Fireplaces – keep them looking good

Once your fireplace has been fitted, make sure you look after it.

A beautifully-crafted fireplace looks lovely in any room, but once it’s been fitted it’s your job to keep it that way. Depending on the type of surround, hearth and grate you choose, your cleaning could be minimal – which is how most of us like it. You could even have a hearth in your bathroom if space allows, by your Bathrooms 365's Merlyn showers range perhaps. It’s particularly important that you keep your fireplace cleaned during the months it’s in use, however, to ensure that you keep it gleaming.

Looking after fireplaces

In most cases, fireplaces need little cleaning and can sit peacefully alongside your flooring (decking prices from eDecks are great right now). The surround, which is often made of marble or stone, just needs a little regular dusting, unless anything is spilled on it, in which case it needs to be cleaned up with a damp cloth as soon as possible. If you have a wood fire surround, dusting and polishing will also help to keep it looking good, and you should feed the wood with wax on an occasionally basis. This isn’t a long or laborious job, but will keep the depth of colour and shine in your fireplace. Other areas that may need attention include:

• The hearth – fireplaces have to have a good quality hearth, and these are mostly made from hard materials, because they need to be solid and sturdy. For this reason, dusting takes care of most of their needs, although you may need to use a damp cloth to wipe off any marks or stains from anything that splutters onto the hearth whilst the fire is burning.

• The grate – depending on what type of grate you have, there are various levels of cleaning required. Obviously, you will clear the grate of old logs, coal or other solid fuel each time you use it, and if you’re using your fireplace regularly, there’s no need to completely clean the basket in between fires. If your grate and basked have chrome, brass or other metal fittings however, you may want to use a specialist cleaning solution to keep these clean and shiny.

• Around your fireplace – the carpet or other flooring around fireplaces is often the victim of sparks or ash from your fire. Try to clean these as soon as possible, but never brush soot which has landed on the carpet, because you will simply embed the dirt in the carpet fibres. Instead, use a hand-held vacuum cleaner, or a vacuum attached to pick the dirt up directly from the floor.