If you have noticed that you are burning through logs more quickly or that you are not getting a good pull on your log burner, now may be the time to check these common areas for repairs.
As you know we love our log burner and the Railway Sleeper Mantelpiece. It is about to be Autumn and I think we need to address the long ignored issue of how fast we burn through wood. Log burner maintenance is essential, especially as we have a shed full of wood drying out ready for early next year. We had a delivery of dried wood which had already been seasoned so we are good to go.
We had just had our local chimney sweep to visit and as he is a trusted friend we sought his advice. If you want to find someone as fantastic as him locally you could try https://www.chimneysweeplocal.co.uk/ as they are all assured. Our chimney sweep advised that is was the rope trim which was not giving us a true seal. Therefore drawing more than needed and burning through our wood more quickly. We have a No Spend Challenge under way, so therefore we really do not want to waste any money. What to do? We are going to have to take the door off and repair it! Before winter comes too!
How to repair the trim on a log burner door
Get everything you need together before taking the door off. Purchase the required trim for your log burner. We used 2 Meters Of 12mm Stove Rope & 100ml Adhesive Each stove door is different, you will need to measure your diameter. 
Stove Fire Rope is 10mm and can also be purchased online – we found it a nightmare to get it in our local stores.
Prepare the Log Burner Door
You will need to take the door off from the main stove. You do this by lifting at the hinges – straight up. It then slides up and you can take the weight – quite a bit to be honest. It is on pins so whatever you do, do not lose them!
Now that you have the door on the work top take off the old frayed fire rope. Then you will need to clean off all of the old fire rope adhesive. It is sort of old and grey and quite intent on staying on the door! 
So you can see from the image that I took a small chisel to it and scrapped the residue of the old rope adhesive off. This is not quite enough as the corners are really tough, so I then used a coarse sandpaper. It is a bit dirty as you would imagine, and not to be recommended after a manicure. 
The more eagle eyed will notice I have swapped to taking photos at the stage. Only because hubby got bored of watching though!
Set Out Your Fire Rope
There is a slight art here. You need to lay the rope along the door in the prepared groove. It is natural to sort of stretch it out. But try to gently push it down into the groove whilst also running it along. You are doing this so that you can cut it. With no gaps. At all. This is where the art bit comes in as you need to then cut the end and wrap it so that the strand of the fire rope do not come undone. 
As a point of note we have laid the log burner door on an old piece of cloth to avoid it scratching the worktop. It will leave a mark as well because of how dirty it is. Remember no adhesive at this stage, you need to flood the groove with the glue so cannot do that and then cut. The fire rope is super absorbent and it will get all over your hands and therefore the entire house!
Using Fire Rope Adhesive
To ensure a really good and clean connection we then brushed down the door outside. 
I cannot emphasis this enough, do not try and use any other glue than that which I have linked to! It is suitable for use in extreme heat and compatible with the fire rope. Other glues will not behave well with heat!
This glue is in a very handy to use bottle. It has two sets of twizzle top, you want to twist the top one and it then allows you to pour evenly and in a controlled manner. 
Next you half fill the groove of the log burner door. This all sounds much more exciting than it really is, as you just turn the glue upside down and it gently flows. It is not an especially stinky glue and wont cause you too much concern, other than being black!
Possibly fiddly bit of the log burner repair
Then very gently and slowly push the fire rope back into the groove that you have pre-loaded with glue. IF there is over spill, have a piece of kitchen roll to hand to immediately mop it up. As the fire rope glue is black it will stick out on the glass front. Keep these stages to around a few minutes so as not to let the adhesive start to set. The fire rope will absorb a lot of the glue, but ultimately your log burner will be out of action for a few days whilst this dries at room temperature. Trust me our room temperature was a lot lower as we had no log burner! I cannot believe we have had to resort to the central heating to warm our home in early Autumn. So all in all I wish we had done this sooner!
Two days later – just test how firm the connection is and then slide it back on to the hinges. The pins seem to want to go in different directions so either get a third hand or work as a team on this one!
What else for my log burner?
You all know how much I love our log burner and the gorgeous warmth it brings – perhaps I was a cat in a previous life. Ours has become a really important focal point with our budget friendly Railway Sleeper Mantelpiece which I still smile about. I think I may well make a new Rag Rug for it though so stay tuned to see the tutorial for that one. So that is how we have made our little house feel more like a cosy home. A sustainable one at that! So if you fancy giving any of our other self-sufficient ideas a try please do have a rummage around our pages.
Thanks