Fireplaces

[Feltwell]

Feltwell Towers is lucky to have lost relatively few of it's original features compared to many other Victorian abodes, however one thing it has lost is it's fireplaces. Only one original, intact, in-situ fireplace remains in one of the bedrooms. There was also the broken remains of one boxed over in another bedroom, I confess I broke it further getting it out but it was in a bad state anyway.

However - those 2 fireplaces revealed that my house had "Biclam" (Bennets Iron Company Limited Ardwick Manchester) design No.54 cast iron combination fireplaces, and since then, 6 years ago, I have been scouring Fleabay every week for other examples so I can re-instate fireplaces that are identical to those that were there originally. I've had to assume that the downstairs lounge & dining room fireplaces matched those upstairs, and the plaster on the chimney breasts has given me what size fireplaces the rooms had.

In doing this I've been up & down the country collecting various, mostly incomplete, fireplaces - and this week I'm collecting the last one , which will give me enough bits to build a fireplace for the dining room (which will work as originally intended), another for the lounge (which I'll probably put a gas tray in for a "living flame" gas fire - we've got one in a reproduction Victorian surround at the moment and it's surprisingly realistic & good at heating), and another for one of the first floor bedrooms which will be decorative only. Another of the first floor bedrooms has the remaining original fireplace, and the last bedroom on the 1st floor won't have a fireplace as it's layout is such now that the only place to put a bed is up against the chimney breast, due a door having been added in that room to an en-suite bathroom - one of the very few changes to this place.

Whoever slept in the two 2nd floor bedrooms were clearly made of hardy stuff as they slept beneath the uninsulated roof, with only what feeble heat rose from below to warm them - no fireplaces were ever put up there!

Anyway - to end a long ramble - has anyone got any period "how to install a fireplace" instructions? Needs to be for a cast iron combination fireplace, i.e. the insert, mantlepiece and surround are fixed together and fitted as one. I've seen some modern instructions but wondered if anyone had any old books with instructions in.

The gas one will have to have the gas connected by a qualified fitter (flue already lined for the current gas fire), but the solid fuel fireplace, whilst strictly speaking should be fitted by a HETAS engineer, I fancy fitting myself. I'll get a sweep out to double check the (unlined) flue for me but it's not given any problems before and has been swept. CO2 alarms will be put in all rooms through which the flue passes.

This is the style if anyone's interested - although the firebars on this one aren't original, they were a more angular design. Not my personal favourite but it's what the house had and it's very typical of the period.

http://www.fireplaceantiques.co.uk/Product/Late-Victorian-Combination-Grate-in-Cast-Iron-/10830

 

[88v8]

...since 6 years ago, I have been scouring Fleabay ....I've been up & down the country ...this week I'm collecting the last one which will give me enough bits to build a fireplace for the dining room

An odyssey of love :shock:

We had this all-in-one fireplace installed in the bathroom we built in our previous house. That had a gas tray, no safety devices but we survived 20 years with it in regular use, lucky escape there :?
Can't tell you anything useful about installation as our builders did it while I was at work, except that the space behind the firebox must be carefully filled in with weak cement to buffer the iron against rapid temperature change.

It chucked out a lot of heat. Took a while to get up steam, but then so does a 'real' fire. Efficient? Hahahahaha but who cares...

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

Are these not screwed to the wall and then plastered around to cover the screws. Alternatively one was fitted in my house by having two thin steel rods, one either side, looped around hooks on the back of the fireplace and then set into plaster of paris in a void in the wall. I assume the rods were looped over the hooks, and then these were put into the wet plaster and the whole thing pushed to the wall, securing the fireplace when it set. There were loops on the ends of the rods that went into the wall too. I'm surprised your downstairs fireplaces didn't have grander surrounds, large marble or slate surrounds for example. Can you see the outline of what was there before???

 

[stuart45]

We normally use a vermiculite/cement mix at the back nowadays, flaunching the top at an angle of about 60 degrees. Ideally a fireproof rope fitted between the insert or combination and the breast.

 

[Feltwell]

I'm surprised your downstairs fireplaces didn't have grander surrounds, large marble or slate surrounds for example. Can you see the outline of what was there before???

No, not really. The downstairs fireplaces that I've bought to match the upstairs ones are much larger versions and do look quite grand, albeit still quite plain, no tiles etc.

These fireplaces will screw to the bare brickwork then be plastered around, which will hide the lugs & fixing screws. There are loops behind them as well, which appear to be to attach wire to - a couple of the ones I've bought have bits of wire left attached to them. Not sure why that's needed if the whole thing is held in place by screws.

I've seen modern fitting instructions talk about cement & vermiculite, which is what I may well use - I've got a couple of bags of vermiculite and even though it's using cement, vermiculite is so soft that I doubt it would be difficult to chip it out in the future if required.

...since 6 years ago, I have been scouring Fleabay ....I've been up & down the country ...this week I'm collecting the last one which will give me enough bits to build a fireplace for the dining room

An odyssey of love :shock:

Mrs F thinks I'm bonkers for going to all the trouble, but nothing new there! I've collected the last fireplace now - alas the insert is broken, which the vendor hadn't realised, but I can glue it up again and it will do fine for the fireplace that is to be decorative only. Alas we realised the insert was broken when we tilted the fireplace onto it's back to load it on my trailer, when the fireback fell out and broke into 4 pieces :roll: so I'll have to patch that up with some sand & cement and colour it black. Good job I've one fireplace that will never get used!

 

[88v8]

That fireplace in the bathroom... the cast-iron front of the ashpan was missing, I reproduced it in softwood. It got very hot, so I screwed a bit of ally to the back to turn the heat. Fine for 20 years.
They used to make internal chimneys of wattle & daub, back in the day.

Ivor

 

[dandrew]

I don't have any old books, but can offer some insight having seen a couple of my own installed.

1. Install gas pipe for living flame fire (I think that's what you're having) through constructional (back) hearth
2. Fix decorative hearth (the bit that juts out into the room), taking into account building regulations on size
3. The space behind the decorative hearth (within the void at the flue base) then has to be levelled with mortar as that is what your combination insert will stand on. This will be level with the decorative hearth and needs to be done with a spirit level. This process seals the gas pipe in a slab of mortar, so the pipe needs to be appropriately wrapped with some sort of plastic tape-stuff that prevents corrosion (your gas safe installer should know about this).
4. The combination insert is then fixed to the wall, usually with screws through lugs on the casting.
5. Complete living flame installation & enjoy.

I've also had the throating rebuilt using pup bricks prior to installing a cast iron surround, and if you are having that done it occurs at step 3 but after the mortar levelling, surround just stands on the decorative hearth.

Good luck,

David