Does anyone on here have experiance of changing a gas coal effect fire for a real coal fire? If so what is involved?
Many thanks

Very almost – when we moved in there was a gas pipe in place for a coal effect stove in the fireplace, just the rest of it was never installed… so we had the same stuff to deal with.

We got a proper gas fitter bloke to come in and deal with it all (he is both gas and solid fuel qualified, if you are in North Lancashire/South Cumbria…). He lifted the carpet and floorboards to remove the gas pipe (it was live), put a new slate hearth down, opened up the fireplace to suit the woodburner I had bought, lined the chimney (it had a gas flue in that was big enough to drop a 6" solid fuel liner down the inside), replaced the chimney pot with a solid fuel one (rather than the metal gas flue end piece) then fitted the stove in properly.

Cost a fair bit (think it was a bit over a grand) including the liner, slate hearth, rendering the new fire opening, replastering the wall above. But all done properly and it took the best part of a day.

Well worth going for!

I did this in my house and it was fairly straight forward. I had the gas pipe capped off (you need someone Corgi registered to do this). Removed the gas fire(it simply lifted out). Got a chimney sweep round to clean the chimney (£35), and then used one of these clicky. Although I got away with just getting a grate and ash pan as I could reuse the front from the gas fire.

It burns really well, I had a superb fire last night, I burn both logs and coal. You need to bare in mind that it is quite dirty, and you need to empty the ash often. Go for it.

All in it cost me about £80, as I had a friend cap of the gas pipe.

Well worth going for!

Seconded – just lit our woodburner and mulled wine is underway in the kitchen 😀

Our job was similar to RobS' – I did all the ripping out bit (full house renovation – we had the gas capped back at the meter whilst we stripped the place)
I put hearth in – local stone cut to my template and had a professional in to line chimney and fit stove..

BTW – CORGI is now obsolete – you're looking for Gas Safe approved plumbers.

One of my jobs for tomorrow is removing the fire brick from the old fireplace. We've had the woodburner since summer but need to sort out the hearth, so open to ideas on this!