Restore Fireplace - Vent Needed?

[ajayre]

When we bought this house there was a piece of paperwork missing for something utterly minor. To push the purchase along we bought indemnity insurance for £50, which was a trivial 0.02% of the purchase price. Kept our Solicitor happy...

 

[88v8]

Unless your bedroom is very large and you plan to spend a lot of time in there, I'd forget about it ever being functional.

Thanks for all the input. We will consider restoring it but perhaps not to be used. Even though it's a bedroom it's also my office, so I am in there 9 hours a day, five days a week. It's the second-most used room after the living room.

Andy

Nine hours a day... for me, that would certainly swing it in favour of a live fire, a gas coal. I'd find someone to make me a burner, run my own gas supply with a simple on/off tap, light it with a match, put in a closeable vent. No glass front, no electronic doodads. The main aggro would be lining the flue; if you run a gas coal in an unlined flue it's liable to suffer from condensation although perhaps less so upstairs as the run will be shorter.

Contravenes t'regulations, of course, if I ever sold I'd remove the burner and paint the fireback with black emulsion.

Just as well we have no gas here, so I'm not tempted to do naughty things.

Although I have to say a simple fire as described worked perfectly well in our bathroom for 21 years.

Ivor

PS here's the burner....
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/18-24-30-36-HD-Hearth-Kit-for-Gas-Logs-Fireplace-Burner-Grate-Everything-NG-/360406559070?pt=US_Decorative_Logs_Stone_and_Glass&var=&hash=item53e9e7a95e