fireplace help

[Janey]

We have just taken out an old gas fire and have knocked out the rubble which had been put in to make a smaller fire. We now have a very large fire place which - when we've brushed the chimney we may want to burn the occassional log although it will never be used as the main heating for the room.

We wondered if we put in a fire basket then tiled the old brick would that work or should we just clean the bricks a little? Does anyone have a view or experience of this?

thanks

 

[damson]

Hi - we went through the same thing with our large opening fireplace

There are quite a few things you need to do to get this sorted - but it is worthwhile! (oh the bliss of an open fire)

get chimney swept - the sweep will also be able to advise you on whether the size of the opening will mean that the smoke is likely to come back into the room rather than go up the chimney

get some kind of piece of metal (we used an old man hole cover) to protect the back bricks and reflect the heat back into the room otherwise it will all go next door/up the chimney

depending on the size and height of the opening you may need to raise the fire basket on fire bricks (available from good ironmongers etc) and /or fix a piece of metal at the top to act as a kind of hood to stop the smoke circulating back into the room

hope this is helpful

(ps there are some useful posts on this elsewhere in the site - in building I think)