Considering tearing it out and replacing with Class A pipe to a freestanding stove before winter 2010-2011. The fireplace vents to an exterior wall chase.
I would rather not destroy the brick surround, but it may be impossible to save. The fireplace is located in the basement of a split level home and is actually located under ground level. So there probably is no way to pull the zero clearance fireplace out the back. Is there any way I could break it/cut it up in pieces and pull it out one piece at a time?
The rebuild could be fairly simple? I have seen a couple threads here of folks doing a ZC replacement above grade and had to deal with combustibles in the chase behind the old ZC fireplace. My situation is different. As best I can tell, the foundation of the home was poured in kind of a box shape on that side of the house and the ZC firebox was placed in the concrete "cove" and it is only near combustible materials that are above the firebox. It does seem odd to me that a zero-clearance fireplace would be utilized in this setup.
(please ignore the old stove in pic 1 - it was here when we bought the house, and in a prior life caused damage to the ZC firebox as seen in other pics)
I would rather not destroy the brick surround, but it may be impossible to save. The fireplace is located in the basement of a split level home and is actually located under ground level. So there probably is no way to pull the zero clearance fireplace out the back. Is there any way I could break it/cut it up in pieces and pull it out one piece at a time?
The rebuild could be fairly simple? I have seen a couple threads here of folks doing a ZC replacement above grade and had to deal with combustibles in the chase behind the old ZC fireplace. My situation is different. As best I can tell, the foundation of the home was poured in kind of a box shape on that side of the house and the ZC firebox was placed in the concrete "cove" and it is only near combustible materials that are above the firebox. It does seem odd to me that a zero-clearance fireplace would be utilized in this setup.
(please ignore the old stove in pic 1 - it was here when we bought the house, and in a prior life caused damage to the ZC firebox as seen in other pics)