I have two gas open fires on the ground floor of a c1900 2-bed terraced house in Hove; one of which I wish to convert back to coal.
Rather than launch into a lengthy explanation this is what I have:
Is this possible, easily? How much is this likely to cost me (particularly having the chimney pot sorted)?
Just remember to be careful though. I have a real fire and it gets bloody hot. Hot enough to burn you.
you can start using an open fire. A registered chimney sweep (yes, they still exist...) can do you an inspection and give you an idea of what's involved. You might get most of the information you need by just ringing one up and booking an appointment.
Nope, but after making a lot of fires, the fireplace becomes blocked with a stange ash-like substance and you have to build a new fireplace slightly to one side of the now defunct one.
Does the smoke seep through the upstairs walls and make your bedroom smell?
I'm aware of that. This is the first house I've had without solid fuel.
Not so sure about the safety certificate from the council as I've never had one before; the coal merchants never had anything up about it in the past and they were pretty hot (ho ho) on safety type stuff.
I don't think anyone will refuse to sell you coal (especially when you can pick it up from the petrol station) - but when I bought my fire the chap in the shop reckoned he had to write "for decorative purposes only" on the invoice because I didn't have a certificate. I knew that the previous owners had had a fire going, so just checked for a good draw with a snuffed-out candle
I've never heard off this "safety certificate" malarky; I've just ordered 3 tons of anthracite, and nothing was said then either. I don't believe in council "safety certificated".
Have you got a source for that info?
He was either having you on or he hadn't a clue. I suspect the latter.
"The fire shop in Chiswick"
"Downstairs at Robert Dyas" ?
"here"
sweller wrote:
I did this ~8 years ago when I moved here. I paid a plumber /gas fitter around £25 to disconnect the old gas fire/seal the pipe. The gas fire was then removed (dead easy, nothing to it), leaving the the old, filled in fireplace showing. Numerous bricks and filling had been put in behind the gas fire. It was a back boiler as well, so the old pipes were removed, what helped was that we had a new boiler fitted in a different place before I started on the fireplace. All the bricks/mortar/filling was removed to leave the remains of the old fireplace, which was just a square hole in the wall really. I then pulled out the gas flue liner, which was mortared in at the top of the chimney pot.10 minutes on the roof chipping away at the mortar, and the flue was free.It came out remarkably easy. I then got a chimney sweep round to inspect it, and see if it was smoke tight/usable.I wasnt there when he came, but apparently he was there for around 2 hours, setting off flares in the fireplace then running out to go to the chimney pot to look down, then rushing down to look up etc.Around £50 iirc. Once this was done, I had to rebuild the fireback.These are only £20ish, but you'll likely need a few firebricks as well to stand it on.Once you have it sited, you filled in the back of it with a lime based filler iirc, then work you way up with fire cement to blend the fireback to the chimney, and the front of your fireplace - in my case an old cast iron surround. Thats about it.At the time, I was referencing an excellent book from the library, which goes into intimate detail on how to rebuild the fireplace, cant remember the name, but there are a few listed on Amazon. For the hearth, I used 3 2' x 2" slabs, toppped with ceramic tiles, I was a bit worried that standard ceramic tiles wouldnt be up to the job, but on seeing the price of the 'proper' fire tiles, I thought I'd try std. tiles, and they have proved very good - still the originals after 8 years. I have got a load of pics somewhere of various stages of rebuilding, if you want a look, follow up and I'll get them scanned. Alan.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "sweller" saying something like:
You'd need to check the old chimchimiroo for soundness and leaktightness anyway, so you might need a liner suitable for solid fuel. That might not be cheap to have done.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Kevin Stone" saying something like:
Thanks for that but my situation is slightly different as the fireplace, grate and surround is all in place, see the pics in the above link.
I wondered about the feasibility of converting the old and disconnected gas effect open fire (as opposed to a trad. gas fire) to an open solid fuel fire.
The chimney seems to be open without any special liners but is capped with a metal vent; how difficult/expensive to replace it with a solid fuel chimney pot?
sweller wrote:
I've been at it again, so excuse the rambling:
You'll need to do something about the hearth. No-one will know, but iy ought to be 2" thick of non-combustible stuff. That might be what you've got, it's lbooyd hard to see, & I may be confusing it with that other blokes. Ah, maybe I'm wrong, where does that pssing gas pipe go? Somebody's knocked off a big chunk of hearth. Hearthless abstrads. Like the tiles. Are the firebricks for the= gas, or for solid fuel? I can't work out how the gas fire exhaust was dealt with, did it just go straight uop the chimney? In this day & age that wouldn't be on, nor for ages ago. You should have found a crinkly tube s/s liner, if not, I dunno why. It should connect with the metal (or maybe asbestos cement) terminal on your chimney stack. Hm. I guess there wasn't one, if not the flue's OK as you haven't gone tts up due to CO poisoning. The top needs sorting out, your house had two fires d/stairs, two u/stairs, I recon - is there another gas fire? Anyway, the terminal will need getting off, no big deal, it seems that the stack's got reasonable pointing, but it's a semi or something, what ewill your neighbousr say? Lever it off, tap tap tap with hammer & chisel, anyway, a pot from Jewson's isn't dear, match next doors or go for a tall thin one. Bed it on slate before flaunching it in if it's too small for the hole & might fall down. If it needs lining, this is a PITA with clay sections, but not too bad. Anyway, that's the top. There's a lot of gubbins on that stack. You'll have to mend that bit where the gas puipe's been put in, go to a fireplace shop tyhat sells the "Gallery" range, look at their miock-ups, or visit someone who's still using theirs. Has it got all the bits? Looks fairly promising. You could also go to an "antique" shoppe that sells these old things ("Gallery" are repro., but good repro. is *good*). Where';s all that crap come from that's at the back of the throat? That'll want mucking up with lime mortar, let it dry before having za couple of minor burns in it, progress from there. Did you ask about the cost of putting a pot on? Not a lot, there's no skill - *except* access to the job, you don't want a hairy asred sbd trampling all over your slates. Is it all there? That's still a bit of a worrt. If it
*is*, it's quite easy to deal with, just tidy it up, put a pot on, ^ off you go. Any more pics. might be useful, I will look again when I sober uop a bit tomorrow. Oh, roughly where aRe you?
Here's a present for you
*Paragraph*
Cough, in the nicesdt possible manner. Night nhight.
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