We bought our first home a year ago and are absolutely paranoid about fire safety since an apartment complex we lived in completely burned down about 6 yrs ago. the house is about 9 yrs old, has what appears to be a builder grade, superior brand brf-3875. the rear refrac panel is toast and it needs to be cleaned and inspected b4 I'll light a fire in it. Well we have elec heat and had unusually cold winters for TX last year---daytime for a week never broke 30 F. our heating bill was TWICE the TX summer cooling bill so we were not happy-- I am looking to supplement the heating with a wood burning fireplace---- should i repair this, do an insert, or rip it out and install a real fireplace---- I like the idea of the zero clearance units, but may not need one as this pre-fab is in the corner and there is a bunch of space behind it- it appears to have a double-wall chimney pipe that is 14" yet the termination at the top of the chimney is more like 8". I would like to keep the total cost around $3500 and my father in law is a contractor so he could do the finish work. also, how do I know if the installer is really qualified----I surely don't want some idiot just reading the instructions and slapping the unit into place----i ask since some other members stated that some installers would willingly put an insert into a prefab while others opposed it-----any help would be appreciated including preferred brands----