# Extending A Fireplace



## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

So, we have no indoor heat other than electric. We do have a fireplace that is basically for ambiance only. Is there a way to extend the hearth forward and turn it into an enclosed firebox or extend it and have an open hearth to use to cook on/in?


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Toffee said:


> So, we have no indoor heat other than electric. We do have a fireplace that is basically for ambiance only. Is there a way to extend the hearth forward and turn it into an enclosed firebox or extend it and have an open hearth to use to cook on/in?


Yup. Actually there are a number of ways you can achieve your goals and they involve different amounts of work, money and renovation and will be dependent on the particulars of your home.

You asked a very general question and you're not going to get answers rich with details because such details are dependent on the specifics of your situation.


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

Sorry, I was trying to write up the post on my way out the door. The fireplace sits at one end of our house in its own wall. It is a wood fireplace and there is plenty of room to extend it forward, but not so much on the sides. Our house is 72 ft long, so I don't know if that makes a difference.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

The easiest option, in my opinion, is to shove a wood stove into the fireplace. This is probably the cheapest way to go too. To actually construct a working fireplace in place of your decorative one is going to involve a lot of renovation work and foundation work too ($$$$$$).

Here's an insert:


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

I am going to have my fireplace hollowed out a bit so I can put in a regular wood stove. I put an insert it 2 years ago, I have been underwhelmed since. I don't get much heat from it. It was a waste of time and money.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

JustCliff said:


> I am going to have my fireplace hollowed out a bit so I can put in a regular wood stove. I put an insert it 2 years ago, I have been underwhelmed since. I don't get much heat from it. It was a waste of time and money.


If you are really committed to using wood heat in your home then my suggestion is to bypass stoves altogether (budget permitting.) The problem with stoves is that they're very light on thermal mass. You light a fire and the stove metal absorbs that heat and dissipates it rapidly and then the stove cools quickly and the room also cools quickly (kind of.) As you up the thermal mass in the fireplace that mass captures the heat and releases it slowly, meaning less fluctuations in room temperature.


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

JustCliff said:


> I put an insert it 2 years ago, I have been underwhelmed since. I don't get much heat from it. It was a waste of time and money.


Doesn't it have a fan? We have an insert with a fan that circulates the air around the stove before dispersing it into the room. There are times when we need to turn it off (which is NOT recommended by the manufacturer) because it gets too hot in the house. I realize the fan could be a problem in a grid down situation but we overcame that with a 400w inverter and a couple of batteries. The fan ran for about 16 hours on 1 battery.

Ours is an older model of this Baker.


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

Bobbb said:


> If you are really committed to using wood heat in your home then my suggestion is to bypass stoves altogether (budget permitting.) The problem with stoves is that they're very light on thermal mass. You light a fire and the stove metal absorbs that heat and dissipates it rapidly and then the stove cools quickly and the room also cools quickly (kind of.) As you up the thermal mass in the fireplace that mass captures the heat and releases it slowly, meaning less fluctuations in room temperature.


What is your suggestion other than wood stoves then? It was my first choice, because we have firewood for free.


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## Bobbb (Jan 7, 2012)

Toffee said:


> What is your suggestion other than wood stoves then? It was my first choice, because we have firewood for free.


A wood stove is easy, or rather the easiest option. A better option is highlighted in the photos above. They're called masonry heaters. As you can see this involves a lot more space planning in the home, involves a bigger budget, but these can heat a 2,000 sf home with only one or two firings a day. They burn super hot, 1,000 C, but you can sit on them or lean on them and you don't feel the sizzling heat. The heat gets slowly stored in 10 tons of rock or soapstone and then is slowly released over the course of the day. This completely avoids the hot-cold cycle of stoves. As an added bonus you can incorporate a bake oven into the masonry heater (see the bottom 2 photos in the first batch and notice the 2nd door higher up on the masonry heater) and bake yourself pizzas and bread with free heat. Others have built in stovetops (3rd from bottom) which again provide free cooking heat or free house heating, depending on how you look at it.

Google "Masonry Heater" and you'll find a lot of links.You can buy commercially made units out of soapstone, which has the best heat retaining capacity, you can buy units made from high-temp cast concrete, you can buy kits and do it yourself, you can buy the guts of a unit and then build the shell out of bricks or rocks, you can hire a mason to do it for you or you can do it yourself. They're great but they're not cheap. They're very popular in Europe. In Germany they're called Kachelofen and made of ceramic tiles:


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## Tirediron (Jul 12, 2010)

Here is a link to a system that combines both a wood stove and thermal mass that should be fairly adaptable to a fireplace mod. http://www.geopathfinder.com/9597.html


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## Toffee (Mar 13, 2012)

Tirediron said:


> Here is a link to a system that combines both a wood stove and thermal mass that should be fairly adaptable to a fireplace mod. http://www.geopathfinder.com/9597.html


I like it. Kind of a combo between a normal wood stove and a masonry stove. I wonder if you could just add some more layers to it to help it retain the heat longer. Hmmm...I will have to investigate masonry stoves more. They are actually what inspired me to ask, because I saw an article in a magazine about them, but I wasn't sure I could retrofit our house with a similar system. Thanks everyone!


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## JustCliff (May 21, 2011)

UncleJoe said:


> Doesn't it have a fan? We have an insert with a fan that circulates the air around the stove before dispersing it into the room. There are times when we need to turn it off (which is NOT recommended by the manufacturer) because it gets too hot in the house. I realize the fan could be a problem in a grid down situation but we overcame that with a 400w inverter and a couple of batteries. The fan ran for about 16 hours on 1 battery.
> 
> Ours is an older model of this Baker.


I do have a fan on it but, it just doesn't seem to cut it. It is supposed to be able to heat 1200 sq ft. It heats the living room fine but the rest of the house stays cool. I think one of my wood heaters would do a much better job.


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## Tex (Oct 31, 2008)

I have an idea I'd like to try some day. A wood burning stove set in a masonry surrounding. The exhaust of the stove would be routed through a masonry king size bed base in the master bedroom next door before going out the chimney. A thermal mass and a heated bed all in one. Just put a standard matress on the masonry base. I could even use 2 twin matresses if me and the Mrs. like different softness levels.


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