wood trim/skin over a brick fire place

hello, first post on breaktime.com, so please excuse my poor nomenclature
My family room has a floor to cathederal ceiling brick fire place (see pic) which I don’t like. I’d like to skin in wood w/ a frame and panel design with brick showing only around the firebox.
Questions:
how should I attach wood to fireplace?
should I use wood, mdf, or other?
is it ok (to code) to put wood (other material) over brick?
how close to the opening can I put the wood?
Thanks, Brad
Replies
i couldn't post pic (never had problems on knots(fww) posting pics??)
Thanks, Brad
Brad
I have a fireplace similar to yours, except mine is stone.
I have intentions of doing something similar.
You need to find out what code will allow, check and see what the restrictions for wood to the fire box are.
In my case because I have stone and its not as uniform as your brick I was going to tapcon cleets to the stone, shim to keep everything on the same plane or plumb and then add my ply over that.
The ply would die into the mantle which would be made out of a combination of ply, and solid wood.
I hadnt ran this past anybody like the city yet but I dont see where it would be a problem. My stone doesnt get hot so theres no danger to the wood.
The set backs that the city code dictate will keep your fireplace mantle and legs safe.
Your first step should be to see what the restrictions/code says and go from there.
Attaching to the brick shouldnt be difficult, its done all the time.
Doug
As a (rough) guess, you'll need to keep 15-18" clear of the firebox opening "free" of combustible material (your AHJ may have a vertical requiment that also comes into play).
Like as not, installing strapping tapcon-ed or screw-and-expansion-anchor-ed to the mortar joints would be the best sub-structure to work from (and not drilling into brick means some potential future remodeler will be happy with the "hidden" treasure they find, too). Strapping will let you shim to a nice clean plumb & true, too.
The exposed brick on the fireplace is a veneer, over the actual "guts" of the fireplace--your primary concern (once you are pulled away to code from the firebox) to my thinking will be in isolating your new wood surround from any moisture transfer from wood to brick or vice versa.
doug, capnmac, thanks for feedback. i'll look into code in my area and go from there. i'll post pics when I finish.
Brad
One rule of thumb for fireplace surrounds is 1" away from fire box for every 1/8th inch material thickness (absolute minimum of 6" from the edge of the firebox). Using this guideline, mantles that project more than 1.5" must be a minimum of 12" from the edge of the opening. 12" away from the edge of the firebox is usually the maximum requirement (you could go further but are not required), unless your local code is more stringent.