Do you think removing a chimney breast but keeping a period fire and using a bio ethanol firebox decrease the value of a property?

[LibbyK15]

We are in the process of doing a loft conversion and want to remove the chimney breasts in our property to make more room in the loft and bedrooms. However, we want to keep the period fireplace in our living room and still use it as a working fire by using a bioethanol fire box. We live in London and don’t want to contribute to any air pollution, and legally there a rules against burning wood and coal in our area anyway. We have also seen this done in another property and liked the idea. After doing a lot of research we know it would be warm while inexpensive to burn and eco friendly (as it’s a renewable fuel). It would also be safe (with fire and carbon monoxide alarms) and wouldn’t require a chimney flue or any additional ventilation other than opening a window from time to time. But further down the line we wonder if not having the option of having a wood burning fire in the fireplace would affect how people feel about purchasing the house if we needed to move for any reason. What do you think? Would it put you off?

I don't like modernised properties.

If you keep the original fireplace and mantelpiece, not being able to have a wood-burner wouldn't put me off, as long as the room also has a radiator.

But if you remove all the fireplace parts and just leave a plastered hole (with a bio firebox, or without one), I would be unlikely to buy the house.

I hadn't heard of them before but they're a great idea and I think I'll get one myself.

Not sure how it would affect your resale value but there might come a time, especially in London, where wood burning stoves become unfashionable due to their effects on air quality.

It has put me off in the past -beautiful properties with what are essentially pretty but useless fireplaces. I think what made me angrier was they were advertised as ‘period features’ when the removal of the chimney negated it.

I think the extra space and layout options in your upstairs rooms that you’d gain from removing the chimneybreast would probably outweigh the ability to have a real fire, especially if there’s still the bioethanol option.

Having said that, we chose to keep the chimneybreasts so we could have fires downstairs. But the shape/size of our upstairs rooms means they still work with a chimneybreast.

So it all depends on how tight you are for space upstairs and how much difference removing those chimneybreasts will make?

A pokey loft conversion would put me off more. Bioethanol looks like the ideal compromise to wanting the look and cosiness of a fire with less of the dangers of a log burner. I think the current trend for log burners in London will be short lived - the more we learn about particulate pollution, the less socially acceptable they will become. I’m already pretty shocked that people have them - especially parents - but I also secretly miss my parents’ open fire a lot. Maybe bioethanol is the way forward!