Rebuilding Firebox

[ToxicHouse]

Hello all, I am new to this forum. Here is a little background information about my situation: I bought my home almost a year ago and it is a little over 100 years old. The previous owner had $$$ in his eyes and thought he could flip a foreclosed home. He made out decent but no where near his original asking price. I call him Mr. Patches and the name is self-explanatory. Due to a plumbing issue and no crawl space I've had to dig out from under my home and it is going well; however, while digging under the house, I have found that there is a chimney hidden between the walls of the living room and dining room . After discovering this, I went to the attic and pulled up some of the flooring and found that someone had taken that chimney down but only as far down as the attic flooring. It has two small flues in it and I'm thinking I might just take it completely out. Any suggestions on that would be helpful but that is not my primary question.

My question is about the main Fireplace. I have a double-sided chimney with two fireplaces back to back in separate rooms. I am in the process of installing wood-stove inserts for heat because Mr. Patches threw some old gas logs in them and called it a day. They did okay at warming the room that they were in but they smelled bad and put out tons of soot. The gas furnace is also no help because Mr. Patches installed duct work by dragging it underneath the house on dirt because of the lack of a crawl space and as a result, most of it was torn in half. I also found this out after digging under my house. So I'm in the process of fixing that too. But for now, I'm installing the two fireplace inserts; one is a Buckstove model 50 and the other is a Blackbart II. I have installed a stainless steel flue and found that my stove wouldn't sit back far enough into the box to connect to the flue. My original fireplace was only 28"x28"x17" (at bottom) and 12" (at top). I took out the firebox which gave me up to 37"x28"x21.5" (at bottom) and 17" (at top).

Now to the question(s),
What firebrick should I get and where is the best place to get it?
What mortar is best for my old house?
Are firebricks just as strong as regular bricks because it looks like the brick I removed is a part of a layer that keeps going up into the flue.
Can someone explain the air gap principle to reduce distance from combustibles? (I'm going to have a few inches of free space on each side once complete but my fireplace is only two bricks thick and then I have wood after that)

I think that is all for now.

 

[bholler]

So you pulled out the fire box to put in an insert correct? And now you want to rebuild the firebox? i am wondering why is all? Some pics might help also.

 

[begreen]

How was the fire box removed? Was this a heatform metal firebox? I think we need some pictures to guide you safely here. Have you had a mason in to check the feasibility of this plan?

 

[ToxicHouse]

I removed it with a hammer drill, brick by brick, no metal just more brick right behind it and behind the firebox is another firebox in another room.

 

[bholler]

well for starters your wood trim is way to close that will need to go. What are you asking advise for? You are planning on rebuilding the fire box to use as an open fireplace? or for the insert?

 

[ToxicHouse]

I thought it might be close I guess I'll just have to build a new one.

What firebrick should I get and where is the best place to get it?
What mortar is best for my old house?

I plan on rebuilding the firebox and putting an insert.

 

[bholler]

Any fire brick will do you need to use refractory cement for a firebox regardless of the age of the house.there are many brands available. Here is a link to a copy of the fireplace and chimney clearance and construction section out of irc. Not sure if irc is code in NC but it is a good guide to start off of but you need to follow what ever your local code is for clearance. your fire place needs to conform to codes for an open fireplace regardless of weather or not it has an insert
http://www.rumford.com/code/clearances.html

 

[ToxicHouse]

Awesome thanks for the reply