Now We’re Cooking
Gillie had been waiting patiently for many years to update and replace her ageing existing Rayburn Regent cooker.
On a previous occasion we were contracted to rebuild the existing external chimney stack and line the chimney in preparation for the long awaited appliance installation. Unfortunately, although we tried to repair the existing appliance, it was deemed unsafe to use.
The time finally came and works commenced to remove the existing appliance and excavate the fireplace.
The existing quarry tiles finished short of the fireplace, so we laid a hearth of natural black lime stone. This gave a raised hearth and ensured there was sufficient in front of the new appliance
Dave, our wood working guru, came up with what we all thought was a great idea: to manufacture oak sections to serve as a lintel above the fireplace and also to frame the sides of the aperture along with a quirky shelf to the left to cover the pipework and serve as an ideal position to hang cooking utensils.
These were prepared from in house kiln dried lengths of British oak in our own workshop and skilfully aged using hand tools to add character complimentary to this quaint Wiltshire cottage.
The initial design specification from the client was to remove the appliance, open the fireplace to the sides and raise the height to allow a clear vision of the cooking surface of the new appliance, and to expose the brickwork within the fireplace with a splash back of sheet copper behind
As with many of our installations, the initial design can metamorphose, and it was soon apparent that the internal brickwork was in poor repair. So, the decision was made to line the internals with a heat resistant decorative board. This would allow for future tiling and enable us to hide the pipework to the sides of the fireplace. A supporting concrete lintel and closure plate were installed and the face brick work pointed.
The chosen appliance installed was a Rayburn 216 SFW in blue.
