Question re: "converting" woodstove to hearth w/ insert

[amyp]

Hi,
I'm hoping someone can help me. We're considering buying a house that has a freestanding woodburning stove sitting on a brick base with a brick wall behind it. We don't really like the brick, plus with 2 small children are concerned about safety.

My question is, how hard and labor-intensive & expensive would it be to remove the brick and create a stone hearth there instead? Then maybe put a woodstove insert with a heatilator in it. I'm thinking it would use the same tube thing that's currently there for the stove, and no chimney would need to be built since it's just the look of the fireplace with a stone hearth rather than an actual working woodburning fireplace.

Does anyone have any advice about this you'd be willing to share? Also, how well do the woodstoves heat? The house has electric heat and I heard that was really expensive. I've always had gas heat and currently have a gas fireplace (but grew up w/ a real one) so we're totally clueless on electric heat & woodstoves.

Is thinking about converting for safety and aesthetic reasons even an issue for other people? Is it cost-prohibitive? We're in Maryland if that helps.

Thanks for any and all advice you can give!

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

there all hot, if you want efficient heat (which you will with electric heat) you have to have super hot surfaces. What you need is a hearth gate. www.kidco.com
inserts arent realy any safer then stoves, plus you cant use a insert unless you have a existing fireplace. If you want to start from scratch with a new efficient fireplace you need to purchase a EPA zero clearance fireplace, like the BIS or the quadrafire 7100.
You can buy a pre fab hearth pad if you like in the 300-400 range.

 

[amyp]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Re: the safety issue, I was just thinking if the stove part was tucked into a hearth, there would be less hot surface to get burned on - plus it might take up less space in the room (the house currently has a brick hearth pad I guess you would call it and the stove is kind of sitting far out on it making furniture placement a little tricky). Thank you SO much for the link to the gate, though -- that's super-helpful and we'll get one of those if we get the hosue with the stove or if we get one with a regular fireplace.

Are you saying that if we wanted the woodstove part to look like it was a hearth with a ledge and stone behind it, we'd basically have to start from scratch? If so, is that super-expensive? And does a freestanding woodstove heat considerably better than one that is more like an insert or one that is tucked into a hearth?

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

 

[elkimmeg]

That setup, many here would kill, for providing there is insulation behind that wall or the chimney is in an interior location. You have the optimal setup. not only will a free stand stove produce heat, but that brick wall will absorbe it and act as a storage medium. It will release heat long after the stove has died down. Should you purchase that hom it is important to get that stove inspected cleaned and the flue inspected and cleaned . Then if you can provide the stove manufacturer and model and sq ft of living space , the pros here can tell you if it is sized correctly to carry your heat load. I do not view you future setup a negative, but a good oppertunity to heat your home off the grid.

As for the remodel you are thinking about you could see as much as 10k, to do what you prepose and not improve wood heating better than what you have now.
It is possible you may not be able to connect into your existing chimney and may require complete dismantling and replacement with.a class A chimney without pictures and seeing the actual setup we all are gussing here.

Welcome aboard Hearth.com and good luck house hunting

 

[sgcsalsero]

It took three months of researching before my wife and I decided on an insert, the majority of info. coming from this forum, may I suggest doing some key word searches on prior posts, and also look at the ratings section and pics.

 

[MountainStoveGuy]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Re: the safety issue, I was just thinking if the stove part was tucked into a hearth, there would be less hot surface to get burned on - plus it might take up less space in the room (the house currently has a brick hearth pad I guess you would call it and the stove is kind of sitting far out on it making furniture placement a little tricky). Thank you SO much for the link to the gate, though -- that's super-helpful and we'll get one of those if we get the hosue with the stove or if we get one with a regular fireplace.

Are you saying that if we wanted the woodstove part to look like it was a hearth with a ledge and stone behind it, we'd basically have to start from scratch? If so, is that super-expensive? And does a freestanding woodstove heat considerably better than one that is more like an insert or one that is tucked into a hearth?

Thanks again for all your help and advice.

Most wood stove accidents happen in the front of the stove. Same with the inserts. Kids dont go up and touch something hot, its horseplay that gets them burned. Get a hearthgate, its a must have. With the extra surface area you get better heating.

If you want to build it in you will need to start from scratch. ZC fireplaces that are EPA approved will start in the 3k range just for the actual unit, not including venting (you will have to change that) or the remodel.

If you choose a new free standing stove and hearth that could be 3k too. But the venting could possilbly stay. Like elk said, we need more info on the venting before we can make any more assumptions on the venting.

 

[bcnu]

I have a similar set up and was also going to ask a question and this seems like a good time. Is it easy enough to remove the raised hearth and replace it with a slightly raised pad. 40 year old fireplace has a raised hearth with the old Roman brick facing. I can see three tubes that vent through the front of the fireplace. The hearth has a register on each side. I'm thinking of removing just the raised hearth, building a pad and setting a stove, with legs, on the pad and venting through fireplace opening. It's a masonry chimney on an inside wall. that is currently drafting quite well for an old insert. So it should do even better with a liner. I'm thinking of removing the raised hearth to get a more modern look.

 

[amyp]

Thank you all so much for your helpful responses. I didn't realize that the brick and freestanding woodstove is the ideal setup. I also browsed around the hearth.com site some more and found some pictures of really beautiful woodstoves that got me thinking that maybe it wouldn't be all that smart to convert the woodstove to a hearth - especially if it's really expensive and resulted in less heat. I do love the look of the mantle & fireplace, but some of those stoves are gorgeous and look great standing on their own.

So that brings me to another question -- is brick the best heat conductor or is stone good, too? The brick in the one house we're looking at is a grayish-white and stained in some places, so that's part of what got me thinking about the stone. If it's the best heat conductor, though, things might look better if we just tried to clean and/or stain the brick or something and then just got a more attractive stove. Otherwise I'd think about replacing it with stone. And, of course, getting the child gate (thank you again for letting me know about that!)

Thanks again for your help with this! I feel like there's a whole exciting world of woodstoves out there that we've totally been missing out on!

 

[zzr7ky]

Hi -

It's great to see folks doing the research before the re-work!

I have two Fire Places like BCNU describes above. I don't like the pale pinkish whitewashed bricks. I'm cash strapped right now but when I have the coin I'm going to lay stove right over the existing brick. You'll want to ensure the area is adequately supported underneath due to the extra wieght. More rock is more thermal mass. Once it heats up for a day or so it's going to release it's heat slowly for a long time. The cultured stone isn't very difficult if you're decent with DIY jobs.

ATB,
Mike P

 

[bcnu]

Mike, did you mean to say you would lay stone over the brick? That's our plan. Will you leave or remove the raised hearth? Hadn't thought about extra support if I remove current hearth. That sounds like a new question to post :

 

[zzr7ky]

BCNU -

Yes - I'll add the rock right over the brick. I added a steel pillar underneath the raised hearth area when I mounted a 450# freestanding stove in the FP opening. My FP was of the heat-a-lator style you describe. I installed 6" rigid liner straight up through the sloped portion of the firebox behind the damper. It wasn't that tough.

ATB,
Mike P

 

[Rhone]

I agree with the others posts, a wood stove or insert, they both get damn hot and both are dangerous to children. No matter what you do, you're better off getting the gate stated.

There's a difference between a stove & insert is the way they heat. A stove is better at heating the room it's in, and all objects in that room for that matter, but not as capable of moving the heat to other areas and floors of a house as well as an insert which is more capable of spreading the heat around to other rooms and areas of your house but isn't as capable of heating the room it's in and objects in said room like a stove. There's no winners or losers, depends on what your goal is. In this situation though, I wouldn't change the setup because I too see it costing somewhere around $10k at this point and only be marginally safer for children. And, by the sounds of things that setup is to die for with a stove. It would be a shame to change it.

 

[elkimmeg]

Bcnu to answer your question first one canuse a flat metal masonry chisle and hammer and probably remove a layer or two of bricks.
Clean it all up add a bed or mortar and set stones or one piece of blue stone or granite the weight issue should not be a problem, becanus you just removes about an equal amount

Amyp heat absorptionand retention for stone work compared to bricks is the same adding another layer increases the storage mass making your situation better
facing the ugly brick front can be done with any other masonry /stone product Instead of common mortar one may have to use cement base like tile adhiesive that another option one can tile over the bricks as well. To get the traditional mantle look one can imbed two bluestone brackets and install a blue stone mantal If you do it this way you are using non combustiable materials and clearances are a non issue

 

[Gooserider]

Another option for dealing with "ugly bricks" is to paint them - One of the sponsors here has kits to repaint bricks that supposedly makes them look "natural" and lasts for a long time. I haven't done this, or seen it done, but it's something to consider. The kits are pricey at several hundred bucks, but that's less than the cost of most stone face or other options.

Gooserider

 

[bcnu]

Goose, we thought about painting the brick, but decided stone or tile will give us the look we want. Have a son-in-law who can do the tile or stone work - so that really cuts the overall cost.

Elk, thanks for your post also. The existing hearth is 11 inches high and 17 wide. It's only 1 brick thick, as the interior of the hearth is mostly gray cinder block with a large air space. So it won't be too hard to remove. I should try to post a pic.