Wood burner, open fireplace or gas fire?

square_bear

Hi,
I am planning to totally redecorate my lounge this month.

Part of this project would be to open up the fireplace which has been boarded up for at least 15 years.

I feel that it would be a good feature for the room if I made the most of the fireplace even though it is quite small (1930's house).

Trouble is, I cannot decide what type of fire to use.

A wood burner sounds practical and clean.

An Open fire seems quite cosy.

A gas fire would be practical, clean and easy to just switch on and take the chill off the room for 20 minutes.

What do others think?
Thanks
S.B

beyond_skint

I know aldi has an electric wood burner coming in £48 I think looks quite nice not sure if thats any help

ema_o

We have recently got our open fire working and I love it. I wouldn't swap it for gas, after a bit of practice we can get it going pretty quickly and the cosyness is worth a bit of hassle cleaning it out. It was also pretty cheap to get going - £40 for chimney sweep, £50 for the grate and ash pan and we bought tools for £15 from argos (the tongs are not great but it works okay).
I would like a proper wood burner, I believe these are a lot more efficient and cleaner, but they are expensive to start with!

Purple_Sparkles

I'd love to have an open fire in my lounge. Does anyone know what I need to do to get it sorted?

Currently I have a fireplace that I could open up (there is an electric fire in there at the moment that we don't use). I have a chimney and the liner is in place.

I don't think I can just remove the fire, get the chimney swept and off I go.

From memory I think I need to have fire bricks on the right, left and back 1 brick high and then a grate and a pan, could somebody please confirm for me.

I also have a wooden fire surround (like an Adams) would I have to remove this?

Many thanks

Mrsmoneypenny

When ever we come to UK we rent cottages, last year we rented two. The first had a open fire which was nice and cosy, bit messy and the carpet (when we moved the rug to shake it out) had quite a few singes on it.

The second had a woodburner. Loved it, in fact it is now the main thing i look for when rent in UK. This year we are renting three and each one must have the woodburner.

I think they are much easier and quicker to set than an open fire, cleaner, warmer and so cosy. The one thing I would think about would be where you would get your logs and how much they would cost. We used quite a lot (probably due to our not really knowing what we were doing) they were free, there was a wood shed (something else to consider) and the cottage was in its own little woods, so we could collect as many as we liked.

But as with so many holiday romances it had to come to an end, but last week when walking passed a pizza restaurant, I saw their pizza oven and immediately thought of Wood Burner and wondered if I could indeed live with one for the rest of my life, probably someone who does will come along soon and give better more practical advice than me.

maypole

Purple_Sparkles wrote: »

I'd love to have an open fire in my lounge. Does anyone know what I need to do to get it sorted?

Currently I have a fireplace that I could open up (there is an electric fire in there at the moment that we don't use). I have a chimney and the liner is in place.

I don't think I can just remove the fire, get the chimney swept and off I go.

From memory I think I need to have fire bricks on the right, left and back 1 brick high and then a grate and a pan, could somebody please confirm for me.

I also have a wooden fire surround (like an Adams) would I have to remove this?

Many thanks

What sort of liner is it, some aren't suitable for an open fire.

We changed our open fire for gas a few years ago because it used to smoke when the wind was in a certain direction. I miss it so much and we are thinking of having it back. However we have an old house and it I think we will need to line the chimney now, but you apparently can't use the liners that are suitable for gas fires, for a coal fire. You can't beat a coal fire but I also like the idea of a woodburner too.

ema_o

Ours was used as an open fire by the previous owners, so most of what we needed was in place, when the sweep came round he checked the whole thing and told us it was fine to use - I'm not sure what more you'd need if replacing an electric fire.
We burn coal and wood on ours.

rhiwfield

We had an open fire that we changed to a woodburner last year.

Woodburners are way!! more efficient and easier to maintain.

But they are expensive to install (count on £1500-£2000) to include liner for chimney and they do create some dust and they need a lot of wood (which has to be stored)

Wouldnt be without ours, its super warm and gives a lovely spirit to the room that's better than the open fire ever was!

27col

beyond_skint wrote: »

I know aldi has an electric wood burner coming in £48 I think looks quite nice not sure if thats any help

What is an "electric" wood burner. It seems a contradiction in terms.

Riche_2

Before doing any of these changes to your fires please check with your insurance companies. Some insurance companies will not insure you if you have a open fire/wood burner unless you have a chimney liner which cost a fortune. :eek:

Doozergirl

A gas fire doesn't begin to approach a real one. I've had all three and for me, the only difference between a log burner and an open fire is the house you put it in.

Our lounge is 1920s with big high ceilings and I think it suits an open fire much better than creating a fake inglenook for a wood burner. The front of our house is much older and cottagey with lower ceilings and has a log burner. I think it suits that.

An open fire I think is more formal, a log burner more relaxed feel so I'd simply go with whatever suits your room and your style best.

It was a lot more expensive to install a log burner in a previous than it was to replace the gas fire in this one. The chimney is fine for an open fire whereas we had had to have the full flue liner for the log burner.