Fires and Fireplaces..

[Paul Andrews]

We have a hole in our fireplace where our old fire and backboiler used to be. It's been there over six months now (tasetefully covered by a plywood sheet and a picture of a fire) and you-know-who would like a new gas fire in there.

At the moment this:

favourite. Speaking to the manufacturer, the fire surround - the tiled bit - seems to have been made up from floor tiles, cut accordingly.

Ideally I'd like to buy the fire and get it installed by the guy who installed our central heating. This would mean getting the surround made up beforehand.

Now to the questions..

Sticking tiles around the surround is no big deal, but the shelf may be. Looking at the picture it appears that the same tiles are being used to form the shelf and I'm wondering what's on the inside. What would you tile over to form that shelf?

Besides the surround, there's the question of what's inside the fireplace. The actual opening is set in brick. The sides and top have a wooden batten around the inside edge. Looking inside I can see that there is thick metal galavanised grid on top of the batten. the sides of the grid seem to be set into the brickwork on either side. On top of the grid are bricks (which don't have mortar between them). Immediately above that appears to be a single piece concrete 'funnel' that forms the constriction from the fireplace into the chimney. The old fire and back boiler assembly essentially had the gas fire outside of the fireplace with the boiler inset back into the fireplace.

I'm a bit nervous about having the wooden battens in place with a fire between them (albeit enclosed in it's assembly). Should I be worried about that? I'm not sure what the purpose of the battens is - whether it's just to make the fireplace opening smaller and neater, or it's there to help support the steel grid at the top of the fireplace. Anyone know?

What else would I most likely need to do ahead of installation (I've not read the installation guide yet)?

Don't misunderstand me - I'm not installing the fire myself - I'll get the corgi guy in to do that. I'd like him just to have to hook up to the flue pipe and gas and slide it straight in if I can manage that. I am not going to bypass the corgi guy in any way.

If it's all too daunting I might just buy the fire and get it all installed directly by the retailer. I'm just fishing at the moment!

Thanks,

Paul

[Paul Andrews]

...

[John]

For your shelf, I would consider a piece of polished stone. It could be set into the wall and not need tiling. Stonemasons now seem set up for this sort of thing. We recently bought a window ledge for our bathroom in stone. As the shower is over the bath and takes the water, I wanted something better than the painted wood. The result looks good, matches the tiles and is totally waterproof. Not that your fire will get wet - I hope.

[Paul Andrews]

That's an idea. We're still mulling over exactly what we want...

It's the wooden battens that worry me most...

Thanks John.

Paul