The missing part for the Spartherm unit turned up yesterday and the installation was finished today.
The good news is that the unit looks great. The bad news is that the flue on the outside looks like something that belongs on a fast food takeaway!
This is hugely disappointing. After all the time and effort that went in to ensure the view of the building from the sunken garden looked great, we now have a large stainless steel flue protruding over the ridge line of the building. This is not what we had intended.
Apparently, the flue needs to be 3m higher than the top of the fire box. Otherwise, we would have lowered it below the ridge line. In terms of colour, we could have got a powder coated flue (we only needed the top that sticks out of the roof), but no one told me this when we were sorting this out. And it is big, the flue is 7 inches across with a large stainless steel “hat” on the top.
We will be looking into alternatives here as this doesn’t look great. Ho hum!
The Spartherm unit is now installed, although the chimney breasy still needs to be formed around it. The studwork that meets the roof line is there to mask the fact that the flue has a “dog leg” to avoid the large ridge beam. This is a big flue – 8 inches in diameter.
This is the rear elevation of the new extension and shows where the new flue appears through the roof. This is a lead liner that covers where the chimney meets the roof. The intention was that the flue would only ever be seen from the rear elevation.
We were hoping that the new flue would not be seen from the new elevation. However, this is not the case. It really isn’t in keeping with the rest of the building.
Mmmmm….this looks as if it would be more at home of the side of a chip shop! We are going to have to look at some alternatives here. I think reducing the height might improve it . Or painting it. Or making the top part smaller.