Nine fireplaces, one remarkable restoration

The living room sets the tone for the whole project. The chimney breast opening was closed down and re-plastered so the new fireplace would frame the chamber cleanly, and the limestone hearth was made to measure and shaped on site to sit perfectly within the room.

The finished fireplace is the one you see at the top of this page: a made to measure Clarence limestone surround with a Dik Geurts Instyle glass fronted fire at its heart, designed from our own drawings for this exact chimney breast.

The dining room fireplace is a Province limestone surround finished in natural Scala limestone throughout: the hearth, the chamber base, the chamber itself and the border slips all cut from the same stone, with 65mm of the slips showing around the opening. The Stovax Vogue Tall stove sits above its own log store.

The hearth tells the story of how this project evolved on site. An antique leather granite hearth was originally delivered, then swapped for natural Scala limestone as the design of the room developed, remade just 20mm thick so it could be recessed completely flush with the original floorboards. It is a small detail that makes the whole fireplace feel original to the room.

Upstairs in the dressing room, the sub hearth was reinstated and levelled, a tiled hearth laid, and a Stovax Stockton 5 Wide Eco multi fuel stove installed within the restored brick chamber. Look closely and you will see the opening sits noticeably off centre, with 660mm of chimney breast on one side and just 160mm on the other.

In many older properties, you may notice that the fireplace opening in an upstairs room appears to be off-centre. This is perfectly normal and is usually the result of the way traditional chimneys were originally constructed.

In many cases, the flue serving the fireplace below runs up one side of the masonry chimney breast, meaning the upstairs flue cannot be positioned centrally. During modern renovations, the original fireplace opening is often widened to accommodate a wood-burning stove, making the off-centre position of the flue even more noticeable than it would have been when the fireplace was originally built.

At Carl Finnell, we take these structural characteristics into account when designing a new fireplace. By carefully selecting the size of the stove, chamber proportions, hearth and surround, we can create a beautifully balanced installation that works sympathetically with the original construction while retaining the character of the property.

The existing timber surround in the master bedroom was beyond saving, so we supplied and installed a made to measure Caldercott style fireplace with 65mm border slips in its place, with a Dovre 425 multi fuel stove in a white finish at its centre. The surround sits partly on the tiled floor and partly on the timber boards, with the legs shaped on site so everything finishes flush and level.

Every chimney within this property was already serving another wood-burning stove or open fireplace, meaning it was not possible to connect the new appliance into the existing masonry flue without affecting the other fireplaces. As breaking into the shared flue would be against Building Regulations, we designed and installed a powder-coated black insulated stainless steel twin wall flue system, providing the stove with its own dedicated flue.

The stove was carefully positioned to allow the flue system to rise vertically before running neatly alongside the existing external chimney stack. This approach provided a safe, fully insulated and Building Regulations-compliant installation while preserving the integrity of the original chimney and allowing every fireplace within the home to continue operating independently.

The finished installation blends sympathetically with the character of the property, providing the performance and efficiency of a modern flue system while minimising its visual impact on this beautifully restored North Yorkshire home.