Reinstating victorian fireplace

[raisinwheaties]

Hi everyone

I live in a Victorian two up, two down. We have a beautiful Victorian fireplace that looks as though it was a) once used as a regular, wood or coal burning fire in the Victorian days, b) was then repurposed into a gas fire (not a gas fire instsalled as such, rather they just connected the gas to the fire and put gas coals in the original fire grate, if this makes sense and c) the gas was subsequently capped off.

Does anyone know if I say, got a chimney sweep in, could he just come in, clean it out, and could I then just start burning wood in the fire? Or is there more to it than that? Obviously I will seek professional help but just wondered if anyone had experience something similar. Many thanks

I can't quite picture what you mean, but we had a Victorian fireplace that was boarded up - we opened it up and got a chimney sweep in. They did a smoke test to check that it was drawing ok with no cracks in the flue, and we were good to go. Hopefully it'll be that simple! If the smoke test fails, then you would need to carry out remedial works before you could safely use the fireplace. Also, if you're in an urban area, double check whether you're in a smoke free zone before bunging wood on it. We have to use special smokeless fuel.

Thanks Steppingout, that's helpful and i am hopeful that I will be in a similar position to you! (and good point re: what you actually burn. Conscious of the environment - if we get it working we'd only use occasionally as a bit of cosy theatre type thing!)