Thanks in advance for any advice from those with more experience on this issue. I've just removed an old electric fire (ground floor, external wall) from our living room and would love to have some kind of 'proper' fire in there for the winter time. There is a gas connection behind, and a small (non-standard, apparently a bit too narrow) fireplace opening with a brick chimney.
However - some problems have emerged:
1. The opening to the chimney is too narrow for a proper open fire to draw or for a flue liner to fit currently.
2. The chimney has been shortened at some point so blows back down and leaks like a seive outside and into the loftspace.
3. No apparent structural hearth (haven't looked under the floorboards - we have suspended wooden floors).
4. Chimney pot has also been replaced with a metal gas flue type pot.
We were initially hoping to spend maybe £750 buying and getting a gas fire installed but this is now looking a lot bigger job. If we were to spend up to say £1000 would there be any options - e.g. a balanced flue going straight out the back? or even flueless? Can we put a flag stone on top of the floorboards for a hearth or do we need to take the boards up and build up from underneath? is that a massive job?
Or are we best just boarding the lot up and putting some candles in the space to make it look nice?!
Thanks!
However - some problems have emerged:
1. The opening to the chimney is too narrow for a proper open fire to draw or for a flue liner to fit currently.
2. The chimney has been shortened at some point so blows back down and leaks like a seive outside and into the loftspace.
3. No apparent structural hearth (haven't looked under the floorboards - we have suspended wooden floors).
4. Chimney pot has also been replaced with a metal gas flue type pot.
We were initially hoping to spend maybe £750 buying and getting a gas fire installed but this is now looking a lot bigger job. If we were to spend up to say £1000 would there be any options - e.g. a balanced flue going straight out the back? or even flueless? Can we put a flag stone on top of the floorboards for a hearth or do we need to take the boards up and build up from underneath? is that a massive job?
Or are we best just boarding the lot up and putting some candles in the space to make it look nice?!
Thanks!