Steve Silvester did extensive research before building his bioethanol fireplace. Summary of the project:

• Firstly, before starting the work – Steve created a paper template and positioned it on the wall to get a clear idea of the scale and proportions of the final fireplace opening.
• The metal expands when it heats up, so the slot for the containers cannot be tight.
• Obviously, the entire firebox is fully fireproof.
• He finished the back of the firebox with tiles made of panels of slate. Then he applied a layer of 3mm steel to the plasterwork underneath to protect it.
• Finally, he covered the base of the fireplace with loose white coarse pebbles which give a great look and does not create any risk of cracking when the steel containers heat up and expand.
• Underneath the pebbles, the base of the firebox is made of cement board and there is a fixed aluminum ‘collar’ to hold the lip of the Bio Containers

Steve built a ‘fire bed’ for his Ribbon Fireplace which works great and looks beautiful. He gave us a brief description of his experiences:

“Hi guys,
 please find attached some of the build pics.

A great tip when I was designing the fire was to plot the fire on the wall with sheets of paper before cutting it out so I could get a sense of scale. Also it was important that when assembling the bits of aluminium angle to the cement board base there was plenty of gap for the burners to slot into. Anything too tight would result in expansion problems and things breaking when it got hot. I used white corse pebble as it was the only thing I could find to create the pure white look and more importantly because the pebbles can move I have no worries in the expansion that I mentioned earlier.
 
The lintel does get quite hot so I folded some 3mm steel to fit under the plasterwork to dissipate the heat. I fixed this behind the tiles which are panels of slate you can find in most top tile places.
Hope this is of use…. This will be the 3rd Christmas we have had with the fire and nothing has fell off yet so all is good!

Thanks & regards
Steve Silvester”

The final result looks like this: