Fire place

[Gandalf]

Hi I am just about to uncover the fire place in a 200 year old cottage. It has had a gas stove in it for 4 years an dI wan to put back the open fire.
Does anybody know what measures I can use to check the flue an dthe chimney to see if it is possible. :?

 

[middi]

The best solution is to reinstate the fireplace the way it was built originally

After all that is what it was used for , open fire.

It shoul not be very difficult to do.

 

[middi]

The best solution is to reinstate the fireplace the way it was built originally

After all that is what it was used for , open fire.

It shoul not be very difficult to do.

 

[biffvernon]

The trouble with an open fire is that it mostly warms the night sky instead of you. A wood burning stove provides much more comfort and less climate change.

 

[Andrew Bodenham]

If the flue has been used for a gas fire then hopefully it will have been lined. The method of lining will dictate what can be done in future - if a flexible liner packed round with vermiculite concrete has been put in then you'll probably not get enough draught for an open fire, but the liner may be suitable for a wood or multi-fuel stove.

First job is to open up the fireplace, get your head up there and see what's going on. Then tell us what you find.

Good luck!

 

[Ushy M]

Just be aware that if there is a flexible metal flue liner in there that has been used for a gas fire it will probably only be a single-skinned liner, which you can't use for a wood or multifuel stove - you must use a double-skinned multifuel liner.

 

[biffvernon]

Just what will happen if you do?

 

[thiambal]

Found this in Agony Uncle Section......

" in view of the recent spate of thatch fires caused by wood burning stoves. Such a stove burns at a high temperature and has to have a liner (double skin). However, such liners have a limited life (usually about 20 years) and yours could well be at the end of its life."

I guess if a single skin liner would get hot enough to ignite thatch it could I suppose set light to other things.

 

[biffvernon]

I guess if a single skin liner would get hot enough to ignite thatch it could I suppose set light to other things.

Like the bricks? I don't think so.

 

[thiambal]

Fair point I suppose!

Although, wouldn't a liner also pass through brick chimney on a thatched cottage? Or are there lots of foolish people out there just poking a metal liner through the thatch?

 

[Ushy M]

The advice I had was that a stove could burn hot enough to burn through a single skin liner thereby making it potentially at best a waste of money and at worst possibly the cause of a chimney fire (or indeed thatch fire, which is what I was concerned about in my particular case!). Also, a gas liner may well be too small a dimension to satisfy Building Regs if you're fussed about that. The one we found in our inglenook chimney had been connected to a gas range and was both single skin and too small a diameter so it was a replacement job.