To wonder why so many houses have blocked up fireplaces?!

[FallingOver]

I just don't get it! I'm looking around for a new rental at the moment - moving to Sheffield in the summer - and I am flabbergasted at the amount of seemingly nice houses that have blocked up fireplaces. Some even have blocked up fireplaces with horrid electric heaters pasted on the walls! Gas fires I can just about understand (even if I think they're not quite the same), but the thought of a home without a nice warm fire blazing away on a cold winter's night... WHY?

because i dont like open fires so why would i want an open fireplace?

Because they are drafty and horrid and need serviced.

Because they're pretty?

Op YANBU, we dismissed houses out of hand if fireplaces were blocked up. It was one way of narrowing the (then burgeoning) market.

I have an open firepalce and it's great - cheap fuel from the woods etc - as well as being beautifully made of cast iron with a tiled surround. But it is harder work than just switching on an electric fire so maybe effort wins over aethetics?.

Because they are smoke free zones?

We live in a smoke control area, so we couldn't have an open fire even if we wantd one.

Chimney fires and small people in the household mean its just a big draft-hole?

Smoke free zone - can you not get smoke free coal?

It seems to me like open fires might be an increasingly cost-efficient way of heating homes, given how much gas and electricity are going to cost in the next few years.

And yes, it is a way of narrowing the search for a new place, but I'm really surprised at how few houses have an open fire - around 1 in 10 I'd say.

Open fires went out of fashion in the 1950s/60s and onwards as more people were able to heat their houses by other means. An electric fire was the height of modernity and much less hassle than sweeping a grate and laying a fire every day.

The people who owned our house before us had considered themselves very stylish because they removed the lovely art nouveau fireplace in the front room and replaced it with a pink tiled monstrosity and electric fire. Needless to say we now have an open fire again!

I love them, but people do this because of the cold/draught mostly.

You can get smoke-free coal, or seasoned wood can be used ina smoke-free zone too.

Open fires may well be very nice but blackleading, having coal delivered, raking out the fire, building the fire, getting up to a freezing cold home before the fire is lit - all these were swiftly rejected by most people as soon as there was an alternative. My gran detested her open fire and loved her central heating.

I would have thought it's because landlords don't want the hassle of chimney sweeping, the risks of a tenant who's not used to real fires damaging/burning down the house, smoke in the property etc.

It's the same reason that many landlords if given the choice will put in electric boilers and hobs, while it's nicer/more efficient to use gas for both, if the landlord doesn't have to bother with gas safety checks (even if it means your tenants fuel bills are higher) then so be it.

Plus in a lot of cities, there were restrictions on real fires and what they could burn, it might be that there's been restrictions (either now or in the past) in Sheffield so it was expensive to buy the smokeless fuels and people just blocked them up.

Add to all of that, Sheffield is windy and cold as a City (lived there for 3 years at uni, was cold all the time, except for one glorious week each year that always coinsided with exams/essay deadlines so was stuck indoors) - if you aren't using the fire, surely it'd be drafty a lot, I would imagine a lot of people came to the conclusion if they had central heating it's not worth keeping an open fire that makes the front room colder than the rest of the house for that once a week of having a fire (and they do take a lot of cleaning)

We unblocked ours and fitted a multifuel stove. Best thing we ever did too

They are freezing and draughty! My parents unblocked one at their house and had a lovely fire there for a few years but have blocked it back up again now. They just were not using that room because it was too cold!

YANBU I chose my place purely because of the open fires and working chimneys :)

Each to their own and all that. I was just genuinely surprised to see how many houses had been blocked up.

I don't really get the draughty complaints though. Surely you light the fire when it's cold, thus eliminating the draught?

I wouldn't light the fire when the baby is rolling around on the living room floor (tiny room). Nor first thing in the morning, nor go to bed with a fire burning.

Yes if its a long relaxing weekend evening it would be nice, but being able to be comfy as soon as we walk in without extra work to clean/make a fire is better.

Suspect we might think about a wood burner in a few years time (once the baby is old enough to be left in a room with one), but definitely not an open fire.

I've certainly been told that dontmind. We're looking for places at the moment and with both the places that had working open fireplaces, we were told that if we moved in, we would be responsible for a list of things going wrong as long as your arm - obviously people previously had done some really stupid things!

Also, if it's not been used a lot (and it's hard to tell when you're renting), you could light a fire and find you're trying to burn through several years' worth of jackdaw nests, as they like to nest in disused chimneys.

"I don't really get the draughty complaints though. Surely you light the fire when it's cold, thus eliminating the draught?"
Yes - after you've raked out the ashes of the last fire, built a new one, lit it, waited for the room to warm up - not really something most people have time to do before going out to work/getting children up and out to school etc.

Fallingover - because it can be a hassle to light the fire every time you want to use the room, it might be that you only want to spend an hour in there, by the time you've gone to all that hassle, got the fire lit, got the room hot, it seems hardly worth it. My neighbours have an open fire, she admitted after the first excitment of having it, now 18months after moving in they light theirs only about once a month. She can't be arsed with cleaning it out and setting it, and then keeping the DCs away from it, much easier to click on the heating.

Plus it has the effect of making that room very hot, but depending on the layout of your house, not warming the rest of it. So you may well end up running the heating as well so bedrooms, kitchens etc aren't icy if you've got all members of the family in different rooms. If you're going to have to pay for the heating anyway, why bother with the faff of the fire?

(BTW - I'd love a real fire, I'm well aware however, that our gas fire has only been on twice this winter as when it's cold we'll put the heating on, and I don't know anyone who rents who's got one, few landlords are going to want that hassle)

Because they have central heating and don't need a fire?

Planning laws changed recently. For example, if you purchase a property and want to change the (horrible) 1970's fireplace, you can't simply replace old with new if the house is attached to another. Planning law states that there must be at least 1m between the chimneys/flu vents, if not, you have to have the chimney / flu vent moved by a builder which is extremely expensive. Also, if you have a gas fire, there are rules and regulations regarding that too - especially in rented accommodation. Fire safety has moved on so much recently so it's easy to see why landlords have gone with the easy option of blocking up the fireplace and shoving an electric heater on the wall.

What about if you have central heating and an open fire?? Then the choice is yours