real fireplace where to start

perfecta1

I am really sorry if someone already has asked about it but I could not find the answer.


I bought a house (yey!!) and there is an awful plastic electric fireplace in the living room. I am thinking about replacying it with a real wood fireplace.

Could anyone please advice where to start as I have no idea

Thanks for any help!

rustyboy21

Hi Perfecta.

No Problems, first need some questions answering....

1. Do you know whether you have a flue/chimney in your house? Chimney breast, stack and pots on the roof, or a metal roof terminal or raised ridge tile?
2. Do you want gas, electric or solid fuel?
3. When you say wood fireplace, do you mean surround, or a wood burning stove/fire?
4. If gas, is there a gas point to the fireplace?
5. If no flue/chimney, is the site you want to put it on an outside wall, within the boundary of your property?

If you can answer those questions, we should be able to guide you a little better. I sell fireplaces myself, but there are also experts on flues on here like muckybutt and gas experienced guys like SouthcoastRGI, so you will get some help on here.

perfecta1

Thanks for replying.

I have a picture of the roof but not sure how to enclose it

I want a solid fuel fireplace. Fireplace is situated in the living room on the wall which I share with my neighbour. Also I do not know about condtion of the walls in bedroom on the 1st floor so I am a little bit concerned that they will crack when we start using fireplace.

perfecta1

I've been gone for a while as had some problems in the house so thought that log burner is not going to happen. But now I am back and after receiving the gas bill for the last 3 months I desperatley feel that I need to find our if we can have a log burner in our house or not!

These are the pictures of chimney on my roof.

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/801/img2013031600154.jpg/

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/600/img2013031600153.jpg/

also replying to the questions:

we want a wood burning stove. House was built in the 50's, there is a chimney in our living room. I can feel drafts inside and hear when it rains but I am not sure about condition of the chimney. The chimney is on the wall which I share with my neighbour but I think each of us had ourown chimney in the past. (if you know what I mean)

I know that someone should come and asses the chimney but not sure who I should contact with ...

MX5huggy

You need a HETAS qualified fitter to inform you of what is possible.

You don't have a chimney you have a flue pipe out of the roof.

Mankysteve

Solid fuel is more expensive than you think. My guess is that flue is for boiler in the attic.

As above says heats engineer is the way forward. Alos a stove is much more efficient than a open fire.

Gloomendoom

perfecta1 wrote: »

I've been gone for a while as had some problems in the house so thought that log burner is not going to happen. But now I am back and after receiving the gas bill for the last 3 months I desperatley feel that I need to find our if we can have a log burner in our house or not!

Before investing a not inconsiderable amount of money having a log burner fitted, have you done the sums to see if it will actually save you any money when compared to mains gas?

rustyboy21

You have a prefabricated flue by the looks of it.

You won't be able to have something like this, unless you build a false chimney breast in your room.

http://www.gazco.co.uk/stoves/traditionalstoves/wood__multi_fuel_stoves/brunel_stoves/brunel_1a_stove.aspx

It would be pushing it, if your actual flue would even take the stove in the first place, a lot of prefabricated flues do not pull correctly. If you were to fit it infront of the fire chamber, you would most likely find that it would not pull, infact you may find that it could take your plaster off the wall with the heat of the flue pipe.

You can get stoves which are said to be ok with a prefab flue, but I wouldn't risk it.

I would seriously suggest that you get a HETAS reg engineer out , or at least a HETAS reg sweep, who can guide you better.

Stoves IMO are only suitable to be fitted into a class 1 flue with a proper chimney stack and pots.

redfox1939

If you have a fully operational fireplace, whether masonry or pre-fab, it would normally be as simple as removing the gas logs & capping the gas line or installing a gas log lighter. But with today's new appliances, direct vent & ventless units would not be set up for solid fuel (wood) & could not be converted to wood burning.

Leif

perfecta1 wrote: »

I've been gone for a while as had some problems in the house so thought that log burner is not going to happen. But now I am back and after receiving the gas bill for the last 3 months I desperatley feel that I need to find our if we can have a log burner in our house or not!

The basic cost to install a stove, including the stove and liner is ~£2000+. In your case you will need more work doing due to the absence of a chimney, so probably quite a lot more. You can have the stove outlet pipe going through a side wall, and then along the outside of the wall, although more heat will be lost to the outside for obvious reasons.

Running a stove is not cheap. Wood costs ~£6 for a bag of kiln dried, enough for one evening of continuous running, and the stove will not heat the house. A 5kW stove will heat a modest room, and take the chill off the other rooms. The only way you save money is if you have access to free/cheap wood. Tree surgeons are one source of wood, and local farmers too, but you'll have to stack it for a year or two until it is dry enough for a wood stove. You can also buy in bulk from the interweb, but even then it is not cheap.

Gas is a good cheap heating fuel, you don't need to season it, you don't need to manually feed it into the boiler, and you don't run out of it.

perfecta1

Mankysteve wrote: »

Solid fuel is more expensive than you think. My guess is that flue is for boiler in the attic.

As above says heats engineer is the way forward. Alos a stove is much more efficient than a open fire.

sorry for the confusion. I am a woman so chimney is a chimney

I used to have a gas fireplace and the smoke was coming out of this pipe. I do have a chimney breast in my living room. It's down part is made of brick as we could see this when removing the gas fireplace but not sure about the upper part.

My friend who lived in similar house ages ago said that the chimney breast in 50's looked like that http://shard3.1stdibs.us.com/archivesB/upload/1stdibsC/080408_AA_Bis/a_Malika/03/xCIMG3730.jpg so it's possible that the upper part simply plasterboard on the sides and brick in the middle (as now chimney breast looks like this http://housetohome.media.ipcdigital.co.uk/96/00000a78f/de87/wallpaper54.jpg)