Options for solid fuel - ideas please

[Spencer76]

Hi,

I am looking for ideas for the cheapest solution to putting in solid fuel fire into my mums house.

A shop suggested a fire basket and a £600 hearth.

I have attached photos.

The pipes are being removed by a gas safe engineer and I have already had the chimney tested.

We are keeping the mantle. The rest is not safe for a solid fuel fire

I have removed everything to see what's sitting underneath. The concrete from the original hearth can be seen

I put the mantle back on

What is the cheapest option to get this looking decent.

I don't really know where to begin. I will get a HETAs person to put it in but I want to know what the options are so I can source prices.

Is it a hearh, backplate and firebasket? Or more complex than that?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[muggles]

Installing a solid fuel appliance is quite involved and expensive. An open fire is also expensive to run - they're only about 37% efficient - so you'd be better to look at a closed stove which can have an efficiency of around 80%.

You say you have had the chimney tested but was this done in line with HETAS guidelines? The test you need requires smoke pellets to be lit at the bottom then the chimney blocked off at the top when smoke starts to come out of it - was this done? If not, then it will need to be done before your chimney can be declared safe, the alternative being that a flexible liner is used. If it already has a flexible liner this will need to be stripped out first.

The hearth must be constructed of a five inch depth of non-combustible material, and this should have no combustible material underneath it unless there is a two inch air gap between the two. Its width and depth are, to a certain extent, governed by the size of the appliance being installed.

You can throw that mantle away, it's combustible and therefore can't be used.

Budget around £2000 to get it all done properly, it may be less but bear in mind it may also be more