When we bought our 1960 built house, it had a gas fire in the front
room which was removed when we had central heating put in - the
chimney was swept and pronounced good by the sweep. We decided last
week to remove the one-piece tiled surround and mantle as it was
yellowing and in any case isn't our style. What we are left with is
a fireback which pokes out slightly from the chimney breast all
round.

The tiled surround had a lintel which is lower than the top of the
hole we now have - the fireback above this point pokes out slight
less creating a ledge at the original height. The sticking out bit
of the constuctional lintel is a full brick high, while the
vertical parts of the fireback are much narrower.

Trying for a modern feel, I would like to get a stainless steel frame
made to cover the vertical edges of the fireback and the top part of
the brick lintel. A piece of smoked glass will cover the rest of the
lintel and come right down to form a practical lintel at the height
of the old tiled lintel. The piece of glass will rest of the ledge
mentioned above. and will be held in place by the steel frame.

I've put my technical drawing skills with CorelDraw to the test
again, and there are some diagrams of what I want at
http://www.wolfson.ox.ac.uk/~sjg/fireplace/ - please take a look!

It's a nice plan, now all I've got to do is execute it!

* There's a whole load of "steel fabrications" listed in the
Yellow Pages. Are these the right people to get to make the bits of
stainless steel up, and can anyone recommend one in or around
Oxford?

* Where should I go and what should I ask for to get a piece of
heat-proof, slightly tinted glass, roughly 400mm x 160mm? The
nearest glass supplier wasn't interested (or helpful - I think I
might have caught him at a bad time)

* Do I need to protect the glass from the brick and steel? In any
case I guess I need some sort of gasket of sealant between the
glass and the steel? Anything recommended?

As ever, thanks in advance for any help you can offer!
--
Selah

On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 14:10:59 +0000 (UTC), Stephen Gower
wrote:

* Where should I go and what should I ask for to get a piece of
heat-proof, slightly tinted glass, roughly 400mm x 160mm? The
nearest glass supplier wasn't interested (or helpful - I think I
might have caught him at a bad time)
Hi,

You want borosilicate glass (Pyrex) or ceramic glass (as used in
ceramic hobs), a search on somthing like the following should give a
few leads:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...te+glass+sheet
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ic+glass+sheet

such as:

http://www.skan.co.uk/heat.htm
http://www.jmoncrieff.co.uk/Sites/glassforhome.html

* Do I need to protect the glass from the brick and steel? In any
case I guess I need some sort of gasket of sealant between the
glass and the steel? Anything recommended?

There are heat resistant sealants available, a shop that sells solid
fuel stoves would know.

cheers,
Pete.

Pete C wrote:
Stephen Gower wrote:

* Where should I go and what should I ask for to get a piece of
heat-proof, slightly tinted glass, roughly 400mm x 160mm?

You want borosilicate glass (Pyrex) or ceramic glass (as used in
ceramic hobs), a search [...] should give a few leads such as:

http://www.skan.co.uk/heat.htm

I had already contacted Skan before you sent this, but thanks for
the reply! They were incredibly helpful, although I did have a 2
hour round trip since neither of us was willing to entrust the
glass to a courier.

I am now the proud owner of a piece of Robax (ceramic glass). I
just need to design the specifics of the stainless steel frame, and
my fire surround will be well on its way.
--
Selah