Open fire, advice needed please.

[andyaveyard]

Hi all,
We're having a lot of work done on the house and one small job which I'd appreciate some advice on is the fireplace.
I've just had the fireplace opened up to reveal the original brickwork, it's a shallower fireplace than the one we had in the dining room. It has an unsightly concrete lintel and I'm wondering if I can cover it with a piece of decorative wood. We don't want to build on the front of the fireplace with more brick.

We have plasterers coming in shortly and what I'd like to do is ask them to plaster the brickwork on the sides of the fireplace leaving perhaps a 2" gap exposing the brick surround ?

We'd like to use a small multi fuel stove in the fireplace, will a wood panel be ok to use and will plaster be ok on the sides ?

My description may be a bit confusing so here's a mock up of what I'm trying to achieve.

 

[Stivino]

Whether or not you light that fire, it looks like all your heat is going straight up the chimney.

 

[dave.m]

Andy,
This is what we had in our last home.

I attached a small piece of asbestolux under the cross piece of the fire surround to prevent it getting too hot.
The stove did not have a back boiler because we already had a combi installed in the house.
Because the sides and back of the opening were rough brick we covered them with plasterboard and then a thin layer of plaster and, when dried, it got a couple of coats of emulsion.
The tiles on the front and the hearth are 'marble' floor tiles from Wicks.

You will be pleasantly surprised how much heat they chuck out.
Stivino, they throw out so much heat that we never used central heating in winter and the stove throughly heated a three bedroom house on its own.
Just down the back alley from us was a double glazing firm who put all the old wooden window frames in skips at the back so I used to help myself to as much timber as I needed.
At night we would bank it up with a couple of shovels of coke and that would keep it in until morning. We used to keep it lit 24/7 for about six weeks at a time, unless the weather turned warmer.

A tip: when the glass door gets sooted up, take an old piece of towel and wet it and then dip it into the ash from the burnt wood and rub the glass with it. It removes all traces of soot and leaves the window clear. Can be done even when the stove is lit but open the door for 5 minutes first to let the glass cool a little.

dave

 

[mozkowitz]

Just down the back alley from us was a double glazing firm who put all the old wooden window frames in skips at the back so I used to help myself to as much timber as I needed.
At night we would bank it up with a couple of shovels of coke and that would keep it in until morning. We used to keep it lit 24/7 for about six weeks at a time, unless the weather turned warmer.

Thats handy, its better then having to go to the salvage constantly and pay for what other people throw away.