Happy Ending for Fireplace Renovation

That looks great!

Can you tell me the dimension of your new fireplace? How deep/wide is it? Is it really just for burning kindling or can i put a fire that is decent enough to provide a little heat?

Thanks!

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 11:03 AM

Don't forget, many fireplaces in Brooklyn brownstones were built for smaller, shallower gas fixtures. If you convert to wood burning, unless you replace your fireplace surround, you may be stuck with a smaller fireplace than what you may have envisioned.

If you are looking for real heating capabilities, it might be more efficient to install a ood burning, or pellet, or coal stove, either inside the fireplace, if large enough, or in front of it.

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 11:24 AM

When we rebuilt our fireplace in 2004, we had to decide whether to do a tradtional fireplace or a wood burning stove. Since we have fires almost every night from Nov-March we decided to go the wood budinging stove route. We burn about half the amount of wood that we used to, and actually heat parts of the house. While a stove gives you you the visual feel of a fire, you don't have the smell of smoke or the sound of the carckling fire. That was the loss. We have been amazed at how efficient the stove is. If we use 3-4 logs per night, there is nothing left but very fine ash.

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 11:40 AM

Beautiful!

I myself would be nervous about these fireplaces that are flush to the wood floor, though. My fireplace in CA was about 2.5 feet up off the floor and set back. So there was a tiled bench-like hearth to catch logs that might roll out, before they got onto the wood floors. For a fireplace flush to the floor, people could cover an area around sides and in front of the fireplace with some tile that coordinates with the tile on the surround. It's an idea.

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 12:47 PM

Does anyone know exactly what they originally used in these fireplaces? They must have been gas or coal stoves with a pipe up the chimney. But many parlor stoves are too big to fit inside and the flue outlet is too high to get inside while retaining upward pitch. All my fireplaces are 26" high or less. I've seen some Baltimore heaters but many must have been stand-alone. Who has pictures or sells the the old ones?

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 1:09 PM

Re. flush to the floor, although it's not visible I would imagine there's a hearthstone projecting out from the fireplace. However, there can be problems if you have floor joists running underneath the fireplace and into the party wall. There is a risk that the heat of a wbf could cause the joists to ignite. If you are considering this kind of conversion, an engineer should assess your individual situation. I envy this homeowner's nice deep fireplaces. Our conversion hasn't been perfect: our neighbor freaks out when we use it because the party wall gets warm to the touch (even though we have identical firebricks to those pictured -- but no 4" of mortar behind) and it smokes too much. Any suggestions for fixing the smoking? I had thought to try sealing the mantle components with cement (there are cracks btw some of the slate pieces where smoke leaks out) but I wonder if the proportions of the original are just not perfect for wood-burning.

If we had it to do over, I would run a gas line to the fireplace and buy a small antique wood-burning stove converted to use gas (there's a cool website called good time stove that sells some real beauties).

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 1:16 PM

FYI, I opened up a fireplace in my parlor about 4 years ago and used Fireside. Could not be happier with the work and very glad I spent the money to do it.

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 1:26 PM

The flue cover is pretty standard equipment. The idea is to close it when the fireplace is not in use to avoid wind and rain coming in.

Posted by: guest at September 27, 2007 3:52 PM