Changing a Fireplace and surround

laura1976

Hiya, wondering if anyone can help me out. We have an ugly old gas fire in the front room, pretend lumps of coal in it and a really ugly copper colour, and the surround is beigy coloured tiles with flowers on and around that instead of a mantelpiece they nailed up some pieces of wood to the wall......4x1 I'd say, and stained it dark brown. It's even more hideous than it sounds so while we redecorate I decided I want a new fire and surround. I found a cheap package in Argos which would do fine as we really just want it to look ok not really for heating. Only problem is now I'm not sure which way round to change it. Do I have to get the gasman in to disconnect it then remove all the surround and put the new one in then get him back to reconnect? Or do we try and get the surround out before we get him in and then fit the new surround around that? Give me a clue someone please!

moonrakerz

I have recently replaced an old gas fire with a wooden surround with a new one and a marble fireplace.

I ripped out all of the old fireplace and the wooden surround myself, but didn't touch the fire itself - just made sure the gas was turned off to the fire.
This left me with a rectangular hole in the wall with the old fire sitting in it.
I then decorated that wall up to the edges of the hole.
Finally the CORGI man came in and took out the old fire, installed the new fire place and the new fire inside that.

He charged me £202-50, which I was extremely happy with. I have the CORGI paperwork to certificate (certify ?) the job.

moonrakerz

I meant to attach this ! For those with "eagle eyes", I have made good the skirting board.

laura1976

Lovely job but heck i didn't expect it to be that dear! Ooh maybe we'll have to rethink a bit, I don't think the rest of the decorating will cost £200 and we are broke! Thanks for the response though!

mousegreatest388

Another solution is put in an electric fire and then you don't need to pay for the gasman.

TheWaltons_3

moonrakerz wrote: »

I meant to attach this ! For those with "eagle eyes", I have made good the skirting board.

Fireplace looks brilliant... but to the left of it.. is that an entrance/exit?!

chivers1977

Where did you get that from - I like it!

Tahiti

mousegreatest388 wrote: »

Another solution is put in an electric fire and then you don't need to pay for the gasman.

I could be wrong, but I believe you have to be Corgi registered to remove the old gas fire that's already there.

moonrakerz

TheWaltons wrote: »

Fireplace looks brilliant... but to the left of it.. is that an entrance/exit?!

Conservatory in background, with French windows leading into it. Dwarf walls are bare brick.

Fireplace is in a wall which partly divides lounge from dining room.

moonrakerz

chivers1977 wrote: »

Where did you get that from - I like it!

Fire is a Wonderfire Aspire from:- http://www.fires4u.co.uk/acatalog/wonderfire.html

This fire is the most realistic we found, really good. You can mix and match all the bits and colours around the fire to suit your room decor. The rectangular frame is held on by magnets, takes 10 seconds to change it - very clever !

Fireplace is a "Star" Cream Marble from Fires & Fireplaces, Wootton Bassett, nr Swindon. Because of the location of the chimney we needed a fireplace that was a bit smaller than normal (48" or 54"), anything this size would have had the hearth protruding beyond the chimney breast. This one was 42" wide which fitted beautifully.

amyface

Would you recommend Fires for you moonrakerz?