Open Fire + Boiler Below = ???

[gerryb]

Looking for advice on retrofitting open fireplaces.

A victorian house with fireplaces and flues still in place but boarded over on three top floors.

Basement renovation about 20 years ago placed the giant boiler and its gas feed from the external meter box in the basement directly below a fireplace. All to code, all signed off, all working fine.

Can we put a fireplace back into the room above the boiler?

It will have new flue and be professionally installed.

the room will have a tiled 3 inch concrete plate in the subfloor to front of the fireplace and one inch oak flooring above a one inch victorian pine subfloor everywhere else in the room.

does that sound ok?

 

[muggles]

Open fires are a bit complicated - you need to be able to prove that they meet minimum energy efficiency standards when installed, which is 63% efficient for an open fire with a back boiler.

You also need a large air vent drilling through your wall to supply it with combustion air, which will cause draughts. Both these requirements make open fires rather unattractive, which is why people tend to go for closed stoves (which are much more efficient and therefore cheaper to run)

Your hearth is required to be five inches thick to comply with regulations, and must not have any combustible material in contact below it.

 

[oldbutnotdead]

First thing to check is that the chimneys aren't full of hot water pipes...