converting gas fireplace to open fire or woodburning stove

[Lionsntigersnbears]

Hi All,

Hoping someone has experience of this. I'm really tired of our old living room and thinking of doing it up a bit. I'd love to get a real fire or a woodburning stove installed in place of an old and rather tatty flame effect has fire. I'd also need to get a new mantlepiece and surround. Does anyone know how big a project this would be and (eyes bank balance nervously) how much I should expect it to cost? I've always lived in houses with open fires or no possibility of an open fire so I've got no idea what's involved.

Ooooh. I also want to do this.

We did this recently. Our fireplace had at one point housed a back boiler so we had to reroute some pipe work. The stove fitter removed the old chimney liner and fitted a new one, built a new hearth to the correct size and installed the stove. Total cost was around £2k. We're in London.
Check out the HETAS website to find a local installer.

We love our stove! It's transformed our room and was definitely worth the money. I'm completely converted.

you need to get a plumber to come and cut off (not the technical term) the gas supply so it's safe to convert. then get a chimney person to come and test your chimney and make sure it's all working properly. then have your surround etc done. I spent a small fortune last year on one from Chesneys but only because I felt a bit intimidated buying one from ebay or second hand. But then our builder said he could have fitted it easily for us so it's obviously not all that hard to do. Chesneys do a couple of all inclusive deals - think it was about 1200 plus about 400 for the fitting. But they did a brilliant job. I love it - we've had roaring fires all winter. So it's not really a big project but can be costly depending on where you go. Wood-burner I think is a bit more complicated because they have to put a big pipe thing up the chimney - although clearly am no expert.

Thank Cooper and Coconut feet. That sounds like a doable project if we start saving :-). It would be so nice to have a lovely real fire to snuggle up in front of next winter !