Gazco Studio Glass Fronted Fire - Really need advice please

[jamesmadgwick]

Really looking for help. About a year ago we ordered a Gazco Studio 2 Glass Fronted fire. We only went ahead with the purchase after being given assurances by the supplier a normal plaster finish would be ok, All we wanted to do was paint on a smooth finish and we where concerned about the heat above the fire. Anyway assurances where given and we went ahead. Before the installation I found this forum and decided to order some heat proof plaster just to be safe. Plasterer was aware of having to use the special plaster so was really looking forward to everything. Plasterer then really made a bad job with the heat proof plaster very uneven, the fire was turned on to help it dry quicker, I think he had never used the stuff before and found it more tricky then he had imagined. Anyway we turned the fire on a few days later and it cracked in several places. So we where very annoyed but decided to get some advice. Specialists lime plasterer came round and had a look. Recommendation was to take the whole chimney breast back to brick and apply some kind of lime, sand and cement mix with special fibres and a nylon mesh above the fire for extra strength. This costs £620 on top of the £2400 for the fire and £200 for the first plasterer. Waited several weeks for everything to dry and turned the fire on. almost immediately lots of cracks appeared ! Spoke to lime plasterer and he did point out the fire installers had used a metal lintel, metal expands, hence the cracks. This seemed logical so we went back to supplier demanding a solution. They came back removed the metal lintel, installed a concrete one and then chipped an area around the fire back to brick, approx 200mm either side and 500mm above the fire. They then screwed some kind of fire board to the brick, in 3 pieces top left and right, another plasterer came a few days later applied an undercoat and then came back a few more days later and skimmed over. Guess what........after all had dried out we turned the fire on and above the right hand side of the fire cracking started. We where really annoyed now so went back to the supplier who refused to do anymore. So we decided to proceed to the small claims court. There is a service called mediation which is free of charge and is designed to try to settle claims before they go to court. By the way small claims court costs are actually about £450 not the £100 we where told by citizens advice. Anyway we are now in the middle of mediation. Gazco have been around and offered to supply tiles for the chimney breast free of charge. Very kind offer but we don't like any of the tiles they supply and tiling does really limit your ability to change colour schemes etc. So having refused the tiling option I am really looking for some help and advice on what needs to be done to give us a smooth, even finish to paint. Gazco seemed very dismissive of heat proof plaster as it is "like porridge and impossible to match in with normal plaster" but I do believe this is possible if you know what you are doing. So we are back to the suggestion of removing the cracked plaster and applying new normal plaster again - I get the feeling this will not work. So really looking forward to any comments or suggestions. By the way forgot to mention about the paint adhesion problems we have had with the fire which Gazco admitted was a fault with the de greasing process when making the things. In their defence this has been resolved to our satisfaction. Just so everyone is clear I am not saying the fire is faulty in anyway and Gazco have tested everything and all is as it should be. I guess what I am saying is potential buyers of these kinds of fires should know what to ask before they spend an awful lot of money, or suppliers should be able to offer realistic advice on this kind of problem and the potential solutions. I really don't want this to go to court as I really like the fire and I am using this forum to try to go back to the supplier with potential solutions.

 

[Alastairreid]

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