DIY fireplace, from scratch. Your thoughts?

[dgoanne]

After many hours searching for the perfect, energy efficient, EPA compliant, modern, bay window (or curved window) fireplace, fireplace insert, or woodstove (and after narrowing it down to the very pricey Scan DSA 5 or RSF Delta 2), we are now considering building our own. We are building a home right now; my husband is a builder and inventor w/ more than 30 homes built (and not burned down); etc. I've found the Rumsford plans so far, but am wondering if you all have other ideas? We want a very wide view (again, bay or curved) layout, but it does not need to be a terribly high heat producer. What do I need to begin looking at? What are the questions I should even ask? thx!

 

[Adios Pantalones]

It sounds like your husband would be the type of guy that would be interested in masonry heaters: http://mha-net.org/

 

[weatherguy]

Maybe something along these lines

http://www.stenovne.dk/englishnew01.html

 

[dgoanne]

those are neat stoves, but appear to be small AND super efficient due to the long bench. Trying to build something shallow and convex is more our situation, as the wall it will be against already protrudes into the room, somewhat dividing the liv and dining areas.

 

[SteveKG]

I built our fireplace by hand and from ground up to top of chimney. It takes a while. Ok, more than a while. I designed mine to be a Rutherford. 36" wide [opening] and 36" high at top of arched opening. It requires some planning to get the angles all figured out, and I made plywood guides cut in the appropriate angle for the appropriate portion of the fireplace box. That was 30 yr. ago, and it has been working great since. It puts out heat that amazes guests. No fireplace will be as efficient as a stove, but the Rutherfords are the best I've seen at putting out heat into the house.

I say go for it.