Guest Post Author Bio: Maggie is a retired teacher who recently discovered the joys of a fireplace.

In the process of buying a new house, you might wonder what new things you could bring into this property to make it feel more like a home. After furnishing and décor, one of the best ways of stamping your style on your new home is to install a fireplace.

Working in the fireplace industry there are certain facts about fireplaces I tend to see as so obvious they don't need to be explained. Every so often someone asks an unexpected question, which of course makes me wonder how many other people are unsure about the same thing. Recently one of our customers asked what a fireplace hearth is for, and I decided to share the answer in case anybody else is wondering.

Once upon a time every new home would be built with fireplaces for cooking and heating, but the proportion of houses built without any fireplace or chimney has been steadily increasing since the advent of central heating and introduction of anti-pollution legislation in urban areas. Many people feel there is something missing from a living room without a fireplace, and need a practical and affordable way to fill the gap

Although flueless  gas fires are relatively new to the UK, they have been popular in other parts of the world for many years, especially Japan (approx 40 million in use), the USA (approx 20 million in use) and Australia. Flueless gas fires, requiring no chimney or flue system, offer a unique combination of efficiency, flexibility and safety.

Here at FireplacesAreUs, we have been working hard to expand our installation network into more areas of the UK. We now have extensive coverage, detailed below, throughout England and Wales for fitting of solid fuel & gas fireplaces and fires as well as flexible chimney liners and twinwall flue systems.

Building on the popularity of our installation service in Yorkshire and Lancashire, Fireplaces Are Us are pleased to announce we have extended our fire & fireplace fitting service to the London area. Our HETAS and Gas Safe Register qualified engineers are available to install fireplaces, gas & solid fuel fires as well as flexible chimney liners and twinwall flue systems.

I am often asked by customers where they should look to find a gas fitter to install their new gas fire or gas stove. If they are outside our installation area I always advise them to look on the Gas Safe Register website. More often than not they have never heard of the Gas Safe Register, but if I mention CORGI it is a different story.