Hi, I have an old Marco wood-burning fireplace that's been converted to gas. The refractory panels cracked long ago, and the flue pipe is full of creosote. I had an inspector come out and he said that although there's no visible damage to the metal, there were signs of water from a while ago and it's a bit rusted. He said it's fine to use if we replace the panels, and have to inspected about every year.
Instead of doing that, we looked into doing a gas insert thinking it would be easier since we wouldn't have to worry about the flue. The face of the fireplace is 36.5" wide brick-to-brick, and 31.25" tall. With the face and vents in the front the opening is only 30"x19.5" metal-to-metal. I went to a local fireplace store to look at inserts. and was told that inserts require the original refractory panels to be in tact, meaning that the only space I could use is the much-narrower 30x19.5", and after the insert is in there. it would be even narrower.
Ideally I would like to rip out the entire inside part, leave the 8" flue, and drop a new one in with the two 3" inlet/outlet pipes in there. Is this possible to do, and does that mean a completely new fireplace? Are inserts really only inserted around the existing refractory panels? One other thing he mentioned is due to the vent on the top and the bottom, that also has to stay there and an insert could not cover that. Pictures below, and any advice is appreciated! Thanks.
Instead of doing that, we looked into doing a gas insert thinking it would be easier since we wouldn't have to worry about the flue. The face of the fireplace is 36.5" wide brick-to-brick, and 31.25" tall. With the face and vents in the front the opening is only 30"x19.5" metal-to-metal. I went to a local fireplace store to look at inserts. and was told that inserts require the original refractory panels to be in tact, meaning that the only space I could use is the much-narrower 30x19.5", and after the insert is in there. it would be even narrower.
Ideally I would like to rip out the entire inside part, leave the 8" flue, and drop a new one in with the two 3" inlet/outlet pipes in there. Is this possible to do, and does that mean a completely new fireplace? Are inserts really only inserted around the existing refractory panels? One other thing he mentioned is due to the vent on the top and the bottom, that also has to stay there and an insert could not cover that. Pictures below, and any advice is appreciated! Thanks.
