We’ve got a dodgy 70’s brick fireplace / TV stand in our lounge, similar to the one in the photo below (not ours but a pic of neighbours house from property advert!). I want to replace the fireplace and surround with something a little nicer and more modern. I appreciate that we’d need to replace the flooring, re-plaster the wall and remove the gas supply to the side of the fireplace, but other than that how difficult / expensive is it to replace the fireplace with another fairly standard wood / coal fire?

Is it a job a fairly competent DIYer can do or is it a job for professionals?

Thanks

Its a pretty straight forward job. Its is a building regs notifiable job and it will need need safety testing when its done. All DIYable but a bit more work than just hammering some bricks out.

I’ve been looking at options and am unsure what we should do. In order to replace the fireplace we need to also replace the floor covering (this needs doing sooner rather than later) and re-plaster the area behind the current brickwork. The fireplace we ‘want’ is pretty expensive and so we can’t currently afford to replace it and the floor, so should we:

1) Do nothing until we can afford to do it all,
2) replace floor covering (with wood floor), but buy enough to fill gap when fireplace is replaced,
3) rip out fireplace, block up (temporarily), re-plaster area and replace floor,
4) replace fireplace with cheaper option and replace floor,
5) replace fireplace and ‘put-up’ with the gap in the carpet until we have the funds to replace, or
5) something else?

Thanks.

you need hora and his sledgehammer.

If it was me, it’d be option 1)….. do it once, do it right.

I’d say get the fire in as soon as possible, then you can start enjoying it.

Option 4 for me. When will you be able to afford to do it all? Just before you move out, probably 🙂

Our fireplace was £80 from ebay, its original 1930s to match the house and everybody who comes round says it looks like its always been there. Not mint but they get pretty mucky when you start using them.

If it was me, it’d be option 1)….. do it once, do it right.

This is what I’d prefer to do, however I fear that we’ll never be in a position to be able to afford it all at once (as there’s always something else that needs doing which will drain the bank account!) and we’ll still be looking at an ugly fireplace and hideous carpet in another 3 years time!

Alright then, option 4)…. but find something you can bear to look at everyday and not think ‘….I wish I’d done it differently…’

Took me nearly 6 years to save enough to completely gut downstairs/move walls around/replace electrics/replaster every surface/new kitchen/move gas and electricity meters/fit wood burner and redecorate the lot in one hit. Lot of money and effort, but very satisfied now its done.

find something you can bear to look at everyday and not think ‘….I wish I’d done it differently…’

I think that’s going to be the key, we need to sit down and decide what we really want. I suspect it may be option 4 as the wife is getting really pished off with the current carpet.

nickjb – did you fit the fireplace yourself? If so how difficult was it and if not how much was it (if you don’t mind me asking)?

I fitted it myself. Took about 3 days.

Knocking out the old bits – free (but very dusty), Clay fire back £60, Sand, cement, vermiculite, plaster £30, Firerope £10, Fireplace from ebay £80. I bought a couple of other surrounds as they were going cheap but neither were quite right (£10 and 99p). Cosmetic hearth – free, a neighbour was chucking it out, needed a clean and polish but its a lovely bit of stone.

We already had a constructional hearth and brick arch from the original fireplace so that saved quite a bit. Looks like you will, too.

I bought a few new tools along the way but these have been used on other jobs since. (Big hammer drill, trowel, club hammer, polishing head for the grinder)

Probably all in around £250 materials plus another £100 on some new tools.

Overall it wasn’t that difficult. Not physically hard, and not much skill needed either. Took me two goes to get the cement/vermiculite mix right and I had to do a bit of work to get the ebay fireplace to fit nicely. Hardest bit was getting everything to line up, just had to offer everything up a few times. Well worth it this last winter, great for evenings in.

Thanks again guys, having discussed it with the wife yesterday I’m informed that we will be getting something similar to the below photo, which ain’t the cheap option and will need to be fitted by someone who knows exactly what they are doing (not me then).

I’m now trying to decide if we go back to option 1 or go with a variation of option 3, which would be to rip out whats there and make good temporarily until we get the insert installed, but it does mean that I can replace the carpet and free-up a fair bit of floor space.

Looks like a Rais 600. Fitted the same stove myself last year without too many problems. – We still have our 1950’s flower power carpet till we get around to change it, so not too disimmilar to your option 5.

I’m now trying to decide if we go back to option 1 or go with a variation of option 3, which would be to rip out whats there and make good temporarily until we get the insert installed, but it does mean that I can replace the carpet and free-up a fair bit of floor space.

thats what i would do – just leave a square hole in the wall

I have less cladding, but I have got a rubbish 70’s gas fire and a cheap as chips pine surround – it looks ribbish, but I’m not going to start that project till I get rid of the back boiler, next year, maybe …

I’m an option 5 guy, if I don’t start it it will never get done, I can never really afford it but if I do a bit at a time i can live with it better than I could doing it all but not to the standard I would like. Also the nagging of the wife with a half finished bathroom/wall/garden tends to drive me to do it myslef, work harder to be able to afford the materials, and get it done so I can get out on the bike/into the garage

That looks a good idea/fireplace however that design looks like it also heats the chimney/surrounding walls as well rather than maximum front output? Just looks like an oven to me.

Why not go for the freestanding woodburning stove within the open fireplace?

I’d be interested to see the costings as we finished our fireplace and covered the front temporarily whilst we think about what we want.

It won’t take long to smack the shite out of it with a hammer! But it will take longer to clear the mess up afterwards!

My house had a similar set up. the brick work to the side of the chimney was just on the floorboards and I didn’t have to replace any floor.

Once you’ve got back to the original hearth below the dodgy brick you will have a better idea of what fire / stove you can fit in.

Check building regs for the details of what you require. If you are having a real fire you need a proper hearth.

Chimney sweeps are your best bet for checking out the condition of the chimney and for your house insurance you want to have a receipt from a pro.

Other than that its pretty straight forward.