Fireplace Installation near you

Installing a fire is building work, and in England and Wales there are two lawful routes to compliance. You can apply to a building control body, which GOV.UK describes as either your local authority's building control department or a private registered building control approver, or you can use an installer registered with a competent person scheme, in which case you do not have to apply at all. GOV.UK's description of that second route is worth knowing in detail: a registered installer self-certifies that the work complies, tells your local authority about it on your behalf where that is needed, and gives you a certificate within eight weeks of completion which can be used as evidence of compliance and which shows up in solicitors' searches when you come to sell.

The scheme depends on the fuel. GOV.UK's list of authorised schemes puts gas combustion appliances with Gas Safe Register, and solid fuel including biomass with APHC, BESCA, Certsure, HETAS, NAPIT and OFTEC, with the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government responsible for authorising schemes and installers having to demonstrate that they meet the relevant minimum technical competence requirements. GOV.UK notes that Gas Safe Register is not technically a competent person scheme, but that in practice its installers carry the same responsibilities for complying with building regulations, and Approved Document J makes the same point from the other direction: work need not be notified to building control bodies if it solely comprises the installation of a gas appliance carried out by a member of the class of persons approved by the Health and Safety Executive.

Planning permission is a separate question that usually only arises over a new flue. The Planning Portal's position for houses is that fitting, altering or replacing an external flue or chimney is normally permitted development, with flues on the rear or side elevation allowed to a maximum of one metre above the highest part of the roof, and with the advice that in a designated area the flue should not be fitted on the principal or side elevation fronting a highway, and that listed buildings and designated areas should be checked with the local planning authority first. Listed building consent is a harder edge: national planning practice guidance states that undertaking works to a listed building which would affect its character as a building of special historic or architectural interest without first obtaining consent is a criminal offence under section 9 of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

The flue decides the job, so an honest installer starts there rather than in the showroom. Approved Document J is explicit that where it is proposed to bring a flue in an existing chimney back into use, or to re-use a flue with a different type or rating of appliance, the flue and the chimney should be checked and, if necessary, altered so that they satisfy the requirements for the proposed use. Its Appendix E describes how: sweep the flue first, noting that tar deposits caused by burning wood may be especially hard to dislodge and that the debris coming down should be examined for quantities of lining or brick that signal further repairs; inspect the accessible parts visually; check the flue is free from restriction, by a coring ball test where a visual check cannot see the full length; and carry out a smoke test to check its operation and gas-tightness.

Then comes the building work the appliance sits in. Lining or relining a flue may itself be building work, and Approved Document J's guidance for solid fuel is that a constructional hearth should be solid non-combustible material such as concrete or masonry at least 125mm thick including any non-combustible floor or decorative surface, with combustible material kept from beneath it unless there is an air space of at least 50mm or the material is at least 250mm below the top of the hearth. Gas appliances follow a different rule: they should stand on hearths unless every part of any flame or incandescent material will be at least 225mm above the floor, or the manufacturer's instructions state that no hearth is required, and where a hearth is needed it should have at least a top layer of non-combustible, non-friable material not less than 12mm thick with its edges marked so that carpet is not laid too close.

A carbon monoxide alarm and the paperwork finish it. Approved Document J asks for an alarm in the room where a new or replacement fixed solid fuel, gas or oil appliance is installed, gas appliances used solely for cooking excepted, complying with BS EN 50291-1:2018, sited on the ceiling at least 300mm from any wall or high on a wall but not within 150mm of the ceiling, and between one and three metres horizontally from the appliance, with the reminder that an alarm is not a substitute for correct installation and regular servicing. Requirement J5 then calls for a durable notice plate recording the location of the hearth or fireplace, the category of the flue and the generic appliance types it can safely take, the type and size of the flue or its liner and the manufacturer's name, and the installation date, fixed somewhere unobtrusive but obvious such as next to the consumer unit, the chimney or hearth, or the water stop-cock. Approved Document J also expects a permanent means of safe access to the appliance for maintenance.

Where you live can settle the specification. GOV.UK's rules for smoke control areas, which cover many parts of the UK, are that you cannot release smoke from a chimney and that you may only burn authorised fuel unless you use an appliance approved by Defra, also called an exempt appliance. The authorised smokeless fuels named are anthracite, semi-anthracite, gas and low volatile steam coal, and unauthorised fuels such as wood may only be burned in exempt appliances, which include some boilers, cookers and stoves, using only the fuels the manufacturer says the appliance can take. In England the penalty for a chimney releasing smoke in a smoke control area can be up to three hundred pounds, and buying unauthorised fuel to use in an appliance that is not Defra approved can bring a fine of up to a thousand pounds. Your local council's environmental services department will tell you whether your address is in one.

That is why the exemption matters at the point of purchase rather than afterwards. Defra's exemption process exists to show that fuel-burning appliances such as stoves, ovens and boilers emit smoke below acceptable limits, and the published list of exempt appliances also shows which unauthorised fuels each one is allowed to burn. If you want to burn wood in a smoke control area, the appliance has to be on that list, and the shortlist you take to an installer should be drawn from it before anything is ordered. Outside a smoke control area the choice is wider, but the same appliance will still be cleaner and more efficient than an open fire.