What do I need for my open fire???

[RandomMess]

So the room had a 1960's fireplace that has been ripped out.

We now have the hole with the special heat brick bits in it.

I have a cast iron surround
The errr front bit that stops the coal falling out with the drawer bit in it (what is this called)
Obviously I need some sort of hearth to make the concrete bit look pretty.

Do I need something else to sit inside the hole??? If so what is it called.

I have googled but it takes in fancy terms etc. etc. I need an idiots diagram!

start by finding a recommended and experienced local sweep. As long as sweeping, testing and assessing your chimney and fireplace, he should be able to tell you what needs doing, and some local people who can do it. You might need a new fireback.

An open fire will cause tremendous draughts as it sucks lots of warm air up the chimney. Posh people have underfloor vents with brass grilles in front of the fire.

a log burner unless you want 80% of the heat going straight up the chimney.

sorry, but there's a reason that open fires are going out of fashion.

Because they are dirty, coal is no longer mined in the UK which makes it expensive and it's a pollutant, and the local authorities created smoke free zones which bumps up the cost even more. This is why open fires are going out of fashion. With adequate lining and regular cleaning 80% of the heat doesn't go up the chimney.

Oh skippetty joyfullness.

We've just had a good poke around and the hole is much bigger than we originally thought and fireplace man yesterday was wrong.

I can have a fire like LadySyb's. Is yours a Jubilee? Would you recommend it?

Excellent. My log burner is a firefox, I think the open fire is an inglenook type thing, very similar to the Amazon link.

LOL tbh isn't going to be a main source of heating!!!

I may get the (recommended) sweep out and see how much would need doing - if it's a lot then I may just make it look pretty and leave the paper stuffed up it

I do think the cats & dog would love an open fire sometimes, just burning a few logs etc.

Mine's not either I live in a victorian house. It has radiators but gas bills are far more expensive than logs so I don't tend to use the central heating unless I really have to. Fuel for the whole of the winter is £120, gas bill is £80 for the 3 months (used for cooking, an hour in the morning and a couple of hours in the evening).

The log burner is easier to use and uses less logs than the open fire by the way.

Ours is 60's and insulated within an inch of it's life. We also have some brand new super duper boiler & unvented cylinder thing that PigletJohn told me to get so am hoping for low gas bills!

For now the I've spent very little on 2nd hand bits for my fireplace to look pretty (we have that room as our bedroom anyway not a living room) but in years to come if we want it for heating I'll go down the log burner route I guess!

Do you have a picture?

The house, the whole, the fire bits???

Annoyingly to attach the cast iron surround to be used as a fire I'll have to strip off some of the plaster we've just had done - grrrr!

No, just the fire bit.

Oh, that sucks It'll look fab though.

if you are going to block it off, old pillow in a bin liner is the way to go. Just don't forget it is there!

It needs derusting and painting etc. etc,

You could have a long wait...

That's OK, I'll sit and drink some gin while I'm waiting.

Oh gin, my favourite...

Twist of lime?

Nooo! Sloe gin is best drunk neat

Oh sloe gin, never tried that...

It's wonderful!

DH makes splendid sloe gin if you want to pop dahn sarf.

I have to come into London occasionally if that's closer?

Oh I go down to London every few months too...

Oh, we could have a meet up in the Champagne bar at St Pancras!

It's closer but would take me hours - ridiculously. We're south of Lunnon town but trains crawl in. Come to Gatwick :)

Office is in central London I live in the East Midlands so am 2 hours away from there, it would take longer to get to Gatwick. I'll give you a yell if we're flying though

:) That's a date. Living in the sticks does make collecting sloes easy!