What Type of Fireplace is This?
I have been looking at buying a new house, and it seems everyone I look at has a fireplace like this. I’m not sure if it is considered a sealed fireplace because they all have a little vent/opening. Please tell me what kind of fireplace this is and if it can be turned back into…
I have been looking at buying a new house, and it seems everyone I look at has a fireplace like this. I’m not sure if it is considered a sealed fireplace because they all have a little vent/opening.
Please tell me what kind of fireplace this is and if it can be turned back into a functioning fireplace easily.
The size is actually what indicates that it is coal-burning. Coal is a dense fuel, it burns hotter than a gas or wood fireplace so the fireplace is more compact. Also, the metal grille is a giveaway. Coal fireplaces from this era have perforated, patterned cast iron grilles over them. They often have a circular or radial pattern, because the base grille to hold the coals of the fire would be at the midpoint of the patterned grille. This allowed air to come from beneath the coal.
Bob, i stand corrected. was it must like solar is now, for the rich and famous? or rare but cheap?
“gas in 1900?”
Yes, my 1899 house has five gas fireplaces–it was the latest thing, just what was needed to supplement the coal-burning gravity hot air furnace on cold days.
This looks way too small for coal. Maybe it started life as gas and was converted to forced air. The mantle looks about 1890 to 1900 or so. The firebox should be much bigger. It looks like it was altered.
gas in 1900? my bet is coal.
That’s not a forced air grille, it’s a coal-burning fireplace.
You can convert a coal fireplace to a wood fireplace, assuming that the chimney flue is sound, by increasing the depth of the fireplace opening — in other words bringing it further into the room about 8″ or so. Enough to draw properly. The proportions for what draws air through a wood fireplace are different from coal.
I agree, it looks like a forced air grille.
We had the same thing in our house and had to open the whole thing up, pour a new steel supported and reinforced concrete fireplace floors (on two levels) which was then topped with proper fireplace bricks. The fire boxes were also rebuilt as well as a new smoke chamber and flue. Next stainless steel liners were fished down from the roof and secured to the top of the smoke chamber assembly with lightweight insulating mortar poured around them. Finally new chimney caps were installed.
Manny LaSalle did the work for us. We are very pleased. He came highly recommended by both friends and posts in this forum.
I’ve never seen a fireplace like this. The opening is really small. Forced air? Could have been retrofitted later.
I agree this does not look like it ever was built to burn wood. many brownstones were built with “gas” fireplaces originally so can’t be turned into WBF without a huge amount of work if at all.