Cast iron fire insert

milliebear00001

Hi there

I am thinking of buying a cast iron Victorian fireplace for my new house. It is one of the styles that was made as a complete 'unit' including insert, backplate and mantel.

I know I will need to buy a hearth for it to stand upon, but want to know if fitting it, for decorative purposes only, is simply a matter of knocking out a few bricks for the fire's insert, then 'slotting it in' and fixing in place?

I am just not sure if this is a job for a diy-er, or if it's much more complicated than I have described!?

paddedjohn

if you are fitting it into an older house its just a case of reopening the chimney breast but its not really a simple diy job. the chimney may need an insert in it and the stack may be capped off

hethmar

Id also give a word of caution. There is a relationship between the fireplace opening and the diameter of the serving flue. If you fiddle with the opening you may find you have a problem with smoke backing up and into the room. If you are going ahead, get the fireplace shop to check out if its viable before you buy the fire.

milliebear00001

Sorry, possibly I wasn't clear enough. The fireplace would be purely decorative, so there would be no issue with smoke.

paddedjohn

if its only decorative then its quite straight forward, not for the first time diyer though. a bit of brickwork and plastering is involved