cost/complexity removing stove and fireplace?

s7ryf3925pivug

There is a stove in a fireplace in our kitchen which we don't use and gets in the way. We would like to remove it, qnd install a hole in wall style gas fire higher up in the wall. How complex a task is this to do properly and how expensive would it be?

We might like to install the stove on the other side of the wall in the sitting room. Could it share the chimney stack with the flue from the gas fire?

It's a single storey house.

antiskeptic

Cristiano Low Talker wrote: »

There is a stove in a fireplace in our kitchen which we don't use and gets in the way. We would like to remove it, qnd install a hole in wall style gas fire higher up in the wall. How complex a task is this to do properly and how expensive would it be?

We might like to install the stove on the other side of the wall in the sitting room. Could it share the chimney stack with the flue from the gas fire?

It's a single storey house.

It depends on how your chimney is constructed. Often times, the chimney stack is a rectangular box made of brick/block with opening at ground level. The flue consists of cylindrical sections (perhaps 2 feet long each) stacked on top of one another up the middle of the box. The space inbetween flue and rectangular box is filled with rubble/mortar.

In that event, cutting a hole higher up isn't a big problem - you're just shifting the opening higher up a uniform box.

But your chimney could also be mass concrete (solid throughout with just a cylindrical shaped hole up the middle. You can imagine the difficulty gouging out a new opening in that

I don't imagine you can use two fires on one flue. The flue is designed to draw the right amount of air up for a single fire. Add another opening on the other side and you would be dividing the draw - resulting in insufficient draw for either fire.

No gas engineer (and you'll need a registered gas installer for the gas fire) would countenance that.

Costs? You'll need to get someone out to have a look at the chimney construction, how far gas is away, whether concrete floors have to be cut to lay pipe etc.

s7ryf3925pivug

antiskeptic wrote: »

It depends on how your chimney is constructed. Often times, the chimney stack is a rectangular box made of brick/block with opening at ground level. The flue consists of cylindrical sections (perhaps 2 feet long each) stacked on top of one another up the middle of the box. The space inbetween flue and rectangular box is filled with rubble/mortar.

In that event, cutting a hole higher up isn't a big problem - you're just shifting the opening higher up a uniform box.

But your chimney could also be mass concrete (solid throughout with just a cylindrical shaped hole up the middle. You can imagine the difficulty gouging out a new opening in that

I don't imagine you can use two fires on one flue. The flue is designed to draw the right amount of air up for a single fire. Add another opening on the other side and you would be dividing the draw - resulting in insufficient draw for either fire.

No gas engineer (and you'll need a registered gas installer for the gas fire) would countenance that.

Costs? You'll need to get someone out to have a look at the chimney construction, how far gas is away, whether concrete floors have to be cut to lay pipe etc.

really helpful, thanks

s7ryf3925pivug

looking at it more, I think removing the fireplace frony and replacing the multifuel stove with an inset wood burning stove might be a better option.

[There is a gas boiler in the same room, but it is the other side of the room so I reckon gas pipeline would need to be installed under the concrete floor to go with the gas fire idea. ]

So now my question is - Do I need a builder to remove the fireplace front? - or would I be able to do it myself without significant risk of causing structural damage. Not bothered about trying to preserve the fireplace front itself. Would get a plasterer either way.