Looking for wood insert guidance in North Texas

[PSJ Texas]

Hi,

I have a relatively typical north Texas suburb home built in 93.

We heat with central air (gas). I have this fireplace. I'm honestly not interested in fully heating the house with wood - I just like to do a wood fire in the evenings when it's cold out for ambiance (and I'm a pyro) . But, this thing is inefficient (eats wood) and just sucks air out of the house, and ash is not well contained. I also don't like to leave it unattended, so I'm looking for an insert with a closed door. There is a chimney that is quite high, but it's not full masonry from my understanding (3 sides are brick, so I assume it's just a veneer).

There is a log lighter in there and gas supply too.

A bit about the House: It's approx 3200 Sq ft, but we only use bedrooms downstairs, and the fireplace is far from the bedrooms. There is not even a room above this room, just an attic. However there is an hvac supply in this room, so I could use the fan to suck some air around a bit. But we spend 80% of our awake time in this room and the adjacent kitchen. The space I'd like to heat is about 500 Sq feet with 11 ft ceilings. There is basically only one small door side opening to the rest of the house, so I am slightly concerned about getting this space too hot.

I'm pretty new to this space so I was hoping someone could share any experience as to what I'm getting into. Specific questions

1. What is the kind of fireplace I have so I can use the right terminology?
2. What should I expect when replacing this? I assume I'll need a new liner, and probably need to do a new surround (this one is kind of mid 2000 anyway). But am I going to have to change framing behind it for combustion clearance? Or put cement board? I'm decently handy but would probably have a professional install, just curious on what's needed
3. Does anyone have experience with any of these companies (or others I couldn't find via Google) ? Seems like the ones who actually do wood instead of gas are all out of the main dfw area (I'm on the north side of the dfw airport area)
Red hot fire shop - Aubrey
North Texas chimney and hearth - krum/Denton
Southwest brick and fireplace - Keller
Leonards stone and fireplace - burleson (pretty far from me)
4. Any ballpark estimates for someone who may have done this swap in dfw?


Again...im really not looking for something putting out a gargantuan amount of heat, just these two rooms. I'll probably never make the money back on it - it's just a quality of life improvement for me to burn wood more in the winter.

Thanks in advance!

 

[bholler]

Hi,

I have a relatively typical north Texas suburb home built in 93.

We heat with central air (gas). I have this fireplace. I'm honestly not interested in fully heating the house with wood - I just like to do a wood fire in the evenings when it's cold out for ambiance (and I'm a pyro) . But, this thing is inefficient (eats wood) and just sucks air out of the house, and ash is not well contained. I also don't like to leave it unattended, so I'm looking for an insert with a closed door. There is a chimney that is quite high, but it's not full masonry from my understanding (3 sides are brick, so I assume it's just a veneer).

There is a log lighter in there and gas supply too.

View attachment 340502


View attachment 340503
A bit about the House: It's approx 3200 Sq ft, but we only use bedrooms downstairs, and the fireplace is far from the bedrooms. There is not even a room above this room, just an attic. However there is an hvac supply in this room, so I could use the fan to suck some air around a bit. But we spend 80% of our awake time in this room and the adjacent kitchen. The space I'd like to heat is about 500 Sq feet with 11 ft ceilings. There is basically only one small door side opening to the rest of the house, so I am slightly concerned about getting this space too hot.

I'm pretty new to this space so I was hoping someone could share any experience as to what I'm getting into. Specific questions

1. What is the kind of fireplace I have so I can use the right terminology?
2. What should I expect when replacing this? I assume I'll need a new liner, and probably need to do a new surround (this one is kind of mid 2000 anyway). But am I going to have to change framing behind it for combustion clearance? Or put cement board? I'm decently handy but would probably have a professional install, just curious on what's needed
3. Does anyone have experience with any of these companies (or others I couldn't find via Google) ? Seems like the ones who actually do wood instead of gas are all out of the main dfw area (I'm on the north side of the dfw airport area)
Red hot fire shop - Aubrey
North Texas chimney and hearth - krum/Denton
Southwest brick and fireplace - Keller
Leonards stone and fireplace - burleson (pretty far from me)
4. Any ballpark estimates for someone who may have done this swap in dfw?


Again...im really not looking for something putting out a gargantuan amount of heat, just these two rooms. I'll probably never make the money back on it - it's just a quality of life improvement for me to burn wood more in the winter.

Thanks in advance!

Ok it is very unlikely you can do an insert in that prefab fireplace. If you have the manual of give us the make and model we can check to be sure. But very few allow inserts to be installed in them. If not allowed your only option is remove it and replace with a high efficiency prefab fireplace and new chimney. Low end is $10k. And can easily pass 20 depending upon height finishes the model you choose etc

 

[PSJ Texas]

Ok it is very unlikely you can do an insert in that prefab fireplace. If you have the manual of give us the make and model we can check to be sure. But very few allow inserts to be installed in them. If not allowed your only option is remove it and replace with a high efficiency prefab fireplace and new chimney. Low end is $10k. And can easily pass 20 depending upon height finishes the model you choose etc

Thanks. I don't see a model number on the prefab anywhere unfortunately and it came with the house. Is there somewhere specific I should be looking.

I'm also fine potentially pulling this thing out and rebuilding around it

 

[begreen]

Look in the door frame channel for an identification tag.

If it's completely removed and replaced with a good EPA, zero clearance fireplace, then it will be much more efficient and a lot better heater.

 

[PSJ Texas]

Look in the door frame channel for an identification tag.

If it's completely removed and replaced with a good EPA, zero clearance fireplace, then it will be much more efficient and a lot better heater.

Unfortunately I can't seem to find any id tag.

EPA zero clearance fireplaces are a category I didn't realize existed. It looks like these can have blowers and doors.

Can you help me understand the difference between them and an wood stove insert? (I am probably using the wrong terms)

 

[begreen]

A wood stove insert goes into an existing fireplace, typically masonry, though there are some exceptions. A zero-clearnace (ZC) fireplace is a complete unit like what is in the house currently. Sometimes marketing calls them inserts, but that is really misleading and confusing. EPA ZC fireplaces raise the bar considerably for efficiency and heat output.

 

[PSJ Texas]

Thanks for taking the time to reply! I have no masonry, so it seems like what I might be looking for is an epa zero clearance fireplace vs the "standard" zero clearance fireplace.

Any recommendations on what to look for in an epa zc fireplace?

 

[begreen]

RSF, FPX (Travis), Pacific Energy, SBI (Valcourt, Osburn), make good EPA ZC fireplaces.