Too High...

[johnnywyoming]

I planned to have a 14 inch hearth with my 38 in tall wood fireplace (Regency EX90) which needs a clearance of 18 inch to the shelf mantel but that puts the bottom of the mantel at 70 inches. I think that would be way to high for my 8 foot ceiling. What do you all think?

 

[Nick Mystic]

Welcome to the forum JW. It sounds to me like a mantel that close to the top of the fireplace wouldn't look that aesthetically pleasing, even if you didn't have clearance issues. Perhaps you can forgo the mantel and instead install a couple of shelves off to the sides so you could go lower without worrying about clearances. You can always install a heat shield under the mantel to reduce the clearance a bit, but I just don't think it would look correct too close to the top of the fireplace opening.

 

[begreen]

Lower the hearth or consider putting in a non-combustible mantel made of stone?

 

[rideau]

Or, you could put trim on the mantel, and make it look more like the cornices at the top of a cabinet? You could make it quite simple, for instance, going straight up a few inches, a small round, then up a few more inches, but this portion gently curved out into the room, and a larger round, but still small, coming out into the room above that, flat top, so you could put things for display there? Then it would look like it belonged at the top, and not at 5 feet. Basically, design the mantel to look like the top of a tall cabinet. They often stop about a foot to a foot and a half from the ceiling. And look very handsome.

 

[webby3650]

Lower the hearth or consider putting in a non-combustible mantel made of stone?

Here's a neat mantle is saw at the trade show. It's made out of lite concrete.

 

[Nick Mystic]

Looks nice, but the price is a bit steep for my pocketbook!

 

[webby3650]

Looks nice, but the price is a bit steep for my pocketbook!

That was actually cost. Add $$$ to that!

 

[johnnywyoming]

Have decided to forgo the hearth and just use hearth stone pavers. Here is a graphic I made with the colors and the correct measurements. Also a image of the grey stone. Will try the mantle at different levels when we do the stone work



.