Advice needed from newbies:)

[lazyeejay]

Hi all, new to the forum so hello to everyone. My partner and myself are buying a cottage that uses oil to heat the radiators and water. My missus wants a double sided wood burning stove as eventually she wants a conversion of the garage into another room so the main living room and conversion have access to the fire.
I have uploaded a picture of our fireplace. We have been quoted a ballpark figure of £4k for dual sided wb stove, installation, expansion of fireplace (as we think the centre is too small so needs opening a bit) and other bits.
We just wondered what the views of other people are and what their suggestions might be. Thanks

 

[dougand3]

Welcome, lazyeejay. Are you in the UK? What's your climate like? How many sq ft or meters are you heating? I'm assuming FP is on an outside wall with an exterior masonry chimney. Seems reasonable to make FP opening bigger and have a stove exhaust into a liner inside masonry chimney. You have located a stove with glass (ceramic) doors on the front and back? If so, upload a pic...I've never seen one.

 

[begreen]

I would bail on the double sided idea and treat the future garage project as an entirely separate entity.

 

[lazyeejay]

Thanks for the replies, yes I am from the UK. I'm at work at the moment so cannot get hold of the dimensions so will look when I get home but it is generally a living room and a study we are looking to heat. we have heard a 5kw can kick out some heat so hopefully it might work its way around the house. Climate wise, it kinda varies but the lowest it seems to go is about -3 but that isn't too often.
We have found a dual sided multi fuel burner on Ebay for around £700 but do not know how good it is as the majority of burners we have seen in the stores range from £900 - £2500 so I'm guessing it might not be that good.
I will supply a bit more info later. Thanks

 

[ArsenalDon]

I would bail on the double sided idea and treat the future garage project as an entirely separate entity.

Great advice!

 

[Billybonfire]

Hi lazyeejay,
Love that fireplace, would look great with the hearth extended and a stove there.
If you're sure you want a double sided stove Yeoman stoves do a double sided range, we have a Yeoman Devon single sided stove, it is a great stove, maybe worth a look-
http://www.yeoman-stoves.co.uk/stove/double-sided-stoves/
or Stovax, our sweep has one of these so must be quite good -
(broken link removed to http://www.stovax.com/stoves/traditionalstoves/wood__multi-fuel_stoves/stockton_stoves/stockton_double_stove.aspx)
also our local stove shop have fitted a few double sided stoves, have a look may give you ideas -
(broken link removed)

regards

Billy.

 

[Jon1270]

My missus wants a double sided wood burning stove as eventually she wants a conversion of the garage into another room so the main living room and conversion have access to the fire.

So the fireplace is on a wall that separates the living room and garage -- do I have that right? And you hope to have the stove sitting in an opening between the two rooms?

Does the fireplace have a masonry chimney above it, or is this newer than it looks, with just a metal chimney in a chase? If the chimney is masonry then there's a lot of weight sitting on the fireplace, and opening up the back of it into another room seems like it could be a significant structural challenge. Also, if you're not ready to convert the garage to non-garage purposes yet then codes may not allow you to open up a hole in that wall. The double-sided aspect does seem like it could complicate this whole project and make it much more expensive.

 

[Redlegs]

+1 vote to treat them as seperate space. You dont see many dual-sided WB units here, they're around, but single sided units much more common.

 

[Ashful]

Two stoves for two spaces does have many advantages, if you can tolerate the work of keeping up with two stoves.

 

[Machria]

Hold on a second guys!! He is looking for advice from NEWBIES! So unless you do not know what your doing like myself, please don't comment!