Hello all, I have been searching and searching for an answer to this, and finally something I read pointed me to these forums because you guys 'live and breathe fireplaces'. 
A little about the layout:
We have put in a 60" full masonry fireplace with 2 double wall metal flues. The brand is StoneAge. This fireplace sits in the middle of a room on an interior wall, not on an exterior wall. There are 2x4 walls on either side with hallways on the far sides.
My fireplace guy has installed the masonry firebox, the metal flues, and a combustion (fresh) air pipe that goes straight up above the box, over the hallway, and then straight out an exterior wall. My county inspector is saying that the way the combustion air pipe is routed will not work. He says the only 2 ways around this are to install a 15" stove pipe all the way up through the roof - we have no room in the area to do this because of framing - or to change the full masonry fireplace to accomodate gas logs (We have a gas starter going to the FP).
I have the Texas code in front of me and it states in a portion of it "....nor shall the air intake be located at an elevation higher than the firebox." So I can kind of see where he is coming from, except it seems like the way it is worded is open to interpretation.
SO, could it not be interpreted that the combustion air pipe be routed up over the box, then across the hallway and then DOWN the exterior wall to the height of the firebox? I mean it says the AIR INTAKE be located at the firebox elevation, it says nothing about the pipe between the intake location and the box itself.
Sorry for the wall of text, but the inspector is very hard headed about this and I am just looking to see what other people that are 'in the know' think about this.
Thanks for any help!
A little about the layout:
We have put in a 60" full masonry fireplace with 2 double wall metal flues. The brand is StoneAge. This fireplace sits in the middle of a room on an interior wall, not on an exterior wall. There are 2x4 walls on either side with hallways on the far sides.
My fireplace guy has installed the masonry firebox, the metal flues, and a combustion (fresh) air pipe that goes straight up above the box, over the hallway, and then straight out an exterior wall. My county inspector is saying that the way the combustion air pipe is routed will not work. He says the only 2 ways around this are to install a 15" stove pipe all the way up through the roof - we have no room in the area to do this because of framing - or to change the full masonry fireplace to accomodate gas logs (We have a gas starter going to the FP).
I have the Texas code in front of me and it states in a portion of it "....nor shall the air intake be located at an elevation higher than the firebox." So I can kind of see where he is coming from, except it seems like the way it is worded is open to interpretation.
SO, could it not be interpreted that the combustion air pipe be routed up over the box, then across the hallway and then DOWN the exterior wall to the height of the firebox? I mean it says the AIR INTAKE be located at the firebox elevation, it says nothing about the pipe between the intake location and the box itself.
Sorry for the wall of text, but the inspector is very hard headed about this and I am just looking to see what other people that are 'in the know' think about this.
Thanks for any help!
