Moved house a few months back and two of the downstairs rooms have holes in the wall for gas fires. One of them is already up and running, the other one is literally a hole in the wall.

Does anyone have any idea what it's likely to cost to get it into working order? I'm told a lot. Is a few hundred quid a bit ambitious? There is a gas supply and valve, just needs the fire itself and the area preparing I think.

Also, how would I go about finding someone? Obviously can buy a fireplace but will need somebody to do all the work for me.

Thanjs for any thoughts.

I'm becoming a bit handier with things around the house now, but a fireplace is pretty complicated/specialist job with the gas work and making sure the flue fits all the requirements. Best bet would be to shop around two or three local fireplace shops and get quotes. At least that way you'll get a rough idea of costs and what is required.

The only thing I know about fireplaces comes from when we bought our first house. We got the Gas board in to service the fire in the lounge a few days after we'd moved in. The engineer was totally as the fire wasn't actually connected to the flue (sp). How the previous owners hadn't killed themselves with the fumes coming back into the room he just didn't know.

Anyway, a flue needs to be 5 inches in diameter. It used to be 3, but the regulations changed a few years ago.

Can't help any more than that.

We used a specialist salvage yard for a reclaimed insert and got that refurbed by the same place.

We had a surround made in keeping with the house, same place

Got a separate gas fitting man in, who also fitted the fireplace.

Is that in any way helpful!

edit and needed chimney inspected and cleaned as it was not used previously (we uncovered it)

When we had ours done a few years back the guy designing/building the fire for us had to get one of his mates to do the gas connection etc as they have to be registered/approved etc.

Talking of gassing yourselves... we keep a piece of cardboard above ours which blocks the chimney to stop crap falling down onto our new fire! We rarely use the fire which is both a good thing and an excuse for our continually forgetting to remove the cardboard when we do light the fire.

And don't forget to fit a CO detector/alarm.

As I've recently done something similar, this one seems to be the best I could find.

Kidde Nighthawk 900-0146

About £20

You WILL need a CORGI registered engineer to do the gas "work"

I know you've asked about gas fires but we've just had a solid fuel fire installed. We spent quite a while shopping around for the parts, we were originally quoted £2000 - £2500 for a shop to supply and do everything.

Anyway to break it down:
We got a refurbished jetmaster off ebay for £250 (rrp £800!)
We used a place called Stafford Stoneworks to make us a bespoke fireplace and hearth. Also found them on ebay. The stone came to about £250 and with delivery it was £340.
Finally we found a local guy to fit it and install a vent in the wall (to meet new building regs). He was £500. I'd recommend him to anyone else in the Berkshire area looking for similar work.

So we managed to get it for just over a grand.