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Discussion Forum

GC cost for a stone fireplace build

Gene_Davis | Posted in General Discussion on May 9, 2009 12:46pm

If you are having fireplaces built with some regularity, what’s your “plug in” cost number for a masonry fireplace.

You provide your mason with the foundation, he takes it from there.  Cap slab with cantilever, block core, refractory firebox, flue tiles, fieldstone facing, up through the roof, lead flashing, topout with poured concrete slab, standups, stone cap.

Something like what is in the pic, attached.  A tower roughly 8’x3′ in plan, 20 feet high, roughly 450 sf stone finish.

I am thinking somewhere in the range of $25K, complete, furnished and installed.

The reason I am asking is that I am trying to compare the cost to that of a woodframed chase, zero clearance insert fireplace unit, twinwall pipe flue, all decked out with phony stone lick-n-stick.

 

View Image

“A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower.”

Gene Davis        1920-1985

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  1. dockelly | May 09, 2009 02:16am | #1

    Gene,

    Check out this site, I considered it for the beach house, 2 stories, about 2 grand. This did not include surface stone.

    http://www1.firerock.us/

  2. Pelipeth | May 09, 2009 02:17am | #2

    I would think the chimney chase could be had for $10. That being said, there is NO comparison except in $$$$ and cents. I see multi million dollar homes here with metalbestos/wood chimney chases and it kills me. Garbage!! Then again try to find a mason that can build you a fireplace without a prefab metal firebox. Dying art, especially one that will draw smoke UP the chimney. If your building new, put the cost into your mortgage, REAL fireplaces, especially large ones are priceless.

    1. jayzog | May 09, 2009 06:56pm | #7

      Real fireplaces are priceless but are energy whores.

       Prefabs are better energywise but a regular installation looks and feels like garbage, and IMO are much more likely to burn your house down.

      Your profile isn't filled out but I think I remember you are in my area, I could give you names of a dozen masons that would build a Fp that would draw the sneakers off yer feet.

      Edited 5/9/2009 11:57 am ET by jayzog

      1. User avater
        Gene_Davis | May 09, 2009 07:16pm | #8

        Fifty-five percent of all our housing here is second-home stuff.

        The weekend house crowd, the majority of them from NJ, don't seem to care about energy hog wood fireplaces.  They want to feel as if they are at camp.

        Our local masons are scratching for work, and would gladly come down to your locale and build you some sofa-suckers. 

        View Image

        "A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."

        Gene Davis        1920-1985

        1. User avater
          Mongo | May 10, 2009 05:58am | #9

          Efficiency be damned.Nothing like the snap crackle pop of a nice woodfire during the chilly months. Dammit!<g>

  3. MikeSmith | May 09, 2009 02:31am | #3

    what does this mean ....."topout with poured concrete slab, standups, stone cap." ?

     

    brick.....$10 - $15

    stone .......$20 - $30

    Mike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
    1. User avater
      Gene_Davis | May 09, 2009 05:03am | #4

      It's shorthand for doing the top-of-chimney style seen on over three-quarters of what gets done today, in these here parts.

      Pics attached.  The top of chimney is capped with a poured-to-a-form slab, and stiff mix is used so its top is given a little pitch like a very shallow pitched hipped roof.  Mortar is used to set cut-stone standups, mini-columns really, and then a cut stone slab is flown up with the crane, and squished on top, with some stiff mud between it and the standups.

      Another pic shows my dilemma of needing to seat the end of the structural ridge right smack where the chimney is.  I can dream it up as done with a zero-clearance insert, but the codes confuse me as to what to do, exactly, if doing an all-masonry stack.

      If all-masonry, there is going to be needed some kind of cross-piece lintel to pick up that center-borne load and get half over to each side.  There is a firebox and smoke chamber directly below, or at least there is the little-old lintel across the top of the opening.

      We've a 9 kip reaction at the end of that structural ridge.

      The zero clearance unit I really like is made by Bellfires, and info about them can be gotten by going here.  Very pricey, but much more fireplace than something from someone like Superior, Majestic, or Heat'N'Glo.

      Check out their products for going into an all-masonry stack.  Well-made cast refractory lining, with a Rumford throat. 

      View Image

      "A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."

      Gene Davis        1920-1985

      1. MikeSmith | May 09, 2009 05:58pm | #5

        i bookmarked the site for our current clienthad some nice results with Superior's Rumford in an all-brick fireplaceMike Hussein Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore

        1. User avater
          Gene_Davis | May 09, 2009 06:37pm | #6

          Mike, take a look at some of the specs for units, and at the install instruction downloads for the Bellfires line, when you get a chance.  I think it is a great product line, all designed on the Rumford principle.

          Every model sports the cast refractory lining and throat, in the signature bell shape.  There are models for using in a new all-masonry build, plus models for using in a zero-clearance wood chase setting.

          There are models for retrofitting existing masonry fireplaces, too.

          Not inexpensive, and not light in weight.  Fortunately, they go together in pieces, else you would need a crane or forklift to get one in place.

            

          View Image

          "A stripe is just as real as a dadgummed flower."

          Gene Davis        1920-1985

      2. Henley | May 10, 2009 06:17am | #10

        Gene, My house has almost exactly that ridge beam on the masonry fireplace situation. Could you fill me in when you get to the bottom of how the codes deal with it?

        I'm going to have to upgrade the metal firebox at some point and
        would like to know what I'm dealing with.

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