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DIY Fireplaces Living Rooms

Can you extend a log burner chimney flue yourself?

Alexandra Davies

last year

last modified: last year

I have an external chinmey breast for my log burner in my living room and I want to create the illusion of a chinmey breast so I can create alcoves. I've spoken to a carpenter who is happy to build me the fake chimney breast and shelves/cupboards for the alcoves but I need to find a way to move my log burner forward into the room so it's not miles back in the fireplace.

I've struggled to find anyone to do this, I have one quote currently at £500. That may well be a fair price but I wondered if this is something that is possible to be done DIY? Does anyone have any experience of this? I suspect I need an elbow adding to the flue but I'm aware it may not be that simple and might require a qualified technician for safety aspects. Just looking to gather information if anyone has experience of this.

The photos below are of my current lounge, the external chimney breast, close up of the log burner and the kind of thing I'd like to achieve.

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Comments (4)

Jo Jones
last year
Do you mean like this? We had ours done by a professional (who I can highly recommend if you’re in the Norfolk area), but it was done as part of a whole log burner replacement, chimney lining project, so I wouldn‘t know how much fitting an elbow would be on its own. I don’t think we’d have tackled this ourselves though. Ours had to be brought forward as the recess can’t be any deeper than it currently is, and there is legislation about how close to the back wall it can be I think.
Alexandra Davies
Original Author
last year
Hi Jo,

Thanks for sharing. Yes, that would be the kind of thing I would be considering. I highly suspect I can't do it myself, but even finding someone who can is proving tricky. I have one company but it would be nice to get a comparison quote.

I'm in Hampshire unfortunately otherwise I would be very interested in your contact.
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Thanks for the responses all. Yes I think we may opt for rebuilding the chimney breast and leave a larger fireplace opening so that we can put things there. Sarah - our builder suggested making a media unit but we aren't that keen on TV's too! Thanks Ed - yeah I think you are right re the cottage look. Rinq - we would have loved to remove the breast all the way to the ceiling, but it was removed 30 years ago and its not inline with regulations to do it that way now. So building control wouldn't let us disturb what remains and instead instructed us to install the gallows brackets that you see in the photo
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minnie101
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There are quite a few installers in Fareham/Gosport. i’d try a few of them for quotes

https://www.hetas.co.uk/consumer/services/installers/
Alexandra Davies
Original Author
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That’s so helpful, thank you

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