Rotten fire box questions from newb

[redmosquito1]

Hey everyone, new here and have a few questions. Bought my first house about a year ago, it has a heatilator style fireplace with the steel firebox and convection venting on the sides from roughly the late 70s. I had the chimney swept, guy that did it said he was certified but admitted to being fairly green in the field. I was a bit disappointed with the job he did so I touched it up a bit. I've gone through about a face cord of wood this year, which is quite scary after what I learned today.

The fireplace wall is old 70s brown brick and its been on my short list of things to redo since buying the house. So I planned to install a stone veneer over the brick and cover the 2 upper and lower vents while doing that. I've read conflicting reports about doing that so I called a well reviewed fireplace guy to get some help, he suggested he come sweep it and give me a full inspection and help me decide what to do.

So he sweeps and inspects the fireplace tonight and pulls a ton of rotten metal from the smoke shelf and I can see holes and the such in the steel, not good. Also he said he can see evidence of a chimney fire at some time which is a bit scary since I was told when I bought the house all was good and here it turns out I very well could have burned down my house.

So, he quoted me to rip out the brick wall, haul the brick, tear out the old rotten steel firebos, build a new firebox out of fire brick, new hearth, and pretty much redo the whole fireplace prepped for me to do the stone work. He was right around 4500 with 20% off if done before the end of February.

For the work he is doing sounds like a steal to me, but I have zero idea what that kinda work costs. Sound like a good price?

lastly what other options do I have besides a tear out and rebuild?

I didn't really plan on dropping $5000 on redoing this wall, I had originally planned on just buying the veneer and materials and hoped to be well under $1000 for the whole deal. Pretty bummed since we are now in the fire season in MI, but I don't want to burn my house down. Good thing I burned my last log the other day. But it very DIY capable, just not sure this is a DIY situation. Would love it to be though, so any help there would rock too.

Thanks guys/gals, go easy on me I'm new. Thanks

 

[wkpoor]

I would tear it out and brick over whats there. Build a hearth floor flush and install a free standing stove. I have read where rusted out heatilators is not too uncommon in cold climates because they sweat between the inside and outside pipe.

 

[jdp1152]

Safe to assume he took and showed you pictures of the chimney fire damage??? If not, you should call him back and request it. The two sweeps I have use have both given me such. Rotting metal. Meh. You have options. Insert would still be doable. Damaged chimney, that's trouble. Most chimneys have seen series of small fires unknown to their owners. Most chimneys are also built pretty well and suffer most damage from moisture, not fire. If the guy wants the work and is being legit, he'll give you evidence to inspect. His discount to push you to buy service is a red flag to me.

 

[rideau]

I'd just make the thing look decent as a fireback for a free standing wood stove, and build a nice hearth that compliments it, or get a nice prefab hearth that looks good with it, and spend the real money on a good double wall stovepipe and chimney, such as an ICC or DuraVent, and a really nice free standing stove.

 

[etiger2007]

Having a heatilator myself if it were me and the steel was wasted Id probably tear the rest of it out and replace with brick. I think if you go with an insert you may be able to remove the rusted part of the fire box and weld up some new steel to it (if theres any left) to seal it off. The pros will have more info. Good luck and can you post a picture of the firebox?

 

[Jon1270]

An insert or woodburning stove would allow you to heat your house with wood when you felt like it, whereas an open fireplace is pretty much useless for that (though it's nice to be near an open fire). Neither an insert nor a stove would necessarily require a complete rebuild of the firebox. My late-'50's Heatilator-style fireplace was badly rusted out (like, put-your-arm-through-the-smoke-shelf bad), but the whole thing was surrounded by a brick chimney; it's not like a zero-clearance unit that has wood framing just the other side of the metal. In my case the convection vents had been blocked off with firebrick by a previous owner (probably when the steel unit was first breached, allowing the vents to circulate smoke into the room). I extended the hearth to meet modern codes, relined the chimney and installed a block-off plate and an insert. In retrospect, I might've been better off with a freestanding stove for the sole reason that the fan noise from the insert harshes my mellow.

If you don't care about heating with wood and the fireplace is just for fun, your guy's price for rebuilding it doesn't sound bad to me.

 

[Dune]

A discount for winter work should not be a red flag.

 

[mcollect]

I think I would go with an insert and a stainless steel flue liner. It would cost less then what you were quoted and some put out a good amount of heat. We can heat our house completely with our 550. And our house has cathedral ceilings and one wall is all glass.

 

[Slow1]

Whatever you decide I would get an additional quote from an experienced sweep and/or mason. I have no idea if the second person is giving you a good deal or not, but you certainly have received two very different points of view so having a third person come in and give their viewpoint is in order. I would expect that you should be able to find someone who wants the work to come in and give an estimate/evaluation at a reasonable rate (if not free) depending on your local economy.

In any case - I do agree with those who have suggested that your end goal should be a modern/efficient/EPA insert or free standing stove instead of an open fireplace. Unless you have money to burn I wouldn't consider investing $3-5K on an open fireplace given that it would just be for ambiance.

 

[redmosquito1]

I don't want a stove, I burn only for ambience so heat output not the biggest concern, but it is nice on a cold night. However the idea of a wood burning insert sounds good. Just out of curiosity what is the cost to have one installed?

 

[Slow1]

I don't want a stove, I burn only for ambience so heat output not the biggest concern, but it is nice on a cold night. However the idea of a wood burning insert sounds good. Just out of curiosity what is the cost to have one installed?

Well.. "it depends" I suppose is the most accurate (if somewhat unhelpful) answer. You will most likely have to line that chimney in some way which could be $1K in cost, then the stove itself and install. My guess is that you will pay less total than the $4500 you were quoted, but what stove you choose and exactly what has to be done to make the chimney system safe is impossible to estimate from this end of the keyboard without significantly more information.

An insert can be quite beautiful to look at - fire view provides nice ambiance and the heat could be a nice bonus for you.

 

[etiger2007]

As you can see in my avatar I have a fairly big glass window on my insert and with the lights off the flames light up that room nicely and are fun to watch and the heat is very good to.

 

[jdp1152]

As you can see in my avatar I have a fairly big glass window on my insert and with the lights off the flames light up that room nicely and are fun to watch and the heat is very good to.

Nevermind....misread your sigline.