Cornwallwoodburners Reviews 

Almost every aspect of the work carried out by Cornwall Woodburners has been excellent. I say almost because there was a problem with one job but, to their real credit, they rectified it and resolved as soon as they could. The team are professional, careful, and ensure that work is carried out to the highest standard. Whether it’s just chimney sweeping or more major work, they do an excellent job. I cannot fault them!

I was surprised to read the one other review just now and then checked the date to see how recently the work was done and it was some time ago now. All I can vouch for is the recent flue liner installation by this Company and I can honestly say our experience of them has been faultless from start to finish. We initially contacted the owner as we have an old property and only found out we needed a flue liner when a chimney sweep told us the woodburner was a major fire issue with no inner liner. The owner came out very quickly to assess the fireplace and see if we could retain our existing old log burner, he gave us a quote and we left it for a while re money issues and only rang again just before Christmas to ask to go ahead with liner only. Despite the short notice, his wife was lovely and managed to fit us in just before Christmas as we’d hoped but not really expected. Two very efficient guys came out yesterday, were here 8.00 as promised and left at 4.00 - leaving everything spotless, stove looking great and even lit it to test it before leaving. Everything is working perfectly and even my partner who is in the building trade so sees quite a few installations (not always good!) said they’d done a great job - he’s super fussy too, checks everything!! From our experience here, yesterday, would definitely recommend without hesitation. We are now certificated for insurance (a lot of companies that offer this service aren’t always registered to do this I believe) worth checking first. Price competitive too.

I'd have given them zero stars if I could, but the rating system doesn't go low enough!

I ordered and paid for the woodburner we wanted. Their surveyor came out and said it would fit and would be perfect for our room.

A few months later they came out and the nightmare began.

Having knocked a big hole in our living room wall the fitter said he wouldn't be able to make the woodburner fit (you'll recall I mentioned earlier that their surveyor said it would fit), so we'd need to change the fire.

I suggested that the fire didn't need to sit back in the hole, it could have sat in front of the wall, but I was advised by the installer that the fire didn't have an opening in the rear to take the chimney - I checked later with the fire's manufacturer and the fire we selected could have been installed in that way without making any further holes in the wall as it had a chimney hole out the back of the fire.

A new smaller log burner was sourced from their showroom. The fitter said that there were no instructions supplied with the fire, so I downloaded them from the manufacturer's Website and printed them for him - he then told us that he didn't need the fitting instructions as "I wouldn't be much of a fitter if I needed the instructions would I?" in a rather boastful manner.

The fitter then fitted the fire and finished off the walls by feathering in the plasterwork for "that perfect finish".

On closer inspection the perfect finish was a grooved and pitted poorly applied plaster which he told us would look perfect once painted - "just give it a few coats of paint and it'll be perfect" - in a suggestion that thick layers of paint would fill in the rather poor plastering job.

As he was leaving the fitter told me that I'd need to have three tiny fires (nothing more than a few sticks of kindling and a bit of paper) to settle in the fire - so I set one and had just lit it when he came running back in to say "don't do it now, wait four days first" - I had only lit the edge of a piece of newspaper, so patted it out with my hands and was content to wait for four days. We then went away for three days and returned and noticed that inspite of their being no heating on in the house, the plaster work was all cracked.

I called Cornwall Wood Burners to complain about the plaster cracking and they told me it was because I'd had "a raging fire in there and that the fitter had witnessed this" - he witnessed me putting out a tiny fire with my hands which had been alight for no more than 10 seconds. I'm not entirely sure why he would have claimed this, I guess you'll need to draw your own conclusions.

The owner of Cornwall Wood Burners agreed to come out and take a look. He agreed that the job had been badly finished and that the installer hadn't used PVA to seal the surface of the wall before applying the plaster and as such it had dried out too quickly and consequently cracked - nothing to do with my 10 second "raging fire" then!

You'll remember that I had offered the installer the original instructions as to how to install the fire - if he had read them (like I did some months later) he would have seen that there is a minimum installation distance required between the woodburner and the wall - he failed to do this and instead set the fire too close to the back of the fireplace and because it was not centred it was too close on one side too. As a consequence the cement render behind the fire had cracked after the first proper fire.

The owner agreed to send in his "A team" to get the job sorted - after a further 4 or maybe 5 visits by various "experts", one chap was able to apply a skim coat which was acceptable and another was able to pull the fire out so that it was correctly spaced.

Unfortunately during all this rework they managed to chip the enamel (the fire is enamel blue as is the pipe that leads to the chimney) so we now have a few chips on the pipe the leads to the chimney and because they didn't reset the chimney liner the pipe leaving the fire is at an angle which looks a bit crap - not to mention that it's still not centred.

I guess we could have pursued them further to get the job done right, but it had already taken them five months for what was meant to be a three day job and to be honest, I didn't want any of those "experts" back in my house.

When it came to paying the final bill, I asked that they offer a discount to offset some of the hassle. I was told by the owner that "this job has already cost me way more than I am charging" so there would be no discount. I suggested that the additional costs had noting to do with me and that a discount of 10% would be in order. He disagreed and so I settled in full.

It amazes me that all this company does is install wood burners, so why can't they get it right? It doesn't seem particularly difficult - especially if it's all you have to do.

Whether you choose to use them is up to you, but I know that I wouldn't.