Choosing a fireplace: a buying guide

A fireplace is the one piece of furniture you cannot move, so it is worth choosing slowly. This guide works through the questions a consultation covers, in the order that saves the most time.

Start with the chimney breast. Measure its width and the height of the room before you look at designs. A surround should sit comfortably within the breast with some wall showing either side. One that runs edge to edge tends to look crammed; one that is too small looks lost.

Then the opening. The fire opening decides which fires and inserts will physically fit. Older openings are often smaller than people expect and rarely perfectly square. Most stone surrounds can be adapted, and openings can usually be altered — the survey confirms what is possible.

Choose the fuel before the surround. Gas, electric and solid fuel each have different requirements for the hearth, the flue and the clearances around the fire. A wood surround is combustible, for example, so the fire and fireplace chamber must be suitable for it. Settle the fuel first and the list of suitable surrounds gets much shorter.

Materials. Limestone and sandstone suit most homes and are a common choice in newer houses. Marble — natural or composite — is non-combustible and can be made to a smaller scale, which suits the compact chimney breasts of Victorian and Edwardian homes. Wood offers the widest choice of styles, from painted period designs to natural oak, and pairs with cast iron, marble or granite interiors.

The hearth. Solid fuel fires and stoves need a constructional hearth of a minimum size under the Building Regulations; gas and electric fires usually need less. If the existing hearth is too small it can be extended, which may change the floor level and the choice of surround.

Period or contemporary. In a period house the first question is often whether an original fireplace survives and can be kept. In a newer home there is more freedom, including hole-in-the-wall fires and media walls that need no traditional surround at all.

What to have ready for the consultation. A rough budget, a sense of how often you will use the fire, and — if you have them — photos of the room and the current fireplace. We bring the brochures and samples, measure up and look at the chimney at the same visit.