Questioning the stove guy

Wound up having to pay a visit to someone across the street from the stove shop, so I dragged Mrs. Blue shopping.

Stove guy tried very hard to sell us a prefab fireplace he had on the floor. Mrs. Blue explained that I spend quite enough time messing with the stove I have and that she was in no mood for more wood burning hardware. Then her eye fell on various fireplace door assemblies that admittedly would look better in our living room (Brand was Stoll, I think.) Conversation then turned to the fact that we'd really rather be rid of our monstrous brick hearth (pictured) and that we are considering cladding over it with drywall, similar to some display hearths they had on the floor.

Anyhow, he insisted that we could face over the hearth brick by:
1) Removing the pictured heat exchanger grate
2) Stuffing the opening with Roxul
3) Having a mason brick up the opening
4) Screw furring strips to the brick
5) Attach cement board or drywall to furring strips and paint

I know I've asked this here before, and the consensus seemed to be, "Don't do that."
Is this fellow wrong?

I tend to like the brick look - not sure I'm in favor of the vent on top given the color so I'd consider painting it black perhaps, but beauty is in the eyes of the beholder (or more important, the lady of the house!). Also without the context of the rest of the room it is hard to really understand how it all fits in...

So - what is the "finished" look that you want anyway? I presume you still want to burn there. I like the suggestion to tile over if you like that look. If you are going for something that appears more like a painted wall, then perhaps you can put up cement board (directly attached to the brick with some sort of cement/mortar filler for gaps and screwed into the brick?) then skim it over with plaster to smooth it before painting?

The room in question is rectangular, 28'x14', with the fireplace centered on one long wall. The hearth pictured is about 10' wide total.

The problem is that the hearth is floor-to-ceiling brick, so it dominates the entire room. Further, that heat exchanger grate is... ugly.

Burning in this fireplace is for ambience only- the 30 heats the house. Further, we expect to be moving within 2 years, so a full-bore masonry-demolition project is out of the question. We are hoping to keep the fireplace usable, but to minimize the domination of the brick.

This photo gives a general idea of what we're after; not this design specifically, but this sort of treatment of tile/stone giving way to wall.

Begreen, that drives to the heart of the question- to do that we'd still have to cover that heat exchanger. Were we to do that, does stove guy's advice make any more sense, from a safety standpoint?

The heat exchanger is built into the masonry- it does not appear to be a stand-alone unit.

I'm gonna' be the bad guy here, bluedogz.
If you're leaving in 2 years or less, why bother doing anything? Perhaps to increase resale?
That's a crapshoot.
I wouldn't touch it.
Flame suit on.

No flames from me. You have a good point.

The answer(s) is/are:
- we hate the &%$! hearth
- we get itchy in the fingers if we don't have a home-improvement project going

Trust me, I know all about the need for a project.
I'm itching to tear into either the bathroom $$$$, or the stoveroom $.
I don't like the brick behind my stove and I wonder what's behind it.

Hello

I got a DV LP Heat & Glo and built in the Flat Screen.
Now I just run the DVD of the wood fire and it also has xmass songs too!

Some of my most painful and regrettable projects have begun that way. I may enjoy watching this from a distance.

I have a brick wall built inside a stone fireplace, that's destined to come out very soon, for the same reason.

Cultured stone is doable over the brick, nail metal lathe, mortar on the stone.... Depending on the area, some of the stone is affordable.

Just painting that grate a nice flat black would do wonders. I myself, if that would not do.... would go to Home Depot, they have a small bin full of different styles of metal panels with different holes & cut out styles. I used a clover style metal screen and painted it oil rubbed bronze. I will be installing it on small openings in sides of the back of the old chimney which is now in my new bedroom to be. I get minor free heat from the masonry and made 2 high openings and two low, and they do convect. You could even cut the louvers out of the old frame and reuse the frame around the new grating. paint it any color you want.

Do this! Esp if you are leaving in a couple yrs. And then put some other decor around.