Following a routine request to clean our poêle à granulés and chimney, all sorts of horrors emerged,. necessitating the insertion of a completely new 7m flue (see photo).and external air vent.The service company boss was shaking his head at the serious, illegal, and non compliant corners that a qualified installer had cut when putting in our poêle 4 years ago. Expensive repairs but necessary, unfortunately…(the installer has retired - rather suddenly - and I rather doubt the value of seeking any redress/claiming on any insurance).
His team warned me that the local regulations in all Normandy departements require that a chimney is swept twice a year, including once during the winter heating season. Different regions have differing requirements, he told me, presumably due to the different climates found in France. He advised that insurers generally require that you follow the local regulations (how could they not!), rather than coming up with their own rules.I must admit I didn’t know about the twice a year local Normandy requirements, but do now..
What were the issues found George?
None complaint flue and no air vent is my guess 
Absolutely right. The installer had simply inserted - completely unattached - the flue inside the existing ageing chimney flue. He had also perforated the flue from the poêle to the chimney, probably accidentally. There was also no external air vent at all. There was a significant build up of burnt granulés which should have been removed in past years, and evidently hadn’t been. Whilst they were at it, the new team cleaned the poêle and installed a hat on the chimney to prevent birds and twigs falling into it.
The boss kept muttering that the previous installer was.seemingly appropriately qualified so he couldn’t fathom why that installer had cut so many corners. The latter may have banked on the likelihood that no one - least of all us - would ever find out.
Thanks George, its often my worry with “qualified” people that if the will to cut corners exists no matter what certificate they hold. Local Gas Safe company for one of my landlords, caught them on two occasions with bad/illegal installation and testing, I not the qualified one but with a few years industrial experience, I had no choice on the second occasion but to report them to gas safe. Don’t know what action if any was taken but the guys in.question are still in busuness.
Glad you have it sorted and are safe.
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Pretty broad brush that one 
