame and claim culture
I dont mind answering any questions our customers have but will not supply any fitting instructions for our fireplaces or stoves not matter how big your order is, we are responsible fireplace and stove retailers and will continue to be so.
So a customer lost im sure he will purchase it from some other company but here at Castfireplaces we are professional and just because we trade online does not mean we compromise safety over price

As the colder weather is again starting to return and we all get the sticks and logs ready for our wood burning stoves and fireplaces just remember they have been sat there since last winter without getting warm.
I have today restarted our Firefox 12 Stove which heats our showroom and had a few small fires whilst ive been there all day
What a few people forget is the fact they need tempering again before you light a huge fire in them as cast iron is porous and does absorb moisture from the air hence how it rusts so quickly if left untreated.
We always advise our customers at the start of winter to temper the stove or fireplace like it was new and treat it like a brand new fire, this is to ensure it is completely ready for burning away at full throttle.
The way to do this is very simple it’s a matter of lighting small fires using wood only and building a lrger fire each time you do it allowing the cast iron to cool down in between so it gets used to the extreme heat of solid fuel.
Its also a good idea to replace and cracked or damaged firebricks to ensure your stove of fireplace is ready for the winter season.
Right advice done im off now to relax and watch the Football

If you have a wood burning fireplace, you will need a supply of wood each year. You can buy it, but it is better to gather your own wood if you have trees in your garden that need topping or cutting down completely.

First of all, you will need to identify the right trees for burning. Most larger trees are suitable, but oak and ash burn particularly well and are relatively easy to prepare. You can always ask your tree surgeon, if you’re using one – and you should be doing if you are felling a large tree or have no idea what you’re doing in this regard.

A tree surgeon will be able to bring a tree down safely and surprisingly quickly as well. You can then set about preparing the wood yourself, where there is far less risk that you will injure yourself or damage property. Many people cut up the wood using a chainsaw, but a bow saw is fine if you’re working with less volume.

Finally, you will need to split the wood. You can use an axe for this or a wood splitter. This can be dangerous, so make sure you know what you’re doing. Smaller pieces of wood needn’t be split. Your wood can now be cured for use further down the line.

We can’t chop down a tree every time we need some wood for our fireplace and nor would that work anyway. Trees are predominantly water and that is not the best ingredient when building a fire, so we have to store wood in order that it can dry out. In general, hardwoods are best. Oak, maple, beech, ash and birch all make good firewood.

To reduce the water content of the wood, we need to season it and while it is largely just a matter of time, there are things that we can do to speed the process. For example, if you cut the wood to length, this creates a greater surface area and this will aid the drying process.

You need to store your wood properly as well. A three-sided shed is good for this as the wood is sheltered from the rain, yet air can circulate. With the wood cut and split, stack it in alternate directions on a raised platform. The wood can be burnt around nine months later, but it will benefit from being left a lot longer.

To check whether the wood is ready for your fireplace, first take a look at it. Seasoned wood will tend to be darker at the ends and may have begun to split or crack. Next, knock a couple of pieces together. The sound should differ greatly from that produced by two pieces of green wood. Seasoned wood will make a clear clunk, whereas green wood produces more of a dull thud.

So the time is nearly upon us again as the nights start to darken earlier and people are starting to switch on the central heating and out walking the dog at night i can see quite a few fires are being lit as the colder evenings draw in.
So if you do have a stove or burn logs on your open fire now is the perfect time to get in touch with your log supplier and order some Winter fuel.
At this time of year you can be assured the timber is perfectly seasoned and is availble for them to deliver straight away, as the weather gets colder the Log suppliers run short of decent stock and you will find and it tends to be more softwood and is not always as dry as it should be.
Preperation is the key to wood buying and having an area large enough to store a seasons worth of logs takes up more room than you think.
It needs to be air dried and then kept dry to make sure you get the best results from the timber, so Castfireplaces say go and contact your chosen log supplier and place an order so you will have enough fuel for even the coldest winter and also at this time of year it should be slightly cheaper than in the middle of Winter so you can save a bit of money too.

A question before we came away on holiday as to how to sweep a tiger stove and as to whether it could be done throught the stove whilst still connected to the flue.
Now if you are using the top flue outlet on the stove this is very simple to do, all you need to do is remove the cast iron hood that sits on top of the firebricks and then the sweepng rods can be pushed throught the fire cleaning the flue this way.
If using the rear exit on the stove you will have a T piece and End Cap installed and also a length of flue with a sweeping hatch in, open up the sweeping hatch and rod up through the flue and into the chimney and liner as normal.
Be sure to remove the end cap of the flue pipe and rod down and clean the soot and debris from the bottom end of the flue too, a little more complicated but thats how its done.
Now the stove and chimney has been cleaned just remove all the firebricks and have a good clean round then replace them and your stove is ready to go for another winter.

On our website we sell spare parts for our gallery fireplaces these include a range of replacement firebricks,cast iron backs and solid fuel kits.
They are from the Gallery range of fireplaces and are designed to suit the range of fireplaces that we sell.
We get a lot of emails from customers asking us the dimensions and as to whether they will different brands and even old original fireplaces.
Im afraid the answer is no we do not supply spares for original fireplaces and can not obtain them.
We do not have the dimesnions for these items as they only fit the gallery range we sell so will probably not fit an old original.
When searching for spares for original fireplaces you are better off speaking to an Antique Salvage company or some company that deals in original fireplaces.
So if you do own a gallery fireplace and require a replacements solid fuel kit or even a replacement cast iron firebrick for a damged fireplaces you are already in the right place.
All you need to do is find out which gallery fireplace you have and then you can select the spares you require and we can get it dispatched for you via TNT.

When your new polished fireplace arrives when you remove the wrapping prior to installation you will notice it has a slight greasy feel to it.
This is basically a machine oil that is applied to the polished edges on the fireplace to stop it going rusty on its way from China, the bag does contain silca beads that absorb the moisture so it will not rust.
Anyway in the care instructions it tells you what to do but ill explain here a little bit more to make everyone aware.
The grease is simple to remove and all you need is a clean clth and some WD40 which is prayed onto the cloth and then wiped onto the fireplace to remove the grease.
Do not spray it onto the fireplace itself just spray on the cloth and work away in small areas cleaning the cast, this will simply remove any grease left on the cast and once the whole cast has been done simply wipe clean with a dry cloth.
Do not wipe over though the GRAPHITE shelf just the polished area in front of it the top is finished how it should be and does not require cleaning.
Over time Cast Iron absorbs moisture from the air and will tarnish and if left will rust simple clean the fireplace with WD40 to remove this, if however the rust does start to form you may need to use a metal polish to remove these rust spots.
This is available on our website for you to purchase and WD40 is available from any DIY shop

With all the wooden fireplace packages we sell on our website we supply a set of fixing brackets for these free of charge so our customers have all they need to fix the wooden mantel to the wall.
We also sell these on our website for customers who have wooden fireplaces and require some concealed brackets for them, now i presumed our customers would know how to fix them but today someone has called us asking exactly how they fit on to the wooden mantels and attach to the wall.
We do have a copy of the instructions the manufacturers send us so i have attached to this post for all our customers to see.
Basically they come in two fixed parts with one a right angle that attaches to the leg of the fireplace surround and then the other slightly bent bracket fixes to the wall.
The timber surround is simply them lowered into place and is fixed securely to the wall it really is as simple as that.
So take a look at the photograph below and if you are still unsure give us a call and we can go through it with you, im also going to add this photo to the brackets themselves on our website for all our customers buying brackets to view.