Feeding advice for bantams (one broody, one moulting)

[Tina C]

We are considering opening up an old fireplace but not sure we can stand the expense and the mess. So I have been looking at gel fires and wondered if anyone had any comments - good or bad?

 

The chimney is currently being used to vent the boiler (which we are moving) and I suspect it will need a new liner so it won't be cheap to open it up.

 

To me there is nothing like a real fire - in both of my previous 2 houses I had a fireplace in one room and put a wood burner in another - and I miss them.

 

But they were cosy Victorian homes whereas this is a 50s house with a big lounge - and the original parquet floor - and will suit something more 'modern'.

 

This is the sort of thing I am looking at

 

http://www.gelfireplaces.com/fireflame_crescent.html

[Cate in NZ]

I had that exact one in my old house........the smooth one, not the one with the handle.

 

With one canister lit it looked pretty and cosy, but it did nothing really by way of heating the room in my opinion. When we lit all 3 canisters it really did give off some amazing heat, but I found that it made the room stuffy and I got quite headachey with the fumes when they were all lit. We did have a vent but maybe our venting arrangement wasn't good enough

 

TBH I wasn't overly impressed, we paid considerably less than the current advertised price, but it was still very expensive and really for us it ended up being little more than a decorative feature. It was easy to clean and maintain though, and we never ended up having to buy more gel fuel than came with the original purchase as we used it so infrequently.

 

We wanted to sell the darned thing on ebay before we moved, but hubby had stuck it on the wall so very securely that I couldn't remove it and darling son tried very hard for me too......so much so that I had visions of him pulling down the boarding that covered over the old fireplace. So the new owners got an unexpected gift

[Tina C]

Thanks Kate - I think that says all I need to know

 

I can't believe your big adventure is so close now.

[MadMitch]

You can get something similar in a wood burning version and some quite contemporary stoves now. We were looking at some in a shop the other day. They don't have a website but they were similar to these: -

 

http://www.stovesonline.co.uk/wood_burning_stoves/Inset-Stoves.html

[Louise]

Get your chimney assessed before you buy anything

 

I have an old sealed fireplace in my dining room and have a victorian surround which eventually I want to put in there but my sweep says based on my other chimney he doubts I would get planning permission to actually use it for a fire yes I could install the surround but not actually light it due to planning regs and fire regs

[Tina C]

Yes its not easy to reinstate a fireplace these days - I think its all subject to building regs. That is why we were looking at alternatives.

 

We have a friendly fireplace man and we are going to quiz him a bit more on what we might need to do before we actually make our final decision on whether to go for it.

 

TBH we have so much to do on the house the fireplace is seeming more and more like too much of a luxury.