Would you enclose this?

Yes I know, our bedroom is able the sitting room and the wall is always warm but with some space around the fire you will get the best of both worlds, heat coming straight where you are sitting and the warmth from the bricks upstairs.

Barmyoldbat the heat that goes into the brick, comes out again and warms the house when the fire isn't burning. The bricks in the chimney act as a giant storage radiator.

Thanks, you have all convinced me to leave it exposed.
We will invest in a fireguard for when the DC’s visit if we use it.

To be honest, I don’t think we will use it that much. The property has a modern heating system.
It’s a recent old workshop conversion and has building regulation certificates etc and a good EPC rating so was probably installed as a feature rather than a means of heating. I’ll let you know in the winter!

I would leave it open as it will give out more heat. We have a wood burner that is in the fireplace which we have enlarge so there is plenty of room around the stove for the heat to circulate and not all go into the bricks. We have bought a fan which helps this and we also have a gadget which tells us if the wood is dry enough and safe enough to burn”

The one in the OP's house just needs a good strudy fireguard attached to the wall behind the stove. The one she showed, was a pinterest picture and is only an example. I think you need to layout your room so that the furniture stops children running round it and playing games.

I grew up around stoves and open fires, some in tiny kitchens as they heated the water and, while I know there were accidents, especially with open fires. The only accident I can remember was when I was 13. when wool/nylon socks came in. On a cold day, I held my feet close to the stove to warm them and all the nylon in my socks melted. My mother was not amused. They were new socks.

M0nica

Have a good sized and sturdy fireguard and trips are not a problem, it fends them off. Where our wood burner is the children ran parallel to it, not towrads it, so falls did not take them towaards the fire.

Kettles on stoves and ans on cookers should be out of reach of small children but a lot aren't. The same applies to stoves. ours is set well back from the room in a deep open fireplace, and the shape and size of the room and site of the chimney, mean, as I said that, if children run they do not run towards the stove, only alongside it.

I can assure you I am just as concerned about the safety of my DGC as any other grandmother and my children equally concerned for their children. If anybody at any point thought the arrangement was unsafe, we would have made it safe The DGS are now in their teens and I cannot think of a single occasion when there was an accident, near accident or near miss, involving the stove. They were well supervised.

But I was referring to the one in the OP that wasn’t in a recess. Or at least I don’t think it is.

Have a good sized and sturdy fireguard and trips are not a problem, it fends them off. Where our wood burner is the children ran parallel to it, not towrads it, so falls did not take them towaards the fire.

Kettles on stoves and ans on cookers should be out of reach of small children but a lot aren't. The same applies to stoves. ours is set well back from the room in a deep open fireplace, and the shape and size of the room and site of the chimney, mean, as I said that, if children run they do not run towards the stove, only alongside it.

I can assure you I am just as concerned about the safety of my DGC as any other grandmother and my children equally concerned for their children. If anybody at any point thought the arrangement was unsafe, we would have made it safe The DGS are now in their teens and I cannot think of a single occasion when there was an accident, near accident or near miss, involving the stove. They were well supervised.

Children can trip.

M0nica

MayBee70 children can burn themselves on a hot radiator, a hot kettle and saucepans on stoves. A far greater risk of that happenng than burning themselves on a wood burner.

Like everyone I know, we simply had a fire guard round it when it was in use and children are present. They are readily available in a wide variety of sizes shapes and heaviness.

We also took our grandchildren close to the stove when in use and took their hands quite close to it. They commennted how hot it was and we explained that that was why they were not to go near it or touch it. Even a very young child can understand that, belt and braces always.

Kettles on stoves and pans on cookers should be out of the reach of small children. Log burners are at face and hand level in a room where most people congregate when it’s on. Ours gets incredibly hot but I don’t know about others. I’ve seen some log burners that people boil kettles on but I’m not sure if they’re all the same. I only have experience of mine which I keep a fire guard around when the children are here.

MayBee70 children can burn themselves on a hot radiator, a hot kettle and saucepans on stoves. A far greater risk of that happenng than burning themselves on a wood burner.

Like everyone I know, we simply had a fire guard round it when it was in use and children are present. They are readily available in a wide variety of sizes shapes and heaviness.

We also took our grandchildren close to the stove when in use and took their hands quite close to it. They commennted how hot it was and we explained that that was why they were not to go near it or touch it. Even a very young child can understand that, belt and braces always.

Esspee

Wood burning at home emits more particle pollution than traffic. The days of wood burning stoves is coming to an end so no point in altering the room by building it in would be my recommendation.

What if you are off mains gas, like we are? Our woodburner heats the whole house, dries the washing and boils the kettle, all with locally well seasoned wood in a very efficient British made stove. We do not have any other heating.

Leave it the way it is.

MayBee70 we had a free-standing woodburner and small children in the house.
My husband adapted two of the strong commercial fireguards to construct a square guard that fitted round the hearth the woodburner sat on.
We certainly didn't want them touching it!

Isn’t there a worry that people (especially small children) might burn themselves on a hot log burner? We have ours in the fireplace and also have a fire guard in front of it if the grandchildren are here.

I wouldn't enclose it.

We are at the final stages of building our new home and have installed a wood burner. There are building restrictions on how close it can to the back or side walls.

Ours will be used in combination with a heat recovery unit to provide heat for the bedrooms.

The important point about seasoned wood has been mentioned but the trend for wood burners is not dying out. The companies that install them here in Cornwall, is growing as well as companies selling seasoned wood.

Ours is in an open plan area, floor to ceiling and not enclosed. Single storey.

You’re right Monica. I’ve been keeping a close watch on this, and there is definitely no plan or expectation that woodburners will be banned. Suppliers now have to comply with strict legislation about seasoning wood, and new logburners have higher emission specifications, which is as it should be both environmentally and to protect peoples lungs.

I do not think woodburners are expected to be banned, but all new installations have to meet new high standards that reduce particulate emissions and wood has to be kiln dried.

Leave it as it is. With the threat of wood burners being banned enclosing it maybe a waste if time and money. Use it as it is whilst you can.

The smell of wood smoke doesn't mean that someone is using the wrong kind of wood.

Burning the right kind of wood that reduces the emission of particulates into the atmosphere, does not mean that you do not get the smell of wood smoke. Just that the chimney will not be belching thick smoke full of particulates into the atmosphere.

A lot of my neighbours have wood burners but I think they are burning the wrong wood because at night there is a strong smell of wood smoke. When I had some trees lopped they were soon round to gather the wood.

If you do enclose it, you need to be very careful with safety issues. Monica's woodburner which heats the bricks enclosing it so that enough heat goes out to heat a four-bedroom house shows just how hot the surroundings get.

I am sorry Elegran that is completely wrong, the bricks never gets more than pleasantly warm, but the chimney is vast, nearly the width of the house, and for most of the ground floor about three -foot thick. In the bedrooms it is about 4 foot wide and 3 foot deep.

The chimney is a vast heat sink and acts is like a very efficient storage radiator. The main reason it can heat the house is because it hold the heat and radiates it 24/7, all of it internally and it position running across the house means all we need to do is leave a couple of doors open.

Our house was built in 1467 and the chimney added in the late 16th century and includes a bread oven.

Leave the flu exposed and you get much more heat in the home, box it in and you lose it. You could still put nice shelves and a log storage area at the sides of the stove, nice baskets for smaller wood, pine cones or newspapers would also look good. Then you get the best of both.

Esspee

Wood burning at home emits more particle pollution than traffic. The days of wood burning stoves is coming to an end so no point in altering the room by building it in would be my recommendation.

and untill they sort something practical and sensible as an alternative out, I for one will NOT be stopping keeping my family warm with the woodburner....it also likely will allow us to at least heat up baked beans in the winter when we can no longer afford electricity.........

Much more modern look to have it open. If you wanted a fireplace why not just have a gas coal fire ?

Leave it opened bricked in is very 1970s and dated IMHO