Decorative vs working Fireplaces

scott__walker171

Hi everyone,

We are looking to sell our 2 bed, two up two down, victorian terrace in Manchester and want any advice about how best to spend money to pimp up our pad to quickly secure a sale asap.

If we could sum up the house in one word it would be Magnolia. Now don't get me wrong neutral sells but I fear the lack of character in our property will leave it left in the duldrums for weeks or even months. Similar sized properties to ours with fireplaces, shabby chic, vintage style, seem to sell very quickly, within a week or two. Whereas houses similar to ours, with modern interiors (laminate floors, no fireplaces), similar to ours, seem to take much longer, around 3 months.

As the property has been a rental for 2 years or so, we plan to replace the carpets in the living room and bedrooms (£500) and do up the front and back yard with gravel/decking (£250). But in order to inject some real character, we plan to install 2 re-production cast iron fire places, 1 in the living room and one in the main bedroom.

If you type this into google images - Stovax Birds & Rushes Fireplace Tiles
It the image of the Black cast iron fire place, with white wood surround and Bird tiles

This is the sort of fire places we wish to install. My dad is really good at DIY, so has agreed to install for free and all, the 2 fireplaces will cost around £1100

However this is where our dilemma begins. We are undecided about whether to leave the fire places as purely decorative pieces,or spend extra money and make the one in the living room a working fireplace.

There is currently no fireplace in the living room and the gas meter is in the kitchen. Does anyone know how much extra mess or cost this will be to make the fireplace, a gas fireplace. It will cost around an extra £180 to buy the fire itself but installing a gas pipe and gas point etc by a qualified person, i have no idea. Therefore, do you guys think it will be worth spending the extra money or do you think people won't notice or care and will just be impressed by the period feature.

Ultimately, what we are asking is would we make back the extra outlay or would we achieve the impact we desire by simply keeping it decorative.

Thanks

Scott

Doozergirl

If that's what you're planning to spend, I would go for a second hand fireplace from ebay for the back room - should be less than £100 and then make the front one singing and dancing. Paint does magic for second hand fire surrounds or cast iron fireplaces.

Personally, I think a real fire or wood burner would add more than a gas one would. You'll have to line the chimney either way but you'll save on the cost of an actual gas fire. Obviously, you need to be selling in winter so you can demonstrate it properly.

I think everything else needs to be perfect before you spend money on working fireplaces, in fact, before you spend £1100 on ones for show. It can be done cheaper, and probably should.

phill99

I think you are being foolish. £1100 is a ridiculous amount to spend and it wont guarantee a sale. I think your suggestions in terms if selling your house is purely conjecture.

As Doozergirl suggests, a secondhand fire will do exactly the same job. The rest of the money could be on colour scheme improvements, decorators/designers pieces and soft furnishings to add the wow factor. To put all that money into 2 fireplaces that may or maynot help the sale is, quite frankly, mis-guided!

scott__walker171

Doozergirl wrote: »

If that's what you're planning to spend, I would go for a second hand fireplace from ebay for the back room - should be less than £100 and then make the front one singing and dancing. Paint does magic for second hand fire surrounds or cast iron fireplaces.

Personally, I think a real fire or wood burner would add more than a gas one would. You'll have to line the chimney either way but you'll save on the cost of an actual gas fire. Obviously, you need to be selling in winter so you can demonstrate it properly.

I think everything else needs to be perfect before you spend money on working fireplaces, in fact, before you spend £1100 on ones for show. It can be done cheaper, and probably should.

Thanks. Ebay is a really good idea, a quick look has threw up some really nice ones for half the price, although collection may be an issue, maybe we should go down this route and keep them decorative.

The 2 for 1100 can be made into open real fireplaces but i worry about employing specialist fitters and the cost this will incur.

I also agree a log burner would be ideal. How much do you recon it would cost to install one. The house has an intact chimney breast etc

Thanks

Scott

Jhoney_2

As doozergirl says, a real open fire is much more desirable than a gas one - and is easier and cheaper to install.

Spend your money on any odd jobs that put people off as well.

Those fires are way too expensive. I found 3 original castiron fireplaces online e.g ebay/gumtree and it cost me half of that in total - excluding installation by a qualified person.

Patience and research are key.

scott__walker171

phill99 wrote: »

I think you are being foolish. £1100 is a ridiculous amount to spend and it wont guarantee a sale. I think your suggestions in terms if selling your house is purely conjecture.

As Doozergirl suggests, a secondhand fire will do exactly the same job. The rest of the money could be on colour scheme improvements, decorators/designers pieces and soft furnishings to add the wow factor. To put all that money into 2 fireplaces that may or maynot help the sale is, quite frankly, mis-guided!

Thanks. We have recently done the kitchen and bathroom but to us the property just seems so neutral and characterless. We seem a little obsessed but we feel that we just need something to draw people in. Like i said the characterful houses sell so quickly, and all are on for offers over, so presumably get into bidding wars - driving up the sales price. Also I know they have installed reproduction fireplaces as well, as i recognise the models and tile designs they have used.

phill99

But you are convonced that 2 fires will add charachter. They wont. Chatprachter comes from the overall effect - colour schemes, furniture, furnishings, fabrics, etc etc. £1100 buys you a lot of those! A charachtetless room doesn't become a charachterful room just by adding a fireplace.

Why don't you head over to Houzz.co.uk. Its a website for interior design and homeimprivements. You can upload pictures and ask advise. People will offer their suggestions. It wont cost anytuing but itjay aid your problem.

moneyistooshorttomention

I'm guessing yours is a starter house????

I think its worthwhile personally spending enough money to get the place functional according to our standards - but, beyond that, I'm not convinced.

Swings/roundabouts basically. My starter house had been got together to 1980s standard basically (as that was when I - belatedly - managed to get it) and it did take longer to sell than the 21st century equivalent house in the same road. The 21st century style one also sold faster than mine. However, mine sold in exactly the time span I had anticipated and I don't think I would have made any extra basically from updating it from 1980s to early 21st century standard.

The proof of that particular pudding came not long afterwards - where another house in the same road went very quickly and it was basically 1950s standard.

The lesson I derived from that was that it didn't seem to make any difference basically whether a very similar starter house was 1950s, 1980s or early 21st century in style - as it seemed to boil down to what else (of a similar type) was on the market at the time in the main from what I could see. The early 21st century house and the 1950s style house "got lucky" - as there wasn't anything much else available of that type in that area at the time. My (1980s style) starter house (ie a Victorian terrace house done in 1980s style) took longer than both of them to sell - BUT it did seem to be a "luck of the draw" thing that they both got lucky that very little else in same area/same style was available at the time and I got unlucky (ie several rival nearby houses):mad:

You cant adjust to allow for the Other People Factor - unfortunately...:(

kerri_gt

A secondhand fire surround with some tastefully arranged candles in the hearth etc would show people what they could do with the space without forking out a lot of money. Some people might prefer a proper open fire, some a wood burner or some a gas fire so for what it would cost to install any of them, I'd just leave it up to the buyer with the 'suggestion' of a fire via the surround.

Is the house furnished? I would spend the time carefully staging the spaces to show how they might be used (don't clutter the space) there's plenty of design sites online to get inspiration from. Use a few carefully chosen pieces from your own house, or you can hire furniture for this purpose. It's a fine line between helping those with zero imagination see how they could use the spaces, vs not overwhelming those who can't see past removable objects to picture their own belongings in a space (the number of people who view houses and comment on 'no we don't like it, it's the curtains / sofa / furniture' still baffles me)