"shaz" wrote
| Our house presently has a Parkray solid fuel room heater, which
| stands on a marble hearth (which comes out from chimney breast
| and only has the front part of the fire visiable (surrounded by
| a stone "makeshift" fireplace and the hole above has been boxed
| in with plaster board.
| We have bought a free standing parkray chevin(solid fuel) and i
| am wanting to open up the chimney breast, move the room heater
| backwards(so it stands within the hole and be able to see part
| of the flue)...and use the existing backboiler if possible

I don't know the Parkray Chevin but I am acquainted with the Parkray room
heater + back boilers. AFAIK they are designed and built as one unit and it
will not be possible to remove the room heater front from the back boiler.
It would almost certainly not be possible to use a free standing stove in
front of and in conjunction with the back boiler.

| My questions are....
| 1) Is it a huge job?

I think your proposal is impossible.

| 2) where are back boilers situated? ( how big are they? will it need to
| be moved? will it be visable)

Behind and part of the room heater. Remove the room heater cosmetic front
and it's basically the assembled lumps of cast iron behind.

| 3) where can i find any building regulations?(ie materials needed, does
| work need to be checked?)

Building Regs are on www.odpm.gov.uk for England and Wales. I think Part L
(fuel and power) will apply which means that, unless you are a tradesman
recognised by a self-certification scheme, you will have to submit plans to
Building Control at the council.

| 4) could the old fire still be used whilst the work is being carried
| out?(its our only source of heating)

See 1.

| 5) if the job is very complicated and we need to have professional
| help....who do we need? builder? heating engineer?...any ideas on cost?

You need a solid fuel heating engineer. Your usual chimney sweep will know
of one if you don't. If you don't have a usual chimney sweep, stop now.

| We are on a tight budget!!!!... we are willing to do any work we
| can(thats not too complicated/risky)ourselves...but we need pointing in
| the right direction.
| Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Bear in mind that if you get it wrong with a solid fuel heating
installation, you run the risk of:
- structural failure of the chimney exacerbated by heat
- fire
- carbon monoxide poisoning

Owain