My name is Will Jones. I’ve been making dampers for around 25 years – starting during my time at Culworth Forge near Banbury. As well as blacksmiths we were the acknowledged local experts in fireplace and chimney design and troubleshooting, to the extent that when building regulations for solid fuel appliances had a big shake up in 2002, we were asked to instruct our local authority’s building officers in how to interpret and implement the new regulations. We chose not to join Hetas, but I and all staff involved in fireplace work sat, and passed the Hetas engineer’s examination at the time.

Whether fitting a woodburning stove, lining a chimney, fitting an inglenook canopy, building a new fireplace/flue, or indeed designing and fitting a damper, there’s a lot more than meets the eye to the science of burning wood and solid fuels safely and efficiently. Over the last few decades I’ve seen hundreds of disastrously designed or altered fireplaces/chimneys, and advised on improvements when possible. Sadly the mistakes made are frequently not the work of cowboys or ill informed d.i.y.ers, but qualified architects and time served builders!

I mention this partly to establish a little credibility for myself, but also as a word of warning, that when you ask around about fireplace/chimney issues, you will get as many answers as you ask people, and a lot of those answers will be based on very little knowledge of how domestic fires actually work!

After a decade or so at Culworth, and another 13 years or so running my own business based nr. Milton Keynes, Bucks, I can proudly say that the only two dampers I’ve made that have received any negative feedback in all this time were made to someone else’s design against my better judgement! I have sent chimney dampers out across the U.K.and beyond for d.i.y. fitting, and fitted them extensively in my own corner of the country, as well as further afield – sometimes fitting between ten and twenty dampers in one property as part of major refurbishment of stately homes.

As I write to update this site in February 2022, I have just made the leap of faith to focus entirely on Chimney Dampers and step down from my ornamental ironwork business. At this point I can safely say I am the most experienced person in the field in the UK, having made and fitted hundreds of dampers over the last 25 years or so. In the last few years, as this side of the business has grown, I have been privileged to work alongside the very best architects and builders in the land, fitting my creations in some of the most glorious stately homes in the country, and pride myself on my ability to do a difficult, dirty job with minimal inconvenience and substantial lasting benefits to homeowners.

I am essentially a “one man band” and even though my focus is now entirely on this business, please be aware that I do get snowed under sometimes, and lead times may stretch out.  

The economics of this work are tricky –and although I hate to blow my own trumpet….the skills and knowledge required are rare! I have no nationwide team of fitters or surveyors, so a day spent travelling to and from a site to survey a job equates to a day’s lost production for me along with travelling expenses. Sometimes I travel several hours to a site to discover a disastrous  fireplace/flue situation that needs a complete re-think, or a lot of work  before a damper can be considered, so my time is wasted, but the client still benefits from my assessment and advice. I do therefore sometimes need to charge for surveys, unless they’re very close to home. (see FAQs)

More often than not though, If you can send me a few photos and rough dimensions before I visit, I can give you a good idea of feasibility and costs in advance, and we can decide whether you wish to book a survey on the basis that work is likely to go ahead as long as costs remain roughly as estimated.