Real Fire

Sharra

We moved into our house about 6 months ago and the fireplace is boarded up/plastered over. It looks like the chimney is still intact.
We want to knock it all out and have a real fire. Does anyone have any ideas of cost to do this? Is it just a case of getting a sledge-hammer and then getting the chimney checked/swept?
Do we need to get a proper surround or can we just leave the bricks bare?
And does anyone have an idea how much it costs in coal etc to run a real fire?
Any advice appreciated
Many thanks

covbaldy

Hi,

We have a real fireplace at home as something we use occasionally or if we have vistors. We wouldn't use it to heat the room.

Obviously make sure the chimney goes all the way into the loft (and hasn't been knocked out say in a bedroom to make way for built in wardrobes etc), also if you can get into the loft to inspect it from there, that would help to.

If its plasterborad then it should be reasonably straight forward to knock out and the bricks should be all symetric. If its bricked then you might need to do a little repair to make good.

We have a wooden surround from B&Q that cost £20, we have a tiled floor and of course the iron grill in the fire (this came with the house, so no idea of cost for this?) and of course it will need to be swept - this cost us £50 from what I remember last time we had it done.

HTH )

billy

hi

I had the same thing, you can just knock through and leave it open, i had a cenement render put on and I had a fire basket made (you can buy them, not sure of the cost though). you need to have it swept and depedning on hou much you use it you need to cost in the regular sweeping of the fire place.

the solid fuel associate produce a leaflet on how to do it
http://www.solidfuel.co.uk/pdfs/opening_up_your_fireplace.pdf

I live in a smoke control zone (commonly know as London!) my sweap told me that given how few fire places there are now that its ok to burn wood and normal coal (which does have a better look then smokeless) I don't use it to heat water, its all for effect so can't really help in terms of costs, I get a whole evening of a good fire with half a bag of coal which is about £2.50 worth of coal.

i think its great, although the cleaning is a pain!

happy burning.

Nile

On a related topic, if you're buying fire lighters you can save some money and buy the 'basics' not the well known brand.;) I've been inside the premises of a fire lighter manufacturer and they put the same product into brand name boxes and 'basics' boxes.

robowen

What happened to the small presses you could buy
You'd collect all your paper and mash it up, press it with the 'press and you'd get these small brickettes to burn.

Did anyone try this ? and were the brickettes any good ??

rob

Pink.

robowen wrote:

What happened to the small presses you could buy
You'd collect all your paper and mash it up, press it with the 'press and you'd get these small brickettes to burn.

Did anyone try this ? and were the brickettes any good ??

rob

Have a look at ths thread rob: Making Paper Bricks

Pink

freddyfeet

Hi, please note that any work done on a solid fuel fireplace should be performed by a HETAS registered installer, otherwise it is a legal requirement to contact your local building control officer to have the installation checked. You should also know that carbon monoxide poisening from improperly fitted solid fuel appliances is just as common as from gas appliances.
Sorry to sound gloomy, but there really is more to it than simply knocking around with a sledgehammer and lighting a fire. Stay safe!

economiser

Oh no! First I can't do gaswork, then I can't do electrical work and now I can't do work on my fireplace! Where is all this nannying going to stop? Can I still dig the garden?

calleyw

economiser wrote:

Oh no! First I can't do gaswork, then I can't do electrical work and now I can't do work on my fireplace! Where is all this nannying going to stop? Can I still dig the garden?

It is to stop you from killing yourself, others or blowing yourself, house or half the street up.

If you are going to use the fireplace to heat the room then a woodburning stove is the best bet. Otherwise all the heat goes up the chimney.

Also the chimney may need to be lined if it has not been done already.

And no you can't dig the garden LOL!!!!!!!!!! I was reading on the BBC news site about a people and things that happened in the garden like going through water/gas mains, Telephone cables etc.

Yours

Calley

Hermia

Have you checked with your council that you can have a real fire? You don't want to pay out all that money for nothing. We can't have anything where I live which is not surprising considering the amount of factories polluting the air.