If you were buying a house, in the lounge would you prefer a fire or not?

I am renovating my house with a view to sell it soon. The old fireplace was a massive monstrosity and has been ripped out to give us loads more floor space.

I plan to box in the hole and put the tv on the wall as it's the cheapest option and is how I would want things, much like this kind of thing:



But the other option is to put a fireplace on the wall. The disadvantage of doing that, besides the cost, is that you risk putting in something that a potential buyer dislikes (not that it would be a deal breaker).

The house is a 1960's semi, but is modern inside everywhere else, so the options for a fireplace would be something traditional or something modern.

Let me know which you would prefer to give me an idea what to do please

 

Cant you leave it for now? then once someone puts an offer in give them the chance to decide what they want?

 

I am just taking my fireplace out dislike them.

Mark

 

id put a modern one in.

 

i guess it depends on the buyer to be honest - if i were looking to buy your gaff, i'd love to see that little lot in there instead of a fireplace !!

 

too much hassle. better to have the room finished and well presented imo. but thanks for considering other ideas

i obviously won't be leaving my telly on the wall for the buyer. the hole i am planning will be larger than the one shown and more in proportion with the width of the chimney breast. and it'll be a simple hole with a shelf for satellite box and PS near the top, with quite a tall space underneath with downlighters for fancy womens things.

 

Theres nothing better than keeping a real fire going to warm up the house. Its fantastic!

 

There is something very homely about a nice fireplace. Not something big and dominating, something small and practical. They could always remove it if they didn't like it.

You want to show the house as being a home, not merely somewhere for a TV and games console. I believe a fireplace makes a house a home.

Tim

 

ive recently done away with my gas fire and replaced it with a new electric fire, looks spot on, can have the real coal effect without the mess and hassle,100% efficient and with gas prices as they are not to bad on your fuel bill. heard a lot of folk are switching to these new electric fires as people have modern day central heating and underfloor heating. the only people in this day i see using a gas fire are pensioners who sit in their house all day and have it on to keep them and their cat warm.

 

Its a mistake to remove it IMO if you have one one on the resale of the house

It would put me off if the room was smart and didnt need decorating but had to be knocked about to fit a new fireplace/fire

If it was a house where i'd be decorating the room anyway then i wouldnt care

 

a nice fireplace makes the room imo

 

Take it out, there horrible things.

 

Would something like this be any use for you?

http://www.gelfireplaces.com/

 

Don't do the TV option IMO. It may look good, but will restrict movement of sofa's, etc as they will need to face the TV. It's ok for yourself, but buyers may not like it.

Put a new fireplace in or leave it empty would be best IMO.

 

I wouldn't buy a house where there was an 'enforced' location for a TV. Would much much rather have a nice fireplace any day.

But it depends on what market you're aiming to sell the house too? Is it a small bachelor pad, a grand family home, or a modest first house? As for each of those there is a different 'correct' solution.

 

I cant see your picture as I'm at work, but it all depends on the style of house. If its an old house then yes I would have a fire, if its a modern house then probably not.

If you do decide to remove it, then leave any electrical / gas fittings there in case the new owner wants to fit one.

Then again, if the house has a decent central heating system, then I would just rip it out all together.

 

I like a fire but then I have no heating so its a must.
However, if I were buying a modern house i'd say no. Leave it out. They're filthy disgusting things at the end of the day.
Yeah its romantic and 'homely' but its also a lot of hassle.

 

As I expected, varied opinion on this, for which I thank you all for your input

I wouldn't say that it enforces the position of the tv at all, just gives an easy option. And tbh it's the best option due to positions of doors, windows, shape of room etc.

The boxed hole is the cheapest option, and we can also make clear to potential buyers that there is a proper chimney behind it should they so wish to have a fire there which would only involve knocking out a few bits of plasterboard.

The target market for the house is both professional sharers (as there are 2 evenly sized bedrooms and plenty of parking) and young families as it's a village location with a good primary school.

So far, the votes for with a fireplace of one kind or another are higher than without. That surprises me as I didn't imagine that anyone would use a fireplace anymore with central heating and would prefer the extra space that having the tv and associated set top boxes (most people have a games console or dvd player or whatever don't they?) in there out of the way gives.

The gel fireplaces are kind of interesting, but it's just as easy to put a gas or electric one in at this stage for a similar cost.

Would it be ridiculous to have a boxed hole at the bottom, and then a nice modern wall mounted fire (for visual effect, not really for heat), and then the tv above that? I guess you only have a fire on for cosyness with guests or romantic times and not on at the same time as a tv?

Why not just put on a fireplace dvd when buyers come to view?

 

i wouldnt have a fireplace. i have a hand made hardwood fireplace and matching cabinets in storage as i made them in 1994 and theyre just to old fashioned to use nowadays.

 

I love traditional fireplaces, so that got my vote. Would depend on the rest of the house though.

 

I also think that a fireplace is the focal point of a room, makes a house look " homely"

Wouldnt personally remove it, lots of people like to use their fire as a ornament with the lights etc on

 

i'm really surprised at the results. i thought that hardly anybody would be interested in a fireplace these days. i guess i was wrong and will have to reconsider my plan.

 

If I was still in the UK, I would definitely prefer a fireplace

 

When we moved in to our house i hated the fireplace and chimney breast. It was 6ft wide and 3ft 6" deep! So had the lot removed giving us a shitload more room in our living room and bedroom.

I do like modern designer hung gas and electric fires but we didnt bother and dont regret it at all. It wouldnt put me off in the slightest not having one in a house i was interested in. Plus weve got a toddler and another coming so its one less hazard.

 

Talk about hijack

 

that's a good point

 

been in this house for 8 year and we have a gas fire......must of used it half a dozen times......but i still want it.....lol.....the radiators do the job fine

 

finally finished the job and i think it looks quite good. certainly better than the minging fireplace that was there and the extra floor space from losing the hearth is welcome

 

should have gone the whole hog and lost the chimney too

 

If that was mine id of rather had a tv setup in the corner by the chair and light and a proper fire place. Reason being more the shape of the room and its function over actual fasion/design.

 

Fireplace makes the house feel more homely

Steve

 

Does look good, nice job you've done with the room, but personally I'd still have liked a nice fireplace tbh!

Z

 

My old man did away with his fire but the hole was left brick so if people wanted to put a wood burner in they could,

We had a fire put in our new house as l always thought it made a house more homely

Mike

 

Looks good Nick! Top workmanship as usual! Have a look through my old pics on FB, I went for the same sort of thing, except we didn't have a fireplace to start off with and wanted the room to have a bit more of a "feature".

Where are you planning to move to??

 

Thanks people. This cost nothing more than a few bits of wood and some plaster whereas a fireplace would have cost hundreds.

I've looked at your house pics on FB Paddy, it looks suerb. I'm sure that like me you have learnt a lot and might do some things differently next time? I work in Crawley, so need to move closer to there. Looking at maybe Horsham.

 

In 99.9% of cases I'd rather see nothing at all if I was viewing an (empty) house to buy.

Being a bit of a perfectionist, even if there was a nice fireplace or AV area there, the chances are, I'd want to do it differently and prefer a blank canvas.

I'm not into old-skool fireplaces, so have a very nice plasma-type flat fire affair with a clean marble surround that just hangs on the wall like a flat screen TV would really. Cost a bomb, doesn't throw out much heat at all, but looks damn cool IMO, lol.

 

Thanks for the kind words mate the only thing I'd do differently is devote a lot more time to planning and project management. I was lucky when we bought the house as we had a salesman working for us so I had loads of spare time. Now though, it's just me and the old man so I don't get any free time at all

I've just put the floor down and wallpapered one wall [in the box room/study] with the most hideous bright pink, glittered wallpaper you've ever seen when you turn the light on, it's like an 8 year old girl's dream bedroom.... exactly as I planned.

Horsham is a lovely place mate, there's some awesome villages around and about there! But then you've been through most of them and taken photographs!!

Still waiting for you to come in and have a cuppa when you're next in Fleet/Farnborough, invitation is always open

Would love to see some pictures please!?

 

P.s I like the glass panelled door into your living room.

God I feel old.

And gay.

 

I'll take some tonight. It's nothing overly fancy, just a fire that literally hangs on a flat wall. Heating-wise it's crap, but just think the room needed it as a sort of focal point and the flame effect is very nice.

 

Look forward to seeing the pics Mike! The reason I put the TV thing in mine [other than being a geek] was that we had no focal point either.

Nick, I just saw the advert for you house mate. Want a p/ex??