Reopen a chimney and put in Victorian fireplace and surround

dominoman

One of the houses on my shortlist is a beautiful Victorian house, but has had all the chimneys replaced with awful 60s-style minimalist surrounds.

Does anyone know roughly how much it would cost to restore a living room fireplace to a working coal/wood one, including a new surround, backplate etc. I have four to do, and have no idea how much it would cost, and it is beyond my DIY skills.

Thanks.

martinsurrey

dominoman wrote: »

One of the houses on my shortlist is a beautiful Victorian house, but has had all the chimneys replaced with awful 60s-style minimalist surrounds.

Does anyone know roughly how much it would cost to restore a living room fireplace to a working coal/wood one, including a new surround, backplate etc. I have four to do, and have no idea how much it would cost, and it is beyond my DIY skills.

Thanks.

How long is a piece of string really...

Where is the house? is it in a smoke control zone?

Are the chimneys in good order (or are they likely to leak somewhere on the way up)?

Do you want granite hearths, or tiled concrete?

Sooo many variables and so much that could go wrong with a 130 year old chimney the only way to find out is to get some quotes after deciding exactly what you want.

FYI I’ve just had a quote for a wood burning stove in an 1880’s house, with granite and limestone hearth, new flue liner, new lintel to support a bigger opening, new opening created, lined, room sealed (so a hole created to the outside, so no hot air is sucked from the room).

It came to £2,500, hoping that a few more will get me to what I was expecting which was around £2,000

princeofpounds

I would also have suggested £2-3k if totally contracted out. Although it can vary quite a bit if you pick an expensive brand of stove.

There's a DIY board here precisely for question like this, you should try them.

DRP

dominoman wrote: »

One of the houses on my shortlist is a beautiful Victorian house, but has had all the chimneys replaced with awful 60s-style minimalist surrounds.

Does anyone know roughly how much it would cost to restore a living room fireplace to a working coal/wood one, including a new surround, backplate etc. I have four to do, and have no idea how much it would cost, and it is beyond my DIY skills.

Thanks.

my sister bought a surround off ebay fairly cheaply. Try gumtree too.

artbaron

Mine is a fake gas flame thing with Victorian surround. To replace with a woodburning stove and make good the chimney flue was over £2.5K. I didn't bother in the end (that was maintaining the original surround, mind).

hellokitty08

we unbricked ours to see what was occuring behind and with some diy and a chimney sweep brought the materials and installed them for approx £500. Our hearth was about £120, surround £30 and fireplace was cast iron from ebay (brought from a shop in Nottingham for £200 ish.

I do believe there was some back bricking or something required.

hcb42

I also did this on an old Victorian house in Nottingham and it was £££ rather than ££££. We got a frame on Ebay for about £50, and a bit of building work, and sweeping etc, that was for a real fire, not a woodburner of course.