Fireplaces | Fires | Stoves | Chimneys | Gas | Electric for Self Build & Property Renovation

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The Essential Guide » Fitting Out » Fireplaces, Fires, Stoves & Chimneys

Fireplaces

These days a fireplace is not usually something we NEED to build into a new property, but more often than not, it’s still something most of us WANT to build in.

Building Regulations requirements for new building in the UK in regards to heat retention and insulation have been upgraded so much in recent years that all new buildings are now “as warm as toast”! - The days of “a brick and a block” making up the external wall construction, draughts under doors, or 4” of loft insulation are long gone!

All new buildings are now pretty much “sealed”, highly insulated, heat efficient, units, which are designed to save the planet’s resources by needing as little “imported” heating as possible.

Home heating systems now offer a plethora of choices for most people. Radiators, Underfloor heating, ground source heating, air source heating, solar, etc. - We can now set individual temperatures for each room, on each floor, or by “zones”, with accuracy of temperature to a “fraction of a degree”, and we can even “catch” the little bit of heat we do waste and re circulate it!

So why have a fireplace at all?

Because we like them! – We still like to have a focal point in a living room. We like to have something to arrange the furniture around and to give us that “cosy” feeling when we’re sitting there on a cold winters evening with a glass of wine. We like to hang the Christmas decorations up on the mantelpiece, and have a couple of family photos up there too! – It’s just what we do!

Whether they are a “sensible, efficient, practical or cost effective” addition to a new property, fireplaces are just one of those things that we as a nation, still class as important. So, when we build new homes, we fit one, - and when we renovate, we chuck the old one out, and get a new one!

Because of this obsession we have with the fireplace, they are actually still a very cost effective addition to consider in a new build or renovation, even if you never plan to use them.

If and when you come to sell your house, a nice fireplace which blends in with the overall decor will increase its value probably significantly more than its installation cost ( as long as you don’t go “over the top” with it, or install something that just doesn’t suit the property).

I don’t actually install fireplaces as standard in any of the new homes I develop, - but there would be strong argument for me doing so. - The reason I don’t, is that my houses are usually fairly large, with plenty of large rooms. My buyers could have widely differing ideas on what they do with the houses after they have bought them. What I see as a living room could eventually be a music room, or family room etc. Rooms could be decorated in any of a variety of styles, from traditional to modern. - So, if I choose a certain type of fireplace for that room, I in fact limit the choices for decoration that the buyers can make themselves once they move in. – Some of them might not even want a fireplace at all.

I have therefore made the decision that I am better leaving the decisions on fireplaces to the buyers.

What I do though, bearing in mind this “need” we all seem to have for a fireplace, is position an electrical point in a room and in a position where a fireplace would be most likely to be fitted, and if possible I always take a gas supply to the same area and “blank it off”, either behind the skirting or in the wall, so it’s ready to be easily connected if it’s needed. That way the buyer has the full range of options once they move in, gas, electricity or none (real fires are not an option without a full chimney construction).

One thing I can pretty much guarantee, is that the first question I am asked when I walk into the living room in a new house with a potential buyer, will always be: “Are you putting when they look to buy a house.

What are the choices?

When you build a new house, you start with a blank piece of paper, so you have more choices with regards to fitting some sort of fireplace. If you are renovating or converting these choices can sometimes be restricted by the existing structure (adding a new chimney can be a major and expensive project to some existing properties).

There are various different options when it comes to choosing a fire and fireplace that’s going to be right for your particular project, and literally hundreds of different products and styles available to suit all budgets. The only way to really find out what is going to be best for you is to do some research.

You will find suppliers listed near to you within this site, in the Trade Directory and possibly on this page. Go and visit at least one or two of them and see the range they offer and their prices BEFORE you finalize your designs. – If you can give them come information on your particular project they will also be able to advise you on the best options for you. Have you got gas? Do you, or are you building a chimney? If so what type of chimney is it? – Is it suitable for a “real fire”? What is your budget? Will your fire be just a centre piece for special occasions, or will it be used for heating a room? (this will influence the “heat output” requirements).

Also ask around in the Community section of the site to see what other people have used and recommend.

Real Fires:

Most people these days tend to “steer clear” of real fires as part of the main heating system for new homes or renovations, if at all possible. We are all “far too busy” to be buying, and lugging coal, then preparing and lighting a fire and tending it every half hour or so, and then cleaning it out. Also the thought of waking up to a cold house and having to light the fire is NOT a particularly pleasant one for most people these days!

There is also the fact that real fires need a supply of air to enable them to burn, which means that you need to install a constant supply of air from the outside of the building in the room where the fire is situated. It should be remembered that where air can come in to a room, heat can go out!

However, Real fires ARE still built into many new developments, either as an “Architectural feature” to give a desired “feel” to a room, or where the thought of having a roaring fire in the hearth, over Christmas when the family are all staying, is a nice idea.

To have a “real fire”, whether or not you intend to use it, you will also need to have a “real chimney” to go with it. Built to comply with “Building Regulations”, and passed by “Building Control”. – You can’t say to the Building Inspector: “We don’t need a chimney because we’ll hardly be using it, - it’s just for show”! – Unfortunately that doesn’t wash! If you want a real fire you NEED a real chimney!

(Remember that chimneys, just like the ventilation source also allow heat to escape from a room).

- So, before you finalize your plans, bear in mind that chimneys can be an expensive “appendage” to your house, and if you have no intention of ever using the fire, you may be better thinking about one of the options which don’t need chimneys (see later).

Chimneys and House Design

Some people think that they need a chimney to “finish off the design” of the house, - and so they design a nice chunky one into the plans. That’s great. - They can look really nice, and some of the chimneys on some of the “traditional” style new build houses are real “eye catchers”, and can add significantly to the value of the property.

BUT: Don’t think that you HAVE to have a chimney to make a house design look nice. There are many other ways to “create interest” and “pretty up” a house design.

Think about this: When you design a house, on the drawing, you see the whole of the front of the house, including the chimney on the side (if that’s where it is). Because of the size of the drawing, you can see the whole of the front elevation, and therefore that’s just how it appears.

The flat image on a drawing shows everything that is visible on that particular elevation. However, if you go and stand in the middle at the front of any reasonable sized house, you won’t be able to see “down the sides”, and you usually won’t be able to see the bottom of the chimney stack if that is where it is located. - Especially if there is a fence or landscaping at the front near to the sides of the house. All you will often see is the 2ft of chimney stack sticking out above the roof line. – In other words, the money you may have spent on creating this lovely “Architectural feature chimney”, which looked really nice on the drawing, is often pretty much wasted due to the fact that on the finished job, it’s either only seen as you pass an area of about 10’ of the footpath when you walk past the house, or is only seen by anyone walking down the side of the house to the box you keep your garden furniture in! – So, you may end up easily paying out a couple of thousand pounds or more on a chimney stack which has not really given you nearly enough “bang for your buck” and which could have been far better spent in other areas of the house.

Also, just as, if not more important is the effect the chimney can on the internal design of the house:

If you have a fairly narrow plot, and you want to make the most of it, a chimney stack is not a good idea. A basic chimney stack will extend the overall width of the structure of the property by at least a couple of ft (say 600mm), and as much as 4ft (1.2m).

If you have a plot width of, say 15 metres and you want to be able to maximise the internal space in the house, you need to make the most of as much use of the 15 metres width as possible.

If you have a path down each side of the house ( which most buildings do), this will reduce the usable width to around 12m, which is just about a reasonable width to get a decent sized 4 bed house onto (2 x 4m rooms, 1 x 3m hallway, plus 2 x 350mm external walls, plus 2 x 100mm internal walls).

Now, if, on one side of the house you decide to build a chimney stack (for a fireplace you may never use), you will reduce the maximum 12m width by maybe on average, 750mm. This will directly affect the amount of usable floor space inside the building.

If the property is going to be (say) 10m deep, then that 750mm of chimney stack actually has the effect of reducing the total internal ground floor area by 7.5m sq, and if you have a first floor, it does the same there, giving a possible reduction of 15sq m (163 sq ft) in your total floor area.

163 sq ft gives you at 10’ x 8’ family room or office and a 10’ x 8’ extra bedroom.

So, that chimney has in fact cost you a heck of a lot more than the extra costs of the bricks, the fireplace and the flue liners, its possibly cost you upwards of £20,000 in the finished value of the house!

Ok, what if we put the chimney “inside” the house and make a feature of it in the living room, so that we don’t take up part of the width of the plot?

Well, that’s another option, and again, if you have the “room” to play with, in the right place, those “grand” internal fireplaces can be fantastic and add substantially to the value and the sellability of the property. However, if you are thinking about creating a 3’ wide fireplace feature in your 12’ wide living room, I would give the idea a “good dose” of second thought!! – You are at risk of not only spoiling your main living room, but also actually REDUCING the value of your property. – If you can’t get a good big settee in the room, or if you can’t see the TV from part of the room because the chimney is in the way, then the design and the use of that room is going to be severely restricted. – This will not only annoy you when you move in, but it will also be very off putting to future buyers (also remember that the chimney will go up through the first floor and affect the floor area in the room above the living room).

A small “feature fireplace” can work inside in smaller properties with smaller rooms. - You don’t need a “huge great” wide chimney stack to conform to building regs. - All you need are flue liners from around 7” (175mm) diameter, plus a brickwork / blockwork surround for fireproofing, giving a total minimum width of the stack of around 18” – 20” (450 – 500mm).

With an average standard wall construction width of around 12” (300mm), that means that you could actually get away with an internally visible chimney stack of from just 6” – 8” (and upwards), which most rooms could cope with without too much problem.

So, the moral of this story is:

If you want a real fire, that’s fine. But weigh up the benefits versus the costs before you go drawing a huge chunky chimney stack on your drawings! – Especially as there are so many other options that can give you the “centre piece” effect, which is all that many people are looking for from a real fire.

Other options:

Open Gas Fires

Of all the available options, given a free choice and with all things being equal, I would probably tend to opt for a gas fire as my first choice (having said that, my last Self Build was fitted with an electric fire – see pics in “electric fires” section below).

A Gas fire can give pretty much the same effect as a real fire, which is what a lot of us are after. There is no cleaning, it can usually give off enough heat to sufficiently warm a large room up, or if set on “low”, just be used as a visual feature of a room to make it a feel a bit more cosy. Running costs are reasonable, and there are hundreds of styles available to suit most people’s tastes and room styles. There is also the fact that they are pretty easy to fit and there is usually very low maintenance.

On the down side, you need to have a flue for the gases to escape and you also need to have sufficient ventilation in the room to provide oxygen for the fire (this means putting a “hole” somewhere in your living room to allow the air to enter. – However, just as it allows the air to enter, it also allows the heat to escape!). The flu doesn’t have to be the “full chimney stack” that you need for a real fire. It can be, but it can also be made of a metal tube which runs in the same way as a standard chimney stack, up through the house and vents out of the top of the roof with a gas terminal. This second option is less obtrusive than a standard chimney and a lot easier and cheaper to design into a plan and construct.

Electric Fires

Although I said that gas fires would be my first choice for a fire, given a “level playing field”, I have no problem at all with electric fires.

Just as with gas, there is a vast choice available, they are easy to install, low maintenance, reasonably priced, and can warm a medium sized room quite satisfactorily.

The main plus with an electric fire is that you don’t need a purpose built flue, so you don’t need a chimney, and you don’t need to provide extra ventilation. This can not only save you costs in the construction of the building, it also means that you don’t have to have that “hole” in your living room which as well as letting air in, is going to let your heat out!

Electric fires can also be very slim in design and can therefore fit in places where a gas fire would not be suitable.

If you are considering installing an electric fire, you just need to make sure that your electricity supply can cope with its power output. Some small fires can run on a 3 amp plug, but these won’t normally be suitable to provide any real heating for anything more than a small box room. If you install an electric fire you will normally find that is has a 13 amp plug and therefore you will need at least a 13 amp supply. Larger fires may need more than this. Check with your supplier and your electrician

As I mentioned in the last section, I chose an electric fire for my last Self Build project. The images below show the installation and the final look of the room.

For this particular location I opted for electric rather than gas for a few reasons. The building was a very simple rectangular shape, dormer style. I didn’t want to start to “complicate” the appearance by adding bits and pieces, including a chimney. I didn’t even want a chunky balanced flue (see later) sticking out of the wall in the location where the fire was to be positioned. – Outside is a road, very close, and the balanced flue would have detracted

from the simple pleasant appearance of that external wall.

I also liked this style of fire. The house has underfloor heating, so doesn’t need the fire to provide heat, except if we were to come in after being away for a couple of days and had turned the heating off to save energy. This fire had sufficient output to quickly take the chill off the room whilst the underfloor heating “kicked in”. It also blended in nicely
with the overall “feel” of how I wanted the room to be. – Simple, clean, modern, not “over the top”, but giving the appearance of quality.

Pretty much everyone who visited the house made the “wow” sound when they first entered that room! – Which is exactly what you want if and when you come to sell the house!

Balanced Flue Gas Fires

Another option which is not as widely used in new build, but is more popular in renovation, is a balanced flue fire.

Where an open fire takes the oxygen from the room to feed the fire, a balanced flue draws this air in from the outside of the building through its own system, and then sends the fumes out the same way. It does not rely on an air supply from within the room, and therefore is not wasting your heat from within the room by allowing it to constantly escape.

You do need a flue (hence the name of the system), but it’s a much simpler affair and easier and cheaper to install than a full chimney.

A balanced flue runs from behind the fire itself, and can either go directly through the wall horizontally to an air “intake” and “extract” point which will be covered by a metal cage to protect anyone passing from touching what can be very hot surfaces.

Alternatively, it can run up vertically through the roof where the air is taken in and extracted via a “cowling” on the roof.

The maximum horizontal distance a balanced flue can run is 4m, so this may give the option of having the fire on an internal wall rather than an external wall. The maximum vertical run is 10m, which should cope with up to a three storey house as long as the slope of the roof is not too steep.

The downside of the balanced flue system is that in order for the fire to be sealed from the room (so that it doesn’t take the oxygen from within the room), it needs to have a glass front between the flame and the room. – Some people find this to be off putting as it takes some of the “open” “natural” feel away from the fire. This is the reason that balanced flue fires tend to be more popular in renovations than in new build. To build a chimney onto an existing house can be a major project. So, a second cheaper and much easier option will be to install a balanced flue fire.

Wood Burning / Solid Fuel / Fusion Pellet Stoves (etc)

A popular addition to many Self Build projects and some renovation projects are “Wood Burning”, Solid Fuel” or Fusion Pellet Stoves.

As a nation we are becoming more aware of the need to use more “renewable” and “sustainable” energy.

There is now a growing range of appliances which have been designed to help us to provide heat, and look good, whilst helping to reduce our carbon emissions and use fuels which are renewable or sustainable.

With a stove that burns wood, solid fuel, bio mass fuels or anything similar, the thinking goes along the lines that “Using a wood burning stove offers a carbon neutral and sustainable heat source – growing trees take in carbon dioxide. If these trees are then burnt, the carbon dioxide is released, so the process is roughly carbon neutral. – The fuel is also from a renewable source, which makes a far better package from an “ecological” point of view.

There is a section later in the guide covering all the fuels options, but for this section we are just looking at the types of fires and the basics of how they work.

You will often find these stoves built into the larger “feature fireplaces” and as part of a large chimney structure. Their appearance the way they work.

Some stoves are built to run on single fuels, and some on multi fuels.

Similar to “real” and “gas” fires, these stove will need an air supply within the room and they need to be vented vertically (see photo). The visible part of the flues are often made of the same materials as the stove (often cast iron), they then change to a steel liner (which is not as cosmetically appealing as the black “cast” flue), to take the fumes up to vent through the roof.

You will usually need to take advice from your supplier and fitter as to how the stove will integrate with your building plans and ideas. Although you don’t need a full chimney, the flue will still need space to rise up through the building and the roof.

You can get more information on the Building Regulations aspects of fitting one of these types of appliances from the individual manufacturers (all stoves tend to have their own idiosyncrasies) and by looking at “Building Regulations Approved Document J, Section 2, Table 2.1 "Air Supply to a solid fuel appliance".

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