Real Fire

When I moved into this house in 2007, I inserted two cast iron fireplaces back into the front and back bedrooms.  The chimneys downstairs had been bricked up, however upstairs they had been covered over with plasterboard.

Front bedroom in 07, after I'd taken out shelves and stripped he walls, you can see the plasterboard over the mouth of the fireplace.

I got given a cast iron fireplace from my mum which I placed in the front bedroom, and I bought a second hand one off ebay for the back bedroom.

The increasing cost of gas and electric has really focused my mind on getting these two fireplaces back into working order. I originally installed them as decorative features, but with these biting winters I'm convinced they should pay their way - and save me some cash.  

Last week I called out a chimney sweep to take a look at the chimneys and give me a quote to clean. While he was here I quizzed him about using the fires and if, with the current building regulation, I would be allowed to light them.  

Front bedroom fireplace as it is now.

The good news was the front room fireplace was able to be used, after some tweaking.  The sweep gave me some instructions.  I would need to backfill the space between the fireplace and the chimney back wall, with a mixture of cement and vermiculite.  I thought that would be pretty easy to do.  After that, he said, I'd need to seal the gaps of the metal surround with some fire retardant sealant - otherwise smoke would fill the room.  

The bad news was the spare-room (where my pc is) that fireplace was incomplete and would need to be replaced! he said that both chimneys were clean and had a good draft coming down so no problems there. 

Spare-room when I moved in - 07 - fireplace from ebay.

I was really gutted about not being able to get both fires working.  Next day my dad bought me a bag of vermiculite - which, if you've never seen it, is like bits of polystyrene. Vermiculite is an insulation material and keeps the heat from being lost into the chimney wall - also protects the chimney.  The bag seemed massive, but I set to work creating this mixture.  Maybe it's because I've not done any hard graft in a lot time, or maybe it was because I'd been at school all day, but I really felt exhausted by this task.  It took ten bucket loads to backfill the space and my legs were aching after going up and down the stairs 10 times with a heavy bucket.  I considered stopping, but then realised that if the concrete set then I started again the next day it would be weak and create a crack.  Needless to say there is this vermiculite stuff all  up the stairs now, so that was another job to do.. hoovering that up.  

Pressing the mixture down behind the fireplace was really difficult too. I'm sure builders must have special ways of doing it, but I just used my hand and put as much pressure as I could muster. When I woke up this morning I noticed I had a bruise on my arm from where it had been hitting the cast iron fire back. 

You can see the vermiculite and cement mix here, highlighted.

It was a really messy job, I started mixing it with a trowel, but the consistency was like a moist flapjack and the only way I could mix it was to use my hands. After a few buckets I realised the cement was reacting with my skin and the vermiculite was cutting into my fingers, so I switched to a rubber glove which was a little better. The fireplace (above)  looks like it's covered in cement but that will all brush off with some wire wool that I've got.  

Next stop is the heat resistant sealer, then I have to wait for the cement to dry before I can fire it up.  I'm hoping even having one fire will really help heat up the house.