Surface for back of open fireplace

[Robert Irwin]

Situation is - we had an old back boiler ripped out and replaced with a combi in another room (please do not treat statement as a troll....)

There is now a reasonable sized hole in the corner of our front room which I would like to put a basket gas fire in (plumber is ok with flue, room dimensions etc so thats not a worry)

Basically I need something slightly decorative to put in back and sides of fireplace to tidy it all up and protect what I believe to be normal bricks towards the back of the fireplace.

Given the dimensions of it all, putting in firebricks is just about possbile but undesirable to to relative thickness and the 'buff' colour most seem to be. I dont' want to start taking too much of the old brickwork out and fiddling as I'm not an experienced builder and don't fancy the whole chimney stack on my head.

I'm guessing most glazed tiles would get damaged by heat, even if there is a couple of inches clearance between fire and tiles. Quarry tiles might survive it but its not very appealing visually.

Os what I'm now looking at doing is possible going for 1cm thick unglazed slate tiles on top of a good thick layer of limed mortar - anyone know how good these are in repeated exposure to heat? Failing that I might try trawling round a few stonemerchants for basalt based thin tile-shaped stonework.

The plumber also said you can get some sort of heat resistant plasterboard, but I've yet to find any in the sheds.

Anyone had experience of this sort of thing?

[Alan Campbell]

How about a nice cast iron fireplace? Alternatively, you can buy something called "scones" which are like thin bricks (3-4 cm) which can be laid on edge - making a slightly thinner wall than traditional fire bricks. Still stuck with the buff colours though.

Fireplace building is a black art and I would recommend googling in uk.d-i-y for information about it to ensure your fire works efficiently and safely.

Alan.

[N. Thornton]

Nother option is sheet metal, eg copper. Sheet metal should have a gap from the bricks, and a gap at base to allow air in and up. Copper conducts well so you dont want it stuck on the bricks.

Re colour, you can make buff bricks black, and it looks entirely in keeping with a fireplace. Or get used black firebricks.

Regards, NT

[Robert Irwin]

Thanks for ideas - hadn't really considered metal up till now as was a bit worried about conductive properties firing shedloads of heat straight onto the bits where it connects to wall - I'm sure its overcomable with a bit of clever insulation though. Will add metalworkers to list of possibles though. thanks.

Which leads to followup question - how do I go about blacking whatever I put up to make it look like smokestains? Or do I just get a load of old soot and rub it on?

Robert

[Pete C]

Hi,

Try a fireplace specialist (not necessarily a 'showroom') and ask them about it. You can get 'firebacks' which are precast out of the right material eg:

.

If you want something special it might be possible to cast it out of fire cement or refractory cement or make it out of fireblicks. Metal might not hold up under the heat of a coal fire plus it may radiate too much heat to the wall behind it. Another option might be a solid fuel stove.

AFIAK you can get stove polish for this, again it should be available from a fireplace specialist eg:

cheers, Pete.

[N. Thornton]

no you need airflow behind to cool it, insulations no use.

If it wont get hot, black stain probably (not tried it tho), or just get used sooted black ones.

Regards, NT

[Rick Dipper]

There is a borad you can get for this type of thing, its about 4-6 mm thick, and made of concrete, its slightly flexable. Cut with an old/cheep saw as it blunts them reel fast, and seal in place with fire cement - the type you get in a mastic gun. This stuff is grey, not over apraling to look at.

The fireboard (what I think you mean by heat resistant plasterboard) is still carboard on the outside, it just has more "plaster" in the middle.

Personally I would go down the fireplace shop, make out I want to buy from them, and ask what they would fit in ........

Rick

[Andy Minter]

Try 'fired earth'

or any of the specialist tile companies. There are plenty of attractive italian imports these days. I did my fireplace with some of the terracotta ones from them under similar circumstances ten or more years ago and although we regularly have wood fires during winter there has been no cracking etc. I didn't use cement, just ordinary tile 'glue' as sold in tubs at B&Q etc. Grout with ordinary portland cement. These people:- do firebaskets, firebacks etc. and our local ironmongers still sell blacklead (though it comes in tubes nowadays)

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