Firebox vs. Stove in 116 yr old house, requesting advice.

[flightstreak723]

My wife and I are in the middle of a new home renovation - our first. We had a nice looking fireplace on a wall with stone from the floor to ceiling. This had a gas burning insert in it. It was a bit dated but functional. We decided it would look nice if we took down half of the stone and put a large wood mantle across the top of it. This portion of house we believe was constructed in the early 40's. The house is a little under 1000 sq ft.

The image below is of the wall in question before we began removing stone.


Long story short, as we got the stone down, we found the entire wall was rotted due to water leaking in through a poorly flashed chimney and windows with rotten frames. So, down came the rest of the stone and the rotted wall behind it. When we got it all down, we found that the old fire box/heatilator was completely rusted through. So out that came. Chimney, it turned out, had been "lined" with 4" flexible dryer duct. Luckily we only used the gas insert a few times. Chimney has since been properly flashed, old windows removed and awaiting replacement. Dryer duct has been removed as well, that side of the chimney temporarily capped.

The image below shows the current state of the wall. We put a versa-lam beam in to support the floor joists above after removing the rotten studded wall.



Now for our plans. Since we have a clean slate to work with, we want to plan everything out before reconstructing the wall in front of the brick. The first thing we are going to do is increase the height of the windows to let more light in. At the same time we will re-point some spots on the chimney in which the mortar has worn a bit and has caused some weeping. We plan to build out a fireplace face that runs from floor to ceiling between the windows. A 10" to 12" tall raised hearth in front, and built in benches for wood and kindling to be stored in underneath each window. We intend to have the chimney relined (it is 13" square tile, slightly offset from the center of the fireplace). We want to put in a (broken link removed to http://jotul.com/us/products/stoves/jotul-f-100-nordic-qt-cf#technical-area) wood stove.

My question is this:
Since I am putting in a stove, to what extent do I need to rebuild the firebox? The brick in the back wall shown is the outside brick of the chimney, so I know I need to put something there. Does it need to be a full fledged fireplace? I plan to have a couple masons come out and look at it, but I want to have a good idea of what I need before they come. One thought I had was to build a smaller prefab fireplace system (like this) inside the existing opening, finish it complete, then put the stove in front of it. However, that has a significant cost associated with it and seems somewhat redundant. Note that since the rusted firebox was removed, there is no smoke shelf or damper.

The image below shows the rough idea, sketched in autocad. It includes the prefab fireplace mentioned above.



Any input would be appreciated. We don't want to waste money, and at the same time time, we don't want to build a sub par setup.

Thank you in advance for your input. Please forgive any incorrect jargon that I have used. This is an unexpected problem, and I am only a few days into my research here.

 

[begreen]

My guess is that if you make it structurally sound with a proper lintel you'll be fine. Plan on a block-off plate at the damper area so as to keep the heat in the room. The more that the stove projects out into the room the better it will heat. Note that the mantel clearance in that case is 22" unless it is protected with a heat shield. It it is then 9".

 

[Dix]

Can you extend the front of the current FP, for more clearances to combustibles to the floor? is there enough room for that kind of a thought?

All I wanna say, right here, and now, is that this is gonna look awesome when it's done, what ever it becomes. I love that semi recessed look

*says she who has an insert & a free stander, lol !

Welcome to the forums !

 

[flightstreak723]

Thanks for the comments.

Begreen, I will bump the mantel up in my layout to get proper clearances.

Dix, We would love to have the face of the FP extend further. Unfortunately, we don't have much space for it in our room layout. Well, maybe another few inches.

Any thoughts on the build of the firebox? Is the one I spec'd out overkill or would it make more sense to simply refinish and insulate the inside of firebox with metal studs and noncombustible materials?

Thanks!

 

[bholler]

Any thoughts on the build of the firebox? Is the one I spec'd out overkill or would it make more sense to simply refinish and insulate the inside of firebox with metal studs and noncombustible materials?

I would just insulate it and cover it with either sheet metal or cement board. If you need to put some metal studs in there go ahead many times you dont need to but you will have to see.. All you really need to worry about is cosmetics and of course getting the lintel back in so it is structurally sound.

 

[kennyp2339]

I agree with the other posters, Bholler pretty much hit the nail on the head, new lintel for brick support, metal studs to hang cement board on to mount new stone veneer, metal studs near where the smoke shelf would be to mount a block off plate, and of course an insulated liner to the top of the chimney.