And if you are a married man, you probably think "oh crap" when someone of the female persuasion says that... 
At least I *think* my husband says that in his head (he is far too wise to say that outloud.) when he hears me say "so I had this idea". LOL.
Let me preface this by saying that we are owned by an 1880 Brick Eastlake Victorian that was near condemnable when we bought it. It is double wall brick construction, which means there is plaster, then a 4" brick wall then a 4" airspace for "insulation" (yeah, notsomuch) then a 4" exterior brick wall. When we bought the house there was what we affectionately call "the funky door window thing" because they had a window shaped hole with plexiglass in it with a falling apart wood screen door on the outside. (And that is some of the better stuff done to her in the 60s-70s. It's a good thing that the guy who tore off the wrap around gingerbread porch, put drop ceilings hanging from drop ceilings and paneling up and took out a lot of the woodwork is dead, because I would kill him myself.) We put a used metal door in there temporarily until we took care of more pressing things and figured out what we are doing with the door. It is directly across from our front door and there really isn't a need for it to enter and exit the house.
What I would like to do is to put a fireplace in that opening. We would also like to do it as inexpensively as possible, but as good as possible. We are experienced DIY'ers though not above hiring professionals for specific tasks when safety is a factor. Like I do any and all electrical wiring in our house, but we hired an electrician to put in a new 200amp electrical drop to our house and we hired roofers to reshingle our roof 3 stories up on a 12 pitch roof (not to mention the original 1880 wood shakes were up there under the 5 layers of asphalt)
This is a 32" door doorway, and because there is an arch that holds up the wall above it, cutting a wider opening is not like cutting a wider opening on a frame built house) More than likely I would gain some inches by removing the door frame and such. There is a finished room above this area and not a good spot for a chimney to go through it. There is a basement below this area and there is a deck on the exterior. Ideally, I would like eventually to have an exterior fireplace on the back of where the fireplace would be on the interior. The foundation is a melange of fieldstone and brick and is AFAIK a couple feet thick.
I know I could just run stove pipe out the back of the fireplace to the outdoors and up the appropriate height, but that it wouldn't draft properly here in a Michigan winter. (See! I did learn something hanging out here!) I didn't know if it would be better to tear back the deck and pour a cement pad and build a masonry chimney (I'm assuming cement block then face with brick or stone?) up the appropriate height or to use a metal chimney and build a metal stud and cement board chimney chase around it to keep that chimney warm and then face it with brick tile. Would there be an appropriate insulation for that?
I'm assuming (you know what they say about when you assume...) that what we would want is a zero clearance firebox. But I wasn't sure if that is true. Could we DIY a masonry firebox? Are there plans out there for that? I know there is math involved so it draws properly We want this fireplace to heat the house so I figure we need to put an insert in it. I love, love, love the idea of a masonry heater, but I'm not sure that there is room for that. There is an exterior wall about 10" to the left of the doorway and an interior doorway about 2 feet to the right. The prefab DIY masonry heaters are too expensive for us. Are there any good DIY masonry heater plans out there that might work? (tall and narrow, I'm thinking. We have 9' ceilings and the door would be 32"x83")
Cost is a HUGE factor, but we are not in a hurry and are willing to scavenge and salvage materials and do the project in stages. We would also be fine with getting a not ideal, used insert to use until we can save up for a dream insert, for example. We're fine with working our way up the food chain. We also plan to DIY as much as humanly possible. At the same time, we'd like to do the more permanent things right and not half-assed.
So I am looking for thoughts, ideas, codes, clearances, links to plans, blog posts, preferred products, warnings, caveats, sources, etc.
I can get some photos and measurements if that will help. Thanks!
At least I *think* my husband says that in his head (he is far too wise to say that outloud.) when he hears me say "so I had this idea". LOL.Let me preface this by saying that we are owned by an 1880 Brick Eastlake Victorian that was near condemnable when we bought it. It is double wall brick construction, which means there is plaster, then a 4" brick wall then a 4" airspace for "insulation" (yeah, notsomuch) then a 4" exterior brick wall. When we bought the house there was what we affectionately call "the funky door window thing" because they had a window shaped hole with plexiglass in it with a falling apart wood screen door on the outside. (And that is some of the better stuff done to her in the 60s-70s. It's a good thing that the guy who tore off the wrap around gingerbread porch, put drop ceilings hanging from drop ceilings and paneling up and took out a lot of the woodwork is dead, because I would kill him myself.) We put a used metal door in there temporarily until we took care of more pressing things and figured out what we are doing with the door. It is directly across from our front door and there really isn't a need for it to enter and exit the house.
What I would like to do is to put a fireplace in that opening. We would also like to do it as inexpensively as possible, but as good as possible. We are experienced DIY'ers though not above hiring professionals for specific tasks when safety is a factor. Like I do any and all electrical wiring in our house, but we hired an electrician to put in a new 200amp electrical drop to our house and we hired roofers to reshingle our roof 3 stories up on a 12 pitch roof (not to mention the original 1880 wood shakes were up there under the 5 layers of asphalt)
This is a 32" door doorway, and because there is an arch that holds up the wall above it, cutting a wider opening is not like cutting a wider opening on a frame built house) More than likely I would gain some inches by removing the door frame and such. There is a finished room above this area and not a good spot for a chimney to go through it. There is a basement below this area and there is a deck on the exterior. Ideally, I would like eventually to have an exterior fireplace on the back of where the fireplace would be on the interior. The foundation is a melange of fieldstone and brick and is AFAIK a couple feet thick.
I know I could just run stove pipe out the back of the fireplace to the outdoors and up the appropriate height, but that it wouldn't draft properly here in a Michigan winter. (See! I did learn something hanging out here!) I didn't know if it would be better to tear back the deck and pour a cement pad and build a masonry chimney (I'm assuming cement block then face with brick or stone?) up the appropriate height or to use a metal chimney and build a metal stud and cement board chimney chase around it to keep that chimney warm and then face it with brick tile. Would there be an appropriate insulation for that?
I'm assuming (you know what they say about when you assume...) that what we would want is a zero clearance firebox. But I wasn't sure if that is true. Could we DIY a masonry firebox? Are there plans out there for that? I know there is math involved so it draws properly We want this fireplace to heat the house so I figure we need to put an insert in it. I love, love, love the idea of a masonry heater, but I'm not sure that there is room for that. There is an exterior wall about 10" to the left of the doorway and an interior doorway about 2 feet to the right. The prefab DIY masonry heaters are too expensive for us. Are there any good DIY masonry heater plans out there that might work? (tall and narrow, I'm thinking. We have 9' ceilings and the door would be 32"x83")
Cost is a HUGE factor, but we are not in a hurry and are willing to scavenge and salvage materials and do the project in stages. We would also be fine with getting a not ideal, used insert to use until we can save up for a dream insert, for example. We're fine with working our way up the food chain. We also plan to DIY as much as humanly possible. At the same time, we'd like to do the more permanent things right and not half-assed.
So I am looking for thoughts, ideas, codes, clearances, links to plans, blog posts, preferred products, warnings, caveats, sources, etc.
I can get some photos and measurements if that will help. Thanks!
