Hi. We are looking for some advice on choosing a woodburning fireplace insert and cleaning fireplace stone. We hope you experienced folks on this site can offer some suggestions.
My wife and I purchased a 1920’s English Tudor which we are restoring (ourselves). As much as possible, we are trying to preserve its original architectural character. We have been looking at putting an insert into the existing fireplace to help heat the living room. See attached picture. We are also working on cleaning the hearth stone, retuckpointing, and replacing the floor stone with tile appropriate for the period of the house (we are part way through this process as shown in the picture).
Ideally, we would like to purchase an insert that can heat through the night, that has a fan (quiet as possible), and that is inconspicuous. We are also trying to avoid using a square surround that will cover the arched stone shown in the photo. To achieve this, we are considering hiring a blacksmith to build a custom surround (which would set back in the opening), possibly fabricating a new door as well as hand-forged decorative elements (branches, leaves) to match the other iron hardware and lighting in the house.
So, the bottom line is that we are looking for a high performance/high quality insert that we can modify the front of to match the architecture of the house. Rather than having the insert being the focal point of the living room, we are trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible.
Our dilemma is that we have searched the web and most inserts either won’t fit in the opening (29” floor to keystone) or stick too far out into the room.
The stove that comes the closest (and will fit) is the Vermont Castings Winter Warm Small Insert, however after reading some of the negative experiences with VC inserts on this site, we are hesitant. Also, we have been unable to look at the VC insert as we can’t find a dealer that has one on display (we have called all dealers within 100 miles of our hometown, Madison, Wisconsin).
Some Questions:
1) What is the current opinion of the VC Winter Warm Small Insert? Any owners out there who can give their experiences? Also, any opinions/experiences with modifying this or other types of inserts?
2) Anyone know of other inserts that don’t have the fan in the front of the unit? We have looked at VC, Morso, Regency, Jotul, Vista, Morgan, Enviro…..
3) Does anyone know of a custom insert builder out there that could build something for us?
4) Finally, I have been trying to clean the 80 years of soot off the sandstone hearth….having good luck with TSP and elbow grease on most of the stone, however some are very stubborn to remove. Any suggestions on the next step to remove the grey soot? Acid?
Thanks in advance. This is a great site. Bob& Grace, Madison, Wisconsin
My wife and I purchased a 1920’s English Tudor which we are restoring (ourselves). As much as possible, we are trying to preserve its original architectural character. We have been looking at putting an insert into the existing fireplace to help heat the living room. See attached picture. We are also working on cleaning the hearth stone, retuckpointing, and replacing the floor stone with tile appropriate for the period of the house (we are part way through this process as shown in the picture).
Ideally, we would like to purchase an insert that can heat through the night, that has a fan (quiet as possible), and that is inconspicuous. We are also trying to avoid using a square surround that will cover the arched stone shown in the photo. To achieve this, we are considering hiring a blacksmith to build a custom surround (which would set back in the opening), possibly fabricating a new door as well as hand-forged decorative elements (branches, leaves) to match the other iron hardware and lighting in the house.
So, the bottom line is that we are looking for a high performance/high quality insert that we can modify the front of to match the architecture of the house. Rather than having the insert being the focal point of the living room, we are trying to make it as inconspicuous as possible.
Our dilemma is that we have searched the web and most inserts either won’t fit in the opening (29” floor to keystone) or stick too far out into the room.
The stove that comes the closest (and will fit) is the Vermont Castings Winter Warm Small Insert, however after reading some of the negative experiences with VC inserts on this site, we are hesitant. Also, we have been unable to look at the VC insert as we can’t find a dealer that has one on display (we have called all dealers within 100 miles of our hometown, Madison, Wisconsin).
Some Questions:
1) What is the current opinion of the VC Winter Warm Small Insert? Any owners out there who can give their experiences? Also, any opinions/experiences with modifying this or other types of inserts?
2) Anyone know of other inserts that don’t have the fan in the front of the unit? We have looked at VC, Morso, Regency, Jotul, Vista, Morgan, Enviro…..
3) Does anyone know of a custom insert builder out there that could build something for us?
4) Finally, I have been trying to clean the 80 years of soot off the sandstone hearth….having good luck with TSP and elbow grease on most of the stone, however some are very stubborn to remove. Any suggestions on the next step to remove the grey soot? Acid?
Thanks in advance. This is a great site. Bob& Grace, Madison, Wisconsin
