Costs & Process
Most people come to a log burner from the wrong end. They see an appliance they like, fall for the look of it, then discover that the room, the chimney or the hearth has other ideas. The order that works is the reverse: find out what the building can take, then choose a stove that fits inside those limits.
This guide walks the job in sequence. Survey, flue decision, hearth, ventilation, the fitting itself, commissioning, and the paperwork at the end. It is written for homes across Dundee, Angus, Fife, Perth and Kinross and Stirlingshire, where the housing runs from stone cottages and tenement flats to estates built in the last five years, and where the right answer genuinely differs between them.
Step one: the survey, and why it comes before the stove
A survey is a look at four things: the flue, the room, the hearth and the air supply. None of them can be assessed from a photograph, and all four can change which appliance is sensible.
The flue is inspected from both ends and, where there is any doubt, from the inside with a camera. What matters is whether it is clear, whether it is sound, what it is built from and what internal diameter it offers once a liner is in. A generous Victorian flue is not automatically a good flue.
The room decides output. A small, well insulated sitting room asks for a very different appliance to a knocked-through kitchen and dining space with three external walls, and getting it wrong is not just an efficiency question. An oversized stove gets run shut down, and a stove run shut down builds tar.
- Flue condition, construction and usable diameter
- Room volume, insulation and number of external walls
- Existing hearth: constructional, superimposed or absent
- Permanent air supply and any existing vents
- Practical access for the appliance, the flue and any scaffold
Step two: the flue decision
There are three realistic outcomes and the survey decides which one applies. The flue is sound and correctly sized, so the appliance connects into it directly. The flue is sound but oversized, damaged or of unknown construction, so it is lined with a flexible stainless liner. Or there is no chimney at all, in which case an insulated twin wall system provides one.
Lining is the most common outcome in older Scottish housing, and it is not an upsell. A 200mm square masonry flue serving a 5kW stove is far too large for the volume of gas the appliance produces, which cools the flue, slows the draught and encourages condensation and tar. Dropping a correctly sized liner down it solves the physics.
Twin wall is a design job as much as a fitting job. The route has to clear combustible material, terminate at the right height relative to the roof, and look acceptable from the street. It can go internally through the building or externally up a gable, and each has consequences for heat retention and for how the finished house looks.
Step three: hearth, clearances and the bits people forget
The hearth is where a lot of otherwise good installations come unstuck. Its job is to protect the structure below and around the appliance, and the requirement depends on how hot the underside of the stove runs. Appliances tested as suitable for a thin superimposed hearth exist, but they are not universal, and assuming yours is one of them is an expensive way to find out.
Clearances to combustibles are set by the appliance manufacturer, not by folklore. Timber lintels, stud walls, skirtings and beams all count. If the recess is tight, the appliance choice narrows, which is another reason the survey precedes the shopping.
- Hearth extent in front of and to the sides of the appliance
- Distance to any combustible material, taken from the manufacturer's data
- Register plate or closure plate detail where the flue enters the chimney
- Access for future sweeping, which means a soot door or a removable section
Step four: ventilation
Solid fuel appliances need air. Older, leakier buildings often supply enough of it through the fabric, but a modern or upgraded home usually does not, and the answer is a permanent, unclosable air supply sized to the appliance. It is fitted as part of the installation rather than being left as something to sort out later.
This is worth taking seriously in flats and in retrofitted properties where windows, doors and insulation have all been upgraded. Every improvement to airtightness reduces the air available to the fire, and a starved fire is a smoky one.
Step five: install day
Fitting is usually one day, occasionally two where a twin wall system, structural work or an awkward liner is involved. The sequence is protection down, opening prepared, liner or flue installed and connected, hearth set, appliance positioned and levelled, closure plate finished, then everything cleaned.
The dusty part is short and confined to the fireplace area. Furniture and anything fragile is easier moved out beforehand, but nobody expects a homeowner to empty the room.
Step six: commissioning and sign off
Commissioning is the part that separates a fitted stove from a working one. A test fire confirms the appliance draws, the flue clears properly and nothing is spilling into the room. It is also the moment to run through operation, because how a stove is lit and how the air controls are used has more effect on day to day performance than almost anything else.
Alba's installers are HETAS registered, which means solid fuel installation work is self certified for Building Standards rather than needing a separate building control route. A carbon monoxide alarm belongs in the room with the appliance, and the documentation follows.
Choosing between wood only and multifuel
A wood only appliance burns logs on a flat bed of ash, with air fed from above the fuel. A multifuel model adds a grate and an ashpan so that mineral fuel can burn with air coming up from underneath. Neither is superior in the abstract, and the honest deciding factor is what fuel you can reliably get hold of and store.
Households with access to seasoned hardwood, a dry log store and the space to season their own tend to be happiest with a wood only stove, which usually burns wood more cleanly because the air path is designed for it. Households that want the flexibility of an approved smokeless fuel, particularly where overnight burning matters, tend to prefer multifuel. We install both.
Fuel choice also feeds back into the flue specification, because regular mineral fuel use influences the liner grade that makes sense for the installation. It is one more reason the appliance conversation and the flue conversation happen together rather than a fortnight apart.
Timing the job around the heating season
The diary behaves the same way every year. From late September the phone does not stop, and the constraint stops being our availability and becomes stock, scaffold and daylight. Anyone planning a stove for this winter is better placed booking a survey now than in November.
Spring and summer are the easy time to do anything involving a liner, a stack repair or external twin wall, because the weather cooperates and the fire is not needed while the work happens. If your project has building work attached to it, that is the window to aim for.
There is also a practical argument for finishing an installation a few weeks before you actually want to use it. New appliances go through a curing process on their first few fires, with some smell and smoke from the paint, and it is far pleasanter to get that out of the way in mild weather with the windows open.
Living with the stove afterwards
Most of the complaints we are called out to in a first season are not faults. They are fuel and operating habits. Wet wood produces a lazy, smoky fire, black glass and tar in the flue. Running an oversized appliance shut down all evening does the same thing. A moisture meter costs very little and settles the argument in seconds: aim for fuel comfortably below twenty percent.
Get the fire hot early, then reduce the air rather than starting it low. Rake or riddle appropriately for the appliance type. Empty ash to the level the manufacturer recommends rather than to bare metal, because on a wood only stove a bed of ash helps.
Then book the annual sweep. It keeps the flue clear, gives somebody the chance to look at the seals, the glass, the baffle and the terminal, and it produces the certificate that insurers and letting agents ask for.
- Burn dry fuel and check it rather than trusting the label
- Hot start, then throttle back once the flue is warm
- Sweep at least annually for regular wood burning
- Replace rope seals and firebricks before they fail rather than after
- Keep a working carbon monoxide alarm in the same room
Where the money actually goes
Across the UK market, the appliance itself is often the smaller half of the bill. Flue work, hearth work and access drive the rest. A straightforward connection into a sound flue is a modest job. A full liner, a rebuilt hearth and scaffold access is a considerably larger one, and both are honest prices for the work involved.
The only quote worth comparing is an itemised one. If two prices differ by a wide margin, the difference is nearly always the liner, the hearth or the access, and asking which of the three explains it usually ends the confusion in one phone call.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to line the chimney to fit a log burner?
Not always. A flue that is sound, correctly sized and of known construction can be connected to directly. In practice most older chimneys in this part of Scotland are oversized for a modern stove, and lining is what makes them draw properly.
How long does a log burner installation take?
One day covers most jobs. Twin wall systems, structural alterations or difficult liner routes can run to two. The timeline is confirmed at the quote stage rather than discovered on the day.
Can I buy the stove myself and have you fit it?
Usually, yes, provided the appliance suits the flue, the hearth and the room. That has to be checked before the order rather than after, because an installation that does not comply cannot be certified.
Will one stove heat the whole house?
It will heat its own room extremely well and take the chill off adjoining spaces. Anyone promising whole house heating from a single room stove is overselling it.
What paperwork do I get at the end?
Certification for the installation, the appliance documentation, and written advice on running and maintaining the stove. Keep all of it with the house papers.
Do you install in flats and tenements?
Yes, though shared stacks and access change how the job is planned. Both are worked out at survey stage before any date is agreed.
Book a survey before you choose an appliance
Send us the room, the property type and roughly what you want the fire to do. We will come and look, then quote in writing with the flue work itemised separately.