I want a fire place in the worst way. When I was a kid, our house in NY had a woodstove in the basement. That thing got so hot all the bricks on the foundation in the entire basement were toasty warm all winter, which made for a nice toasty house upstairs. It was great.

I would really like to put a fireplace in, in my family room, but im affraid of loosing too much space. What do you think...? The room is 33' X 13.5' One of the 33" walls is just about full of windows, the other backs up to the house, (this room was added on after the house was built and sits about 3" lower than the main floors on the house) so I cant break thru that wall at all. One end of the room has the door to the screened in porch and the other end has 2 windows and my big screen on it, so that wall is out. Are there any fireplcaes that dont need to be so deep? Does the chimney have to be higher than the highest peak of the roof? That would make the chimney (or pipe) have to be at least 10" tall.

How can I do this without major construction? Maybe a corner unit?


BREW

 

Not unless you are a 25-30 year old hot chick.

Plus I am afraid you would mess up my garage.

 

 

The 33' wall that is full of windows, could you remove some of the windows in say the center section of that wall and put it in the middle of the 33' wall?

I am not sure but I think the chimney has to be higher than the roof for it to draft well.

 

I could, I just dont want to loose all the windows. I do have a spot thats about 5" wide with no windows on that wall. The chimney is the issue. The window wall is 8', the other side of the room is 10'. That 10' starts at the bottom slope of the roof on the house, and Im guessing the peak on the house is at least another 8' to 10' higher. That would mean I would need a chimney about 13' tall sticking up on the roof. Not very safe, and would look like crap. I really love real wood, but I wonder how well a gas fireplace would heat the place??


BREW

 

go with real wood if u can. 2 reasons right off the bat, gas fire places don't heat up that well (at least in my experiance in our last 2 homes) the second reason being, wood will be so much cheeper to burn then the gas will be. Nateral gas is going up here in Ohio by about 40% they said this winter, so were even thinking about transforming the fire place into a wood burning one.

Just some ideas

 

I hear ya...I just dont think I will have the room for a real wood fireplace. I was thinking of maybe a nice woodstove, but it has to be nice. The room it will be in, is used constantly for family and friends and lots of entertaining, so I cant just throw a big old black cast iron stove back there.
Did you ever consider pellets? A friend of mine heats his entire house (and its huge, up in Connecticut where it gets real cold) with a pellet stove. The heat from that thing is amazing.


BREW

 

This is not a job I would tackle by myself. But you could do a marble & rock or marble and brick fireplace, from floor to cieling and put it on the wall that backs up to the house. Use the fireplace as a support beam for the wall. Solid concrete is going to be a more stable wall than the wood studs you have now. Make some heavy 8"x8" supports to put on each side of the wall header before you cut the center section out to build the fireplace. For added support you can keep them there and and make them a decortive architecture. Build it all the way throu the attic and out the middle of the roof. Total you would lose about 5' of wall space that you couldnt hang pictures on, but you have a mantle to sit them on. You would lose about 2.5' out into the room of floor space for the fireplace, (that's box, surround, and hearth). So it's only 12.5 sq ft of floor space total.

You will want to go a few feet above the peak of the roof for a good draw so the smoke goes up and not back into your house, and it's also a good fire protection. I'm sure if you are subject to building codes, then it is probably a code. With a fireplace there is a risk of a flu fire. If it is below the roof, then your roof is subject to the intense heat produced during a flu fire even possiabley open flames on the shingles. It could catch your house on fire. The higher you can get it with out losing stability, the better.


Or another cheaper option:
Get something like this
http://www.regency-fire.com/Wood/Stoves/F1100/index.php
then run the pipe straight through the cieling and into the attic. Once in the attic but in an elbow and run along the roof to a few feet below the peak. The go through the roof and above the peak. I'm not a big fan of stove pipe going a few inches away from cumbustable materials like cieling tiles, roof decking, etc etc. But with enough gap, and insulation around the pipe might ease my mind, But then it's been working for hundreds of years with out it.

edited to add:
Pellets are amazing, less work, less mess in the stove or in the house, and lots of heat. You do get to see a small flame too.

 

Well Matt...thats not such a cheap way after all. I found one I like with nice glass doors, and then one that has glass doors with a design overlay in metal on it, but it was almost $2300. I think I'll just turn the thermostat up instead.


BREW

 

I didn't say cheap.
I said Cheaper.



But as long as I'm spending more of your money than I say go the distance. Spend $15K or more, buy a fire box, some flu tiles, marble, and have one built! JMO

 

I have a fireplace.............





































....................................

























That's all I got.

 

Thats it Matt,, im staying away from you. You have a way of spending my money before I know whats going on...


BREW

 

 

I'd love to have a fire place...

Oh, and that's one hell of a speed bump you got sitting next to the table in the first post, DAMN!!!

 

A wood stove/fireplace chimney must be 10 feet away from the highest peak and 3 foot above it to be in code.

I have a majestic free standing corner fireplace triple wall. Fireplaces are not efficient unless you draw air from an outside source, otherwise they create a draft in the room its in.


They also have direct vent fireplaces (gas,LP), pellet stoves that simply vent through the wall using a 3-4" od piping and double wall construction and work very well.