Looking for advise on making my zero clearance something totally differant. I would prefer to get heat in this vaulted ceiling family room rather than lose it as i have for 8 years in this home. My wife has issues with the look of soapstone stoves, etc. because our home is of the traditional look. I had a draftsman do a sketch of an all brick fireplace with a mantle on a 6″ high X 7′ wide base. I was wondering if anyone has seen or done anything like installing the stove inside a brick box. Thought being she does not have to see the pipe or the entie look of the stove. Any input will be grreatly appreciated!!!
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I have seen stoves exhausted out through the fireplace and feel that is a very poor compromise both from an esthetic perspective as well as function. There are inserts that you can put into the fireplace to give you the advantages of the wood burning stove and retain the look of the fireplace. The one we used in a place for several years worked very well with a blower system to help circulated the warm air. It worked better than a steel fireplace insert with a circulation system that was in another room of the same house. Too bad she doesn't like the look of a stove as that would be your best bet for heat production.
I rented a wonderful old house in Fredericton N.B. (built in 1830s. There was an original fire place in all the main rooms, none working. There was a Vermont Castings Intrepid built into a faux fireplace in the kitchen. The fireplace was brick with a mantle. Above the mantel the full wide chimney that ran to the ceiling was actually made out of 2 bys and dry wall. The stove pipe ran up a block chimney on one side of the false work. There was a fan driven heating system built into the space beside the real chimney. It worked well and certainly fit into the overall aesthetics of the house. It was a wonderful kitchen and was the warmest room in the house.An ex-boat builder treading water!
that is what i am trying to accomplish------need to understand the fan heating system installation????-----if i don't block the area off over the stove, do i need to vent the area behind the brick even though the exhaust will be venting out the roof-----i was planning on making the chimney out of plywood and veneering it with brick
You've got to be very careful using a minimum clearance chimney in any way other than how it was designed to be used. Restricting airflow channels render it in-operable and unsafe. Many metal chimenys are proprietary and can only be used with the appliance they are made for.
A retro such as you describe can easily burn your house down and kill you. Either have a compeetent mason build a proper fireplace or leave well enough alone. This hybrid is a bad idea..
Excellence is its own reward!
I certainly agree with Piffin (how could I not!) on the restrictions on metal chimneys. And let me be clear that I am not a heating professional. I am describing a system that was installed by a heating profesional and thoroughly reviewed by the insurance companies ; the home owner's and mine when I got tennant's insurance.
Basicaly what the owner had was a Interpid wood burning stove with a conventional metal stovepipe running up about a foot then feeding sideways into a real chimney made out of blocks. The wood stove was enclosed on the back and on one side by a bricked enclosure, the third side being the brick faced block chimney. The front of the fireplace was bricked to provide a conventional looking fireplace front. I do not know how thick the brick back and sides were. The floor of the 'fireplace' was brick as well. This was not firebrick.
The top of the brink enclosure was open.
The home owner had a a wood mantle around the front of the brick 'fireplace'.
Above the mantle extended a four foot wide false chimney centred on the mantle and incorporating the block chimney. The block chimney was a real chimney - block on the interior of the house, brick on the exterior where it went through the roof. It had a bricked cap as well. There was a proper chimney clean out panel on the side of the fireplace.
Ok, hot air from the stove rose into the airspace above the stove and enclosed by the faux chimney. A fan, it was simply one of those computer fans with reostat blew the air through an opening in the faux chimney into the house.
The distance from the top of the stove to any combustible material was about 30"
It was not the most efficient heating system that could be installed bu it made a heck of a difference to that beautiful but, poorly insulated old house.
I would think that a properly installed zero clearance fireplace with built in forced air system (about $3,800 Canadian + chimney and mantle) would be the most effiecient way to go.
.
An ex-boat builder treading water!
thanks----i am leaning towards getting the zero clearance with the blower unit-----i may call in someone to get opinion on stove set up----i have all summer
Its like getting a tool that has several different functions....Ususally close to worthless.
The right tool for the right job.
If you can afford a Rumford fireplace that'd be the route to go as it was designed to throw heat "into" the house. Look it up online
I've had a Vermont Castings wood/coal stove and that thing heats like theres no tomorrow. I actually heated an entire small house with it for three years with no other back up. I had tiny fans in the upper corners of a few doors to blow the heat around.
It has optional glass doors and a fire screen. You can just easirly pop the doors off if you want and put the firescreen on. Check it out. In my opinion looks really nice and does a serious job of heating.....those zero clearance jobbies are OK but you won't ever get tons of heat out of em if thats what your after.
BE warm
Namaste
andy
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You are just as likely to get a net heat loss from an open fireplace as from your current zero-clearance unit. A full brick Rumsford is the only open faced thing that gives you a chance of getting heat out of it. It should be designed by a mason familiar with that design and not a draftsm,an who only knows facade details. let him stick to the surrond design after the mason provides sizes.
Foundation work for brick will be required and a brick chimney.
If cost is an issue, it wil be a stove such as the Vermont Castings
Excellence is its own reward!