Coal Fire

K

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Hello,

Im thinking of going back to Burning coal again so i dont have to pay for gas :)///


Anyhoo, the chimney breast is still there but it has been blocked off with plasterboard and a gas fire..


obviously installing the fire will be in reverse etc..

But i grew up in a 150 year old house, which had 4 coal fires.. each had a well sp?

when moving into this house it had already been removed..

so what are the procedures?? what will i need etc??
 
The most important thing is to get the chimney checked. Restoring the fire shouldn't be a problem.
 
Cheers nara,

Just been thinking the half is missing and i will proberly find the grate is missing too :S..

Have to go visit a local iron mongers for a recycled one :)

Will get the chimney cleaned before hand (cheers nara) its still open though as ive had the grill off and torch.. plus in winter theres a mad draft :)
 
We're having this or another very similar one from a Danish company installed in our new house. It burns wood and not coal but I think you could also burn coal in there too.

I'm having both fireplaces knocked out in our lounge this summer but will have the stove and a same colour flu going into my ceiling. From there I'm going to run an eight inch double insulated flu (cheapie job as its hidden) through the first floor and out through the loft into the roof existing chimney stack. The grey metal flu pipes are only £50/meter based upon finish so its not that costly when you compare it to a conventional flu.

If you are renovating the whole house this is a great project to take on. As the flu pipe is only 8" you can allow another 2" either side for a surrounding wall made out of brick, blocks or any fire treated material.

http://www.robeys.co.uk/pages/heating/stoves/Harrie_Leenders/harrie_leenders.php

If you think you may take up a similar project and need any advice I may be able to help. Me Julie has been dragging me around London and every bloody home/design show on earth. In fact I would go so far as saying I'm well on the way to becoming an interior designer LOL.
 
Also you may need to replace the fireback if that was ripped out, or if its badly
cracked, easy to get hold of and not expensive.
Great idea though! good look with it.
 
Reconsider please - I hate the bloody things !

Seems like half my neighbours have got these things in an pretty much every day now half the rooms in my house fill up with evil smelling coal smoke leaving me feeling like i've worked down the pits for 20 odd years.

Not only that but there's soot everwhere. Means we have spend ages hoovering everyday and decorating most rooms at least once a year.

Coal fires must be one of the most anti-social things you can do to a neighbour.
 
lol @ NOZZER, never seen that problem before must be a design flaw with the chimney breast :(

@ Curly i live 5 mins walk from Housing Units, might pop in.. cheers for heads up :)
 
lol @ NOZZER, never seen that problem before must be a design flaw with the chimney breast :(

nah, its prevailing wind conditions. The smoke rolls off other people's roofs and descends into my garden. Any open window and its in the house !

Wouldn't care so much if it was just in the winter when your not so likely to have the windows open but it seems all year round. Even today, when the outside temperature is in the 20's there's 4 neighbouring houses belching smoke that ends up in my property !

And if its not coal fire smoke its bloody barbecue smoke !!!!
 
@ Curly i live 5 mins walk from Housing Units, might pop in.. cheers for heads up :)

I thought you were over that neck of the woods ;)

It was a good 12 months ago that I saw them as we were in there looking for a fireplace for the front room.
When I saw the parts they had I started to wonder about re-instating the old coal fire as it had bits missing, but was over ruled in the end and now have a gas one lol.

Curly
 
i think a fire is a nice thing to have in a sitting room,we are moving house shortly and we are putting in 1 of those stove that sits in there and is multi-fuel and much more effient than an ordinary open fire gives off 7kw of heat
 
Don't forget to check with your local council as my Aunt had a log fire fit and apparently they don't allow them anymore in her area so she had to remove it after some tw@t complained!

:)
 
light a smoke pellet up to see if its got a good draw aswell if its blocked it will not draw so good or even not draw the smoke at all it will just fill your rooom up of smoke .also it could reveal leaks in the chimney itself filling other rooms up of smoke i would personally rip it all out and build a new fire opening with a new fire back brick easy really just take your time m8


have fun
 
Cheers for the advice guys..

Was speaking to a bloke in M9, Manchester, not sure of the area. Anyway he was saying that his area has rules on burning.. No burning whatsoever..

Seeing as our kneck of the woods consists of old houses which have burnt fuels up until the early 90's i cant see there being any such bans.. Ive seen plenty of houses burning coal...

Oh and the smell is fit..
 
The thought of a coal fire again really appeals to me. The only problem I would have is the Mrs, she used to play with the fire burning wooden coat hangers.
I hope you go for it Kalipo, enjoy it m8:Clap:
 
Was brought up with coal and my parents still have their original coal fire (albeit a nice modern surround) and I love it.

I love the smell, the sound of the cracking and the roar, the heat, in fact I love it all.

Oh and it is much cheaper than gas, also the reason why they are on in the summer is because it is much cheaper keeping it slightly on to heat the water than using the emergen-heater or whatever it is called.
 
i work for an energy supplier atm..

i think off the top of my head that they get 80% of electricity from coal still...

the only reason we started to use gas over coal was because at the time it was expensive to transport coal over roads.. and as you know gas goes down a pipe..

There is at least 40 years of coal left in some pits yet they where closed down

so why havent we done anything?? like we did with coal to gas?? have we as a country just given up fighting???
 
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