Fireplace size

[pudzer]

New build - chimney is just being built and I want a fairly large fireplace. My blocklayer is making it 21" which looks smaller than what I want.

Are there standard widths for the opening fires? I have searched but there seems to be a multitude of sizes out there. I would like a larger than normal - but still standard - size, iykwim.

Btw, the one in current house is 16".

Thanks, Pudzer

 

[Hurling Fan]

When we were building our house one of the best bit of advice I got was if I wanted to put in a large fireplace to get it right and this needs to be done early when the internal walls are going up. The idea is that its easier to make a big opening smaller but a real pain to make a small opening bigger if you get my drift. What I did was was to go to my local fireplace shop (Hardings in Gowran in Kilkenny) and they were so helpful and gave me a drawing. Not sure if I remember correctly but I think the opening was 39" square. Now that the fireplace is in the opening is 28" across and 24" high. For example, if you want to put a brick back in that's another few inches off the original opening all round.

The other important think is that the chimney is done correctly with a large fireplace so that smoke actually goes up the chimney and not out into the room. Our chimney gets narrower as it goes up (so it draws the smoke up). All this information was on the drawing we got from Hardings. Sure your local fireplace people will do the same... No connection to Hardings but because they were so helpful at that early stage I did go back and buy the fireplace there. By the way, my builder did a bit of looking at me too when I produced the drawing but he did it. Hope this helps.