Wife and I built a house in Austin a year ago and the fireplace is one of those deals where it just came with a gas line that you can turn on, light, and place some ceramic logs on it. You get a lovely hissing and "authentic" looking fire.

Would it be possible to put real wood on there? I did some searching online and found that some fireplaces/chimneys may not be equipped to deal with real wood in terms of smoke/fumes. If I was reading correctly though, that was for more dedicated fireplaces.

You most likely got a wood burner with a gas starter. Do you have a chimney with a metal cap? Called a termination.

One other question, do you have spray foam insulation, or traditional Bat insulation laid in between the studs?

You should be able to burn wood, unless you are spray foamed.

Call a fireplace shop and have them send someone out to look at it

Bonfire - is the reason it's not compatible with foam because the lack of fresh air intake in a foam encapsulated house? Where did you get that information from? That's interesting, never thought about it.

I work at a major fireplace company.

John - yes. Needs to draw air in from outside the house for it to draft well. Spray foam homes are so tight that fireplaces struggle to pull enough fresh air in. The result is a Smokey house.

Spray foam houses need direct vent fireplaces. Direct vents are closed systems with glass fronts. They pull air in from outside on their own.

Bonfire,

I have a fireplace similar to what is described in the OP. Gas line, ceramic housing, standard chimney. We use it for wood burning occasionally, however I am interested in going the ceramic log route. I've read up on vented and ventless logs. From what I gather ventless is better because they give off more heat since you can keep the chimney closed but vented looks more realistic. Is that correct?

Here are my other questions:

1: can we convert to ceramic logs with the fire place as is?
2: do we need to do vented or ventless?
3: How much can I expect to spend on a set of logs?

My box is 17" at the most narrow part.

Thanks

I wouldn't go ventless. It is dangerous, no matter what anyone says.

First, there are a couple things to know. When using a woodturning unit, you will actually lose heat in your house when you burn wood or gas in it. You can heat the immediate area around the fireplace, but the rest of the house will cool as you pull in cooler air from the imperfections in your house. This is necessary for your fireplace to draft, and it is just a fact of life with a woodburning unit whether you burn wood or gas. If you want to convert your woodburner to a closed gas system, you can do this and actually turn your fireplace into a heat source, but that is more expensive and an entirely different animal. It will be better in the long run, but it is very expensive. Between $2500 and all the way up to around $6000.

So, if you don't want to go that route, and most don't, you can go with a gas log set. Here, like anywhere else, you get what you pay for. All of your local chimney sweeps and fireplace service companies will sell you a cheap set of gas logs that will look nice, but they will not be ceramic. Ceramic logs are the only ones that will actually heat up and radiate any heat around the unit. A good ceramic set will be anywhere from $800 up to $1500, but they are worth it if you are committed to a gas log set. Don't go the cheap route unless you just want the fireplace to look good. If you are searching for heat, go ceramic.

Being in south Texas it doesn't get cold enough for long enough period of time to justify going into a closed system, so a gas log set will be fine. I would like it to radiate some heat so I need to look for a ceramic set. $1000 isn't too bad. Where would I go to find a good quality set?

Fireplaces.com to locate a dealer/installer in your area.

Hey Bonfire,

I've recently found out that my chimney, which has been slowly pulling away from the house, was never properly tied to the house and needs to be torn down and rebuilt. I'm in East Dallas and the house is 1940s ish so there's no gas line. I'd like to rebuild it in a way where it can actually be a heat source. I see you've mentioned closed systems so am wondering if that's what you'd recommend? Also, do you have any mason contacts you'd recommend?

Bonfire,

I recently purchased a house built in 1965, and it has a wood burning fireplace. The chimney is bricked continuously from the box, through the attic and out the roof. The previous homeowner retrofitted spray foam on the underside of the roof decking. I have noticed the fireplace works well if I use the dried out store-bought wood, but the house does get smokey if I use the wood trimmed from my trees. I can only assume this is cause by the foam? How do you recommend I get enough draft to service the fireplace?

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Hey Bonfire,

I've recently found out that my chimney, which has been slowly pulling away from the house, was never properly tied to the house and needs to be torn down and rebuilt. I'm in East Dallas and the house is 1940s ish so there's no gas line. I'd like to rebuild it in a way where it can actually be a heat source. I see you've mentioned closed systems so am wondering if that's what you'd recommend? Also, do you have any mason contacts you'd recommend?

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Get one of these installed and you'll be a happy camper!

QuadraFire Woodburning Fireplace Insert

Highly effecient wood buring fireplace insert...have had one for several years and couldn't be happier! I also installed an air return in the ceiling in front of the fireplace so when I have the insert going, I turn my HVAC fan to the low position and the whole house (approximately 2,700 sq ft) is heated via the one fireplace even on the coldest days here in Sherman, TX.

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Hey Bonfire,

I've recently found out that my chimney, which has been slowly pulling away from the house, was never properly tied to the house and needs to be torn down and rebuilt. I'm in East Dallas and the house is 1940s ish so there's no gas line. I'd like to rebuild it in a way where it can actually be a heat source. I see you've mentioned closed systems so am wondering if that's what you'd recommend? Also, do you have any mason contacts you'd recommend?

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Without natural gas, your only option for a "closed system" is a woodburning stove as described above. If you get the insert, it can look more like a fireplace than a woodburning stove. You should note, the inserts are quite expensive, but you will still be happy with the result as it will put out a ton of heat.

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Bonfire,

I recently purchased a house built in 1965, and it has a wood burning fireplace. The chimney is bricked continuously from the box, through the attic and out the roof. The previous homeowner retrofitted spray foam on the underside of the roof decking. I have noticed the fireplace works well if I use the dried out store-bought wood, but the house does get smokey if I use the wood trimmed from my trees. I can only assume this is cause by the foam? How do you recommend I get enough draft to service the fireplace?

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Typically, the foam will only be an issue if the entire house is foamed causing a very tight house. With a house from 1965, you should have plenty of imperfections from years and years of foundation settling. The fireplace should draft well given those facts. I wonder if you need to have your chimney cleaned as you may have a bunch of soot built up as well as other items that can make their way into a masonry chimney (rodents, birds).

Additionally, the wood you are trimming from your trees will be green, and that will smoke more. Any slow down in drafting and you will notice that smoke very easily.

Call a chimney sweep today. They probably aren't that busy right now compared to how they are typically busy in December given that it is pretty warm around Texas.

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So, if you don't want to go that route, and most don't, you can go with a gas log set. Here, like anywhere else, you get what you pay for. All of your local chimney sweeps and fireplace service companies will sell you a cheap set of gas logs that will look nice, but they will not be ceramic. Ceramic logs are the only ones that will actually heat up and radiate any heat around the unit. A good ceramic set will be anywhere from $800 up to $1500, but they are worth it if you are committed to a gas log set. Don't go the cheap route unless you just want the fireplace to look good. If you are searching for heat, go ceramic.

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I don't know what kind of logs I have, but I installed a fan that is in the back of the unit. It kicks on automatically using a heat sensor. Anyway, it blows the hot air out and heats up most of our fist floor. So much in fact that it makes our thermostat believe it is hot in the house so the heater doesn't run, making the second floor pretty cold. (Which is fine, want to cold where I sleep.)

So even with fake ceramic logs, I would guess this is a viable heat source.

Yes, a fan kit changes everything, as the heat of the unit itself is blasted into the room.

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I work at a major fireplace company.

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Did you ever mention your company and the Texags discount?

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So, if you don't want to go that route, and most don't, you can go with a gas log set. Here, like anywhere else, you get what you pay for. All of your local chimney sweeps and fireplace service companies will sell you a cheap set of gas logs that will look nice, but they will not be ceramic. Ceramic logs are the only ones that will actually heat up and radiate any heat around the unit. A good ceramic set will be anywhere from $800 up to $1500, but they are worth it if you are committed to a gas log set. Don't go the cheap route unless you just want the fireplace to look good. If you are searching for heat, go ceramic.

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I don't know what kind of logs I have, but I installed a fan that is in the back of the unit. It kicks on automatically using a heat sensor. Anyway, it blows the hot air out and heats up most of our fist floor. So much in fact that it makes our thermostat believe it is hot in the house so the heater doesn't run, making the second floor pretty cold. (Which is fine, want to cold where I sleep.)

So even with fake ceramic logs, I would guess this is a viable heat source.

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Where do you find such a fan? I've looked online but I don't know what I'm looking for.

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I wouldn't go ventless. It is dangerous, no matter what anyone says.

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Not a fireplace expert, but can definitely confirm what Bonfire is saying here. Have two fireplaces in house and iinstalled ventless gas logs in both. Immediately learned you have to have damper open regardless what the manufacturer says. Installed chimney-top dampers on each which can be opened a just a slight amount from inside the house. This is really all you need to allow the fumes to escape, yet not lose a lot of heat.

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I work at a major fireplace company.

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Did you ever mention your company and the Texags discount?

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Tell me what you want, and ill see I I can hook you up. Anonymously of course. Oh and you have to be in north Texas.

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Where do you find such a fan? I've looked online but I don't know what I'm looking for.

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What brand is your fireplace? If you don't know, who built your house and when? I may be able to tell you what brand you have.

I ask because a fan kit from the manufacturer of your unit is a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

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Where do you find such a fan? I've looked online but I don't know what I'm looking for.

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What brand is your fireplace? If you don't know, who built your house and when? I may be able to tell you what brand you have.

I ask because a fan kit from the manufacturer of your unit is a relatively inexpensive upgrade.

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House was built by Legacy Monterey Homes in 1998 in Lewisville. I found a plate with the following numbers stamped on it:
E36
2498
GR4
556930

Which I know probably points to a cheap POS fireplace, but the wife likes to sit by it in the winter when it's cold out. After more googling it may be the heatilator E36 fireplace.

If we burn it long enough some heat builds up in close proximity, but if possible, we'd rather push the warm air a little further into the room without breaking the bank.

Any ideas? And for the record, I'm in DFW, but don't have the budget for a big upgrade right now.

Thanks for your expertise!

Send me a pm. My company sells and installs that brand, ill see if we can do a fan kit.

This was the fan I ordered. It was a 15 minute install. Had to disconnect the gas line where it stubs up into the fireplace unit to be able to maneuver/fit the fan to the back of the unit, and it's definitely hard to work back there with limited reach and arm/hand movement, but other than that, very straight forward install.
It has a knob to specify speed of fan.
As you crank it, it blows that heat way out, but can get a bit noisy. I have mine about 2/3 max. With tv on I can't hear it, and it still blows pretty good.
Then there is a magnetic sensor that sticks to underside of fire to auto turn on and off.

It does need power, my fireplace cavity has a receptacle.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004UJ8482/ref=pe_385040_30332200_pe_309540_26725410_item

Power will be the biggest obstacle. His homebuilder will not have made it easy in that regard. He likely has power running behind the unit, but getting it there will be an ordeal.

Bonfire, any chimney sweeps you'd recommend in the Plano area?

My house was built in 2013. It seems I remember asking about the plug in there, and was told it was required by code. This is in CO though. But yeh without power, it would be quite a task.

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Bonfire, any chimney sweeps you'd recommend in the Plano area?

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Yes. Chimney King - Elegant Fireside

At this point, I'm not sure what I want. It's quite confusing. My chimney and firebox need to be torn down and rebuilt. That's a certainty. There's no gas line or electrical today. So with that said, if you were starting from scratch and actually wanted to get some form of a heat source from your fire place, would you:
- have a gas line run and get a ceramic log set.
- go with a wood burning insert (do these units need electrical for the fan or do some of them not have fans?)
- have a gas line run and go with a gas burning insert.

jthonen -

At this point, since you are going to be ripping down a chimney, I assume it is on the outside of your 1940s house? It looks like you are in for a major renovation that is going to have a decent sized budget.

What I would do is take some of the money you would use for replacing the masonry, and pour that into a gas fireplace that will actually heat your house. Since you are on an outside wall, the gas line can be sent into your house from the outside, which won't require a ton of finish out changes to the rest of your interior.

Next, I would ditch the masonry chimney and choose one of two options.

1) If the fireplace is on a wall that faces the street, I would build a chase. A Chase is a chimney built out of wood and finished/trimmed out like the rest of your house. Inside the chase would be the fireplace pipe, which is stainless steel. It terminates at the top and can have a decorative fireplace cap placed on top to match the rest of the house's finish out, or can be a finishing piece to add character to the house. This whole ordeal would require a framing carpenter and a decent amount of lumber. Here is a very basic picture of a chase courtesy of google:



2) The most inexpensive way is to terminate the fireplace right out the back of the unit. I would only recommend this if the wall is not facing the street. There is a finishing cap on the exterior, but there are decorative caps you can place over it as not to show a piece of stainless steel metal around it. This way would still require you to build a platform for the unit and surround it in lumber and finishing materials, but you save the money that you would spend sending a chase all the way to the roof and beyond. Here is a picture of that option:



We call that a "doghouse" style termination. Here is a picture of a decorative cap you can place over the stainless steel termination you see above.



We call that a "beehive" cover, but you can get a metal worker to fashion any number of decorative ideas. I show you this just so that you don't get discouraged by the stainless steel piece of metal sticking out of the wall.


Now, as for the unit, given that your fireplace was masonry and was technically on the "outside" of the house and faced in, you can save a lot of the finishing materials that surrounded the unit on the inside, if you want to. This can keep the character of the older fireplace, but you can then just place the new fireplace behind them, from the outside, so that you get the benefit of the new, efficient unit plus the original surround finishing out the firepalce. This assumes the sizes match up.

As far as unit goes, there are lots of different kinds. I put a 8000CLX in my house. See below:

Heat n Glo 8000 series

It is a kickass unit the puts out a ton of heat, has a fan that you can control speeds and noise, and multiple flame heights to control heat output. It has a remote with a thermostat on it so you can set it to a timer, or you can have the remote reach a certain temperature and turn the unit on and off by itself. It is a real pimp daddy. Oh, and it can heat my 3500 square foot house on a 25 degree day with the attic fans circulating the air.

That can get expensive, and I got a pretty nice employee discount, or else that would have been out of my range. But if you are looking at replacing 20+ feet of brick, and you can cancel that out by putting in a cheaper chimney chase, or doghouse, then that becomes an option. If you need other options though, there are all kinds of choices. See below some of the units I recommend:

Heatilator Caliber

Power house unit that still looks great. Doesn't have multiple flame heights or fan speeds.

Heat n Glo 6000 series - smaller version of the 8000 series

All the same bells and whistles as 8000, just six inches smaller.

Heat n Glo Slim Line series

The Slim line series is a very narrow box, and can go places most fireplaces can't. The log's won't be as deep, but it still produces a nice flame and good heat output. I don't think they come with fans though, so it would just radiate heat.

Now all of these are direct vent fireplaces, which require gas, but is what you have to have if you want heat. They push 100% of the heat into the room, whereas a traditional fireplace with wood or gas logs pushes 90% of the heat up the chimney.

Good Luck.

Bonfire, thanks so much for the feedback.

I am having a lot of trouble with a wood burning fireplace in a spray foam house. Wasn't aware that it would be a problem and now I am just trying to figure out what can be done to remedy the problem. I can't DM you, but is there a way we can talk to discuss options and maybe converting to gas or something?

TxBombero said:

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I am having a lot of trouble with a wood burning fireplace in a spray foam house. Wasn't aware that it would be a problem and now I am just trying to figure out what can be done to remedy the problem. I can't DM you, but is there a way we can talk to discuss options and maybe converting to gas or something?

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if you have a gas starter, you can switch out the unit for a gas one. Finish out will be expensive, even more so if you have stonework/masonry finish out around your unit currently.

The best option is a power vent in the chimney that will attempt to suck air up from the fireplace. But that isn't guaranteed, because in order to push air out the chimney, air has to get sucked into the house from somewhere else. It sucks, but your quickest option is to crack a window in the room with the fireplace. Kind of defeats the purpose!

Unfortunately, builders are not good at this.