(Frank Z) writes:

I'm doing up a room in my Victorian terraced house.The room used to
have an open fire which was long ago blocked up and plastered over.
I'm thinking of opening it up again. The room has a central heating
radiator on another wall, so the fire isn't needed for heating - it'll
be purely for looks. However I want to add value to the property
rather than tract from it. I'm not sure how the average house-buyer
rates open fireplaces.

What is the concensus? Are open fires liked or disliked?

Personally I can see several disadvantages: draughts coming down the
chimney, ash and soot threatening to mess up the carpet, etc.

Dunno about the consensus, but we love them. I suspect the open log
fire we have in the sitting room actually cools the house (by sucking all
the expensively oil centrally heated air up the chimney) but we don't
care. There's nothing like an open fire on a cold, wet, windy day.

--
"The road to Paradise is through Intercourse."
The uk.transport FAQ; http://www.huge.org.uk/transport/FAQ.html
[email me at huge [at] huge [dot] org [dot] uk]