Totally forgot over the summer that my fireback in the open fire needed to be replaced, had planned to do it at start of summer but time flies! Anyway it was very badly cracked and the back of it had practically worn away so took a hammer to it today and sure enough it just broke apart.
I have now removed the old fireback and will go buy a new one tomorrow, however what is the best thing to fill in the space behind it? The existing one was packed with fibreglass insulation, the yellow type you see in roof spaces, this was done initially so as to be easy to remove as I had intended possibly putting in a gas fire and the pipe was behind the fireback. Never connected it and don't intend to at this stage. Now the insulation has lasted fine except for one patch which has kind of hardened as though it had slightly melted, that patch was directly behind where the worn down cracked part was so presumably the flames and heat were practically getting out behind the fireback and at the insulation, the rest of it is sooty but perfect.
I know a sand/cement mix seems to be the usual filling but to be honest it would be a lot easier do it again with the fibreglass, is there any disadvantage to using it again? I mean using new stuff of course.
I have now removed the old fireback and will go buy a new one tomorrow, however what is the best thing to fill in the space behind it? The existing one was packed with fibreglass insulation, the yellow type you see in roof spaces, this was done initially so as to be easy to remove as I had intended possibly putting in a gas fire and the pipe was behind the fireback. Never connected it and don't intend to at this stage. Now the insulation has lasted fine except for one patch which has kind of hardened as though it had slightly melted, that patch was directly behind where the worn down cracked part was so presumably the flames and heat were practically getting out behind the fireback and at the insulation, the rest of it is sooty but perfect.
I know a sand/cement mix seems to be the usual filling but to be honest it would be a lot easier do it again with the fibreglass, is there any disadvantage to using it again? I mean using new stuff of course.