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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

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

82 replies

FallingOver · 27/02/2013 15:12

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?

OP posts:
impecuniousmarmoset · 27/02/2013 17:46

According to the who, 96000 children died of fire-related injuries worldwide in 2004, most of them in the third world where cooking and hearing on open fires is more common. As it used to be in this country - i can assure you that if you'd grown up in a slum in the early years if the 20th c, with 10 brothers and sisters, you would be telling a different story. i'm not suggesting that lighting a small fire in your front room carries comparable risk as doing all yr cooking and hearing with open flame, but I can't quite believe anyone is taking issue with the idea that open fires and small children are a risky combination! Sure you could stick a massive cage fire guard on, but then why bother lighting it at all, they look so grim.

impecuniousmarmoset · 27/02/2013 17:46

Gah- heating!!! not hearing.

Owllady · 27/02/2013 17:46

one of ours was boarded over when we moved in (also rental) and it was to stop us starting a fire in it because it hadn't been swept

they let us open it though as long as we sweep every 6 months (other one was open though! go figure)

anyway i agree with the lady on top of me :o I have ran out of oil atm and I have two open fires and they kick out some heat! I took my jumper off last night, something I can't do with the heating on

Owllady · 27/02/2013 17:48

I do agree with you impecum.. BUT I think children who live up with a healthy understanding of having a fire will not burn themselves, infact my children never get anywhere near them tbh, even the one who has little understanding (SN) she knows it's hot and will hurt

Owllady · 27/02/2013 17:48

I now feel like I have tempted fate and will gove them another talk tonight Blush

Original poster
FallingOver · 27/02/2013 17:56

Fwiw, both my parents grew up in families of 11 or more, in conditions that nowadays would be considered cramped, both in houses with open fires for all heating AND I do a lot of work on slums in early 20th c. United Kingdom. Still don't think open fires are incompatible with small children.

OP posts:
PessaryPam · 27/02/2013 17:57

We fitted a multi-fuel stove in our fireplace and it lovely. It makes the room extra cosy and it's nice to watch the coals or wood burn through the air washed glass.

PessaryPam · 27/02/2013 18:01

This the coal we use regularly, it's really good.

www.coalproducts.co.uk/product/wildfire

Owllady · 27/02/2013 18:06

I buy 20kg bags of traditional housecoal in a similar bag for £6 each and they are fine

LineRunner · 27/02/2013 18:08

In older houses, it's usually because of flue design, noxious gases, health & safety, and the costs of replacement and maintenance.

impecuniousmarmoset · 27/02/2013 18:09

I was initially just taking issue with the 'well how did people used to manage?' because the answer is 'by getting burned more often'!!! If you work on early 20th c slums then you'll know that deaths from fire (and other accidents) were commonplace, as you'd expect in confined spaces with a lot of children and minimal adult supervision (so not really yr situation owl lady:) ). I can't quite see how that is controversial!

theodorakisses · 27/02/2013 18:13

I once rented a place with blocked up fireplace. When we opened it there were 200 years of dead birds in various states of decay and I can never describe the smell. Luckily LL was nice and immediately wired it off.

pixi2 · 27/02/2013 18:14

Ok, am back. Dd sorted and back asleep.

The clean air act followed the great London smog. Acts of parliament were passed to prevent premature deaths from respiratory illnesses caused from particles in the smog as a result of burning fuels in open fires. The act was mid fifties and the resting laws would have seen fires closed up over the 60's and 70's as other sources of heat became more wildly available. For more info see here

smokecontrol.defra.gov.uk/background.php

Hope this works as I am on my phone and not my laptop. Dd shouting. She's not two yet hence then crying with flu. Off to see to her and skulk back to my corner.

PessaryPam · 27/02/2013 18:14

We bought a metric ton of wildfire for £370 late last year and we have been using it to offset against our general house central heating which is calor gas and very expensive.

IThinkOfHappyWhenIThinkOfYou · 27/02/2013 18:17

I'm a landlord and although I love an open fire I'm not risking it with strangers to whom I have a duty of care. House fires can start if the chimney isn't properly lined even if the tenant does everything else right. It's hard enough to get access sometimes for the yearly gas safety inspection but if I started phoning up and saying the chimney sweep needed access etc and they told me to feck off I would hardly be able to sleep. I grew up in a house with an open fire and no central heating and I loved it, but not enough to get one now.

Original poster
FallingOver · 27/02/2013 18:19

impecunious I don't think it's controversial to note that accidents and injuries were more commonplace in the 20th c, but just would suggest that your earlier observation that you didn't want to expose your children to 'natural selection' by way of death through falling into an open fire might come across as a little judgemental of those who have both children and an open fire. That's all! Smile

OP posts:
MyDarlingClementine · 27/02/2013 18:22

YADNBU

I sorely miss a fire in the house, it was the soul in our old house. Nothing warms the cockles on a grey winters day than a memorising fire.

For me - the fire would soley be about that soul warming quality rather than the physical warmth.

Other countries seem to get this alot more - LA lots of bars have fires flickering away but its not actually cold. Also I have witnessed this in Morocco and some other African Countries.

I have a friend who rents out houses and just boards up fireplaces. such a shame.

Its one of my biggest bugbears in this country when you walk into a pub on a winters day and the fire in non existent or dying.

We just dont get it in this country i am afraid.

impecuniousmarmoset · 27/02/2013 18:33

Fair enough - I didn't mean to be judgemental, i just hate appeals to a halcyon health'n'safety free past! A modern fire with a fire guard is fine if it works for you. In my house, with my toddler and my parenting, lighting an open fire would indeed be tantamount to natural selection:)

thanksamillion · 27/02/2013 18:58

I live in a country where most people still use fires to cook/heat their houses. I totally agree that it is a major hassle - we can't go away in the winter unless we find someone to stay in our house for us because we can't leave the house with no heating and let the pipes freeze, if we've been out for the day the first two hours at home are freezing cold. It's a total hassle to clean and light and keep lit fires every day, the house is always dusty and dirty. Shall I go on? Grin

There are also many, many more house fires here (although some of them are caused by candles when people's electricity gets cut off) and huge numbers of children with awful burns from fires or from boiling water on the fires.

Owllady · 27/02/2013 19:00

yes it is a major hassle and it's so dirty and dusty

NoelHeadbands · 27/02/2013 19:05

Nope couldn't be arsed with it I'm afraid.

expatinscotland · 27/02/2013 19:06

Fires are such a pain in the arse.

Hulababy · 27/02/2013 19:07

We have no fireplace of any form. Never have had. We have a new build and bought off plan, and asked them not to bother putting one in.

Mind our house is toasty warm all the time anyway - no way we'd ever need a fire too!

Hulababy · 27/02/2013 19:09

Forgot to add that I am in Sheffield btw :)

I grew up with a proper fire; they are not always quite as cosy and romantic as people often want to believe!

Beaverfeaver · 27/02/2013 19:14

Love my fireplace with its cast iron stove.

It's not at all draughty as it has a door to shut and is very efficient, easy to light, easy to control and easy to clean.

It was a must have when we were looking for the next house and we have been using it almost daily throughout the past 3 winters