Hey y'all,
I've been reading through tons of threads on the forum trying to wrap my head around what I'm trying to do.
We had a gas direct vent fireplace in our house. It generated very little heat, so we've decided to replace it with a pellet insert, and have landed on the Enviro M55. I've gone through the installation manual and am currently working on building our a hearth pad. Once I finish with the pad, I'm going to work on framing out the enclosure.
Now, the manual states on page 23 "this enclosure must be a minimum of 18" deep, 36" wide and 23-1/4" high and made with noncombustible cement board." Makes sense to me. However, the current doghouse I have is 24" deep, 52" wide and 44" high. As such, I've got two questions:
I've been reading through tons of threads on the forum trying to wrap my head around what I'm trying to do.
We had a gas direct vent fireplace in our house. It generated very little heat, so we've decided to replace it with a pellet insert, and have landed on the Enviro M55. I've gone through the installation manual and am currently working on building our a hearth pad. Once I finish with the pad, I'm going to work on framing out the enclosure.
Now, the manual states on page 23 "this enclosure must be a minimum of 18" deep, 36" wide and 23-1/4" high and made with noncombustible cement board." Makes sense to me. However, the current doghouse I have is 24" deep, 52" wide and 44" high. As such, I've got two questions:
- The guy at the store suggested that having a little bit of breathing room for the unit never hurts, so can I just slap backer board on the pre-existing studs and call it good?
- Assuming I leave the interior of the enclosure at it's initial dimensions, I'll need to frame in the opening. Should I shoot for exactly 36" wide x 23-1/4" high, or can I give it an inch or two of space, since the face of the unit is much larger than the opening and will cover any gap? I just don't want to cut it too close and screw myself
- Finally, my wife was wondering, should we tile the wall around the unit before it is installed, or is there a chance said tile could be damaged, and we should pull it out on its service rails after installation to do tile work?
