Inspiration Birmingham 2020

The original plan was to remove the chimney breasts from both reception rooms to free up valuable living space (and to replace that lost due to the dry lining). However, during the design stage of the project, the tenants expressed a wish to retain some kind of focal point in the main living room such as a gas fire. We therefore decided, with agreement from the tenants, to retain the chimney breast and replace the inefficient open front gas fire with a small wood burning stove.

The preparation work required for this was relatively straightforward. The main construction work involved opening up the existing chimney to meet the dimensions required to accommodate the new stove. The original hearth had been removed so a new one had to be built out of slate. To reduce heat losses the chimney breast and the back of the new opening were dry lined with Kingspan K17 thermal board.

The wood burning stove was supplied and fitted by local specialist company Hagley Stoves. From the tenants perspective it was important that the stove specified was easy to operate and maintain. We also wanted to keep the heat output on the low side to minimise over heating problems. The appliances also had to be an exempt appliance as the property is in a smoke control zone. Hagley Stoves recommended a Handol 52 cast iron stove manufactured by NIBE based in Sweden. The stove has a heat output of between 3kW - 7kW and operates with a burn efficiency of 79%.