Installing a wood stove insert without a fireplace

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JoshWarner

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Apr 22, 2015
2
Mason, Michigan
So I have a 150 year old house I am tearing apart and remodeling, there is no fireplace in the house, but it has a masonry chimney on the outside, with a liner, and a round connector sticking in the living room wall (obviously for a wood stove). I want to put a wood stove in the living room, but the wife wants a fireplace with a mantle. To compromise we decided a wood stove insert would be great. The problem is that there is no fireplace to insert it into.

Is is possible to build a box with fire blanket/fire brick, shove the insert in there, attach some double wall stack connecting to the chimney and surround that with some non combustible walls and call it a day, or is that against every rule in the code book?

Let me know if more information or pictures will help

-Josh
 
Welcome to the forums!

It is certainly doable. I am uncertain how much it could/will cost though. As Bholler said, just make sure that the specs meet all code regarding clearances. Metal studs will certainly help ease the mind...

Andrew
 
Considering an insert will have fan noise and an electrical cord that might be visible depending on how you build the box, why not build a good looking hearth and go with a wood stove? I would have much preferred a free-standing stove over the insert.
 
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A fireplace insert is only approved to go into a full masonry fireplace built according to all the applicable codes. That's a lot of effort and not really that cheap only to install an insert. Plus, you will be adding quite a bit of weight; does the floor of the proposed location support that? In the end, it will be up to your local code authority whether they approve your install or not. I would certainly ask for their opinion before moving forward.

I highly recommend to first shop a bit around with your wife to see if there is not a woodstove that she likes. There are some nice cast-iron/enamel ones e. g. from Jotul, Quadrafire, or Hearthstone or soapstone stoves from Hearthstone and Woodstock that she may like. Those will be much cheaper, easier to maintain, and heat better.
 
Every zero clearance fireplace I am aware of requires a manufactured chimney system that is approved by the fireplace manufacturer, including this one. Download the manual and look at page 41.

I don't think your masonry chimney is going to work with any type of fireplace.

High efficiency, zero clearance fireplaces can look great and be very efficient heaters, but they can get really expensive. Do you have a budget in mind?
 
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Before anything, you need to make certain that chimney you have is sound, what it's dimensions are, etc.

Even if your chimney is ready to go or only needs a liner, you'll be money and performance ahead if you were to build a sweet hearth pad and wall behind it from stone, or brick, or whatever she fancies, and put a freestanding stove in this area.

Inserts are used to get the most performance possible for someone who's stuck with a masonry fireplace. Zero clearance units, as mentioned above, are most likely not going to be able to be attached to the chimney you have to work with.

pen
 
JoshWarner said:
So I have a 150 year old house I am tearing apart and remodeling, there is no fireplace in the house, but it has a masonry chimney on the outside, with a liner, and a round connector sticking in the living room wall (obviously for a wood stove). I want to put a wood stove in the living room, but the wife wants a fireplace with a mantle. To compromise we decided a wood stove insert would be great. The problem is that there is no fireplace to insert it into.

-Josh
Click to expand...

FYI, a fireplace and mantle is an anachronism in a 150-yo house. People knew better by then and woodstoves were advanced enough in design to far outperform them, so builders quit putting them in.

When I moved up to rural Vermont, I yearned for a fireplace and an 1850's-ish house, and got very frustrated that I didn't see any when I was house-hunting. Then somebody explained it to me. Now I'm so in love with the looks and performance of my stove, I wouldn't have a fireplace.

Once central heating was invented, builders started putting fireplaces in more upscale houses again just for the entertainment value. I have friends in southern California with a fireplace!

I'm over-simplifying, but that's why your house doesn't have and never did have a fireplace.

Get some Hearthstone brochures and leave them around the house. If your wife is imagining a woodstove as a modern-style metal stove and it's not to her taste, the Hearthstone line may well change her mind.
 
There are fireplaces in many houses of that age here but many of them are meant for coal not wood. Around here they went out 100 to 120 years ago replaced by parlor stoves
 
bholler said:
There are fireplaces in many houses of that age here but many of them are meant for coal not wood. Around here they went out 100 to 120 years ago replaced by parlor stoves
Click to expand...
People burned coal in fireplaces? Yikes! Well, you taught me something new there. Coal was never used widely here, and from what I understand, when it was used, it was in basement boilers as central heating, fairly soon to be replaced by oil-burning.

(But don't tell the OP's wife about that!)
 
gyrfalcon said:
People burned coal in fireplaces? Yikes! Well, you taught me something new there. Coal was never used widely here, and from what I understand, when it was used, it was in basement boilers as central heating, fairly soon to be replaced by oil-burning.

(But don't tell the OP's wife about that!)
Click to expand...

Lots of the coal fireplaces here in Pa,,,,, coal country. Keeping the firewood necessary on hand in towns wasn't as easy as a coal bin.
 
gyrfalcon said:
People burned coal in fireplaces? Yikes! Well, you taught me something new there. Coal was never used widely here, and from what I understand, when it was used, it was in basement boilers as central heating, fairly soon to be replaced by oil-burning.
Click to expand...
And lots of coal furnaces boilers and freestanding stoves still as well. I don't know of any coal fireplaces still being used though Many people try burning wood in them and find out it generally doesn't work very well
 
JoshWarner said:
I want to put a wood stove in the living room, but the wife wants a fireplace with a mantle. To compromise we decided a wood stove insert would be great. The problem is that there is no fireplace to insert it into.
Click to expand...
I think a better compromise would be to get a wood stove and build a hearth with a mantle. However, if your wife is the one who will be paying the heating bill then go ahead and build an actual fireplace for her.
This leads to the unasked question, do you intend to try and use this fireplace/inset/wood stove to heat this old house, or is it strictly for looks?
 
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