What to do with wooden mantle shelf?

[Heidi245]

We just had a Quadrafire 4100 insert installed (yeah!) but now we're in a quandary over what to do about the mantle.
It's 22 1/2 inches from the top of the stove to the bottom of the mantle and were told that it's not enough clearance.
I really don't like the looks of a heat shield but don't want to spend alot of money redoing the entire mantle. Any ideas
would be greatly appreciated! (I wondered about replacing with slate but it's too heavy and would need extra supports)

 

[fossil]

Told by whom? Was the appliance professionally installed? Was an inspection conducted? What does the appliance manufacturer's documentation say about minimum clearance to a combustible mantle? Why was the thing even installed if the required clearances weren't met? If it's truly inside the minimum, then to make it right you've really no other choices than to shield it or remove/redesign/relocate it. Rick

 

[BrotherBart]

Wooden mantels cut into sixteen inch pieces make the most beautiful fire in a Quadrafire stove. ;-P

 

[stejus]

We just had a Quadrafire 4100 insert installed (yeah!) but now we're in a quandary over what to do about the mantle.
It's 22 1/2 inches from the top of the stove to the bottom of the mantle and were told that it's not enough clearance.
I really don't like the looks of a heat shield but don't want to spend alot of money redoing the entire mantle. Any ideas
would be greatly appreciated! (I wondered about replacing with slate but it's too heavy and would need extra supports)

We were faced with the same issue. I went out and purchased a peice of brownstone (like bluestone, only brownish grey). Ripped out the wooded mantle and placed this on the brick supports. The cost was about $80 cut to length with rough cuts to make it look like it was chiseled. What do you have for existing supports?

 

[DAKSY]

The manual specifies 26" from the top of the unit to the underside of the mantel:

(broken link removed to http://www.quadrafire.com/downloads/installManuals/man_4100i.pdf)

You'll either hafta remove it or put up a heat shield.
Putting your hand on it to see if it's too hot is not gonna
mean SQUAT to your insurance company if the mantel combusts...

 

[meathead]

you can make a pretty classy shield out of sheet copper if you really don't want to part with the wood mantle.

 

[DAKSY]

Most of the ones that I've seen are 24 gage steel, 47" W x 10" L with a 2.75" x 45 degree angled lip.
They come with 1" stand-offs (spacers) that are hollow to allow the mounting screws to pass thru them
when you attach to the under side of the mantel...

 

[gzecc]

A picture would be very helpful!

 

[granpajohn]

If your setup is like mine, you can raise that mantle up. (I suppose you've already investigated that...)
One of the reasons we bought the 4100 is that is makes the mantle clearance for a typical masonry FP. (Just makes.) Ours is about 27-28". (I had just built the mantle about 2 years before and the wife Really likes it.)

I bet you can get used to looking at a heat shield if you think about the design a bit. Paint it to match.

edit: If you enjoy placing combustible decorations on the stone (non-combustible) mantle, you might want to be a bit careful there too.

 

[Heidi245]

Thanks so much for all your responses! Just to clarify: the brick wall above the mantle is recessed about an inch compared to the brick wall below the mantle.
Attached is a pic so you can get a better idea what we have. My husband and I don't want to take a chance (at all!) on the clearance just for insurance purposes.
Using a heat shield is not even an option as far as I'm concerned. (Don't ask. . . .it's a fussy woman thing!) I (we) appreciate ALL your suggestions. Thanks.

 

[stejus]

How far out does the mantle stick out from the recessed brick? If it's only sitting on 1" of brick, how is it supported? Glue?

 

[Dix]

Thanks so much for all your responses! Just to clarify: the brick wall above the mantle is recessed about an inch compared to the brick wall below the mantle.
Attached is a pic so you can get a better idea what we have. My husband and I don't want to take a chance (at all!) on the clearance just for insurance purposes.
Using a heat shield is not even an option as far as I'm concerned. (Don't ask. . . .it's a fussy woman thing!) I (we) appreciate ALL your suggestions. Thanks.

You could raise the mantle area by adding more brick work (you could top it with wood or whatever, if you like), raise it by adding a tile mantle (be bold ;-) ), a cement mantle might be kinda cool .

You could also reface the front of the fireplace, while your being bold, and recover with tile, slate, what eva

What does the bottom hearth area look like?

I reno'd my house, I still have the bug, alittle bit

 

[granpajohn]

Since I have the same stove...

1. Yes, your mantle is noticably lower than ours.
2. But, unless the camera lens tricks the eye, (and it often does); it does look quite shallow. That makes a difference, even to Quadrafire spec. The best illustration of such was found in the Jotul 500 manual. (Yes, freestanding stove). The close "mantle" may actually be a "surround". BUT, they do show a much higher clearence requirement to start.
I didn't explain that very well, but on a similar note:
3. I know better than to go here, but...IF it is so shallow...a heat shield can be made to look hardly noticable.

OK, well, that said... I don't recommend burning it as is; especially not unattended. But maybe you can remove the existing mantle for this year, and then you can research/design and hit the ground running next summer.

BTW; it looks very good now.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

Thanks so much for all your responses! Just to clarify: the brick wall above the mantle is recessed about an inch compared to the brick wall below the mantle.
Attached is a pic so you can get a better idea what we have. My husband and I don't want to take a chance (at all!) on the clearance just for insurance purposes.
Using a heat shield is not even an option as far as I'm concerned. (Don't ask. . . .it's a fussy woman thing!) I (we) appreciate ALL your suggestions. Thanks.

(Emphasis mine- Clutter)

You two are not yet 'dedicated' wood burners. (Just kidding) ;-)

If you become more 'dedicated', a heat shield like this can do the job for you: Mantle Heat Shield

You could do this way more neatly and decoratively than I did. It could be quite attractive, spray painted the appropriate compatible color. This is a semi- permanent solution which can be removed later, leaving little sign it was ever there (fill holes in underside with Borden's Wood Dough). What do you mean "...not even an option"? You really could make a heat shield look quite good. Don't omit the 1 inch spacers, they are how and why the shield works.


Lacquered copper sheet, similar to a previous suggestion above, might look quite lovely indeed, although it would represent more of a burn hazard to human skin than the thin aluminum sheet.

 

[daryl]

Contact a mason and have him install a limestone,slate or stone mantel. You can buy a 12"X8' pc of limestone for about $100.00 that can be cut to fit your fireplace.

 

[meathead]

I wouldn't recommend adding brickwork to raise the existing wood mantel simply because it is very difficult to match bricks and mortar perfectly when you are trying to add to an existing pattern. Outside, a slight difference won't be noticeable, but if your brick color/texture, your mortar color/texture, or your points are off by even just a tiny bit it will be very noticeable indoors in the centerpiece of the room.

Since you seem dead set against a heat shield, I would go with stone - but with only 1" of support it may be a project to secure a stone mantel up there. You may be able to zip bricks out from the 2 rows under the mantel on each side and maybe one in the center and construct brick supports by mortaring bricks in to the open spots rotated 90. You'll still have to be careful to match the brick and mortar, but because the support bricks will be sticking out from the rest of the face and rotated 90 degrees they will pop anyway and a slight color difference probably won't be an issue.

A mason could figure something out no problem - but I wouldn't expect a mantel quality piece of stone for $100.00 (Thermal or chiseled face and edges)unless you decide to go to the wholesale yard and do the project yourself, and with only an inch of support it may be labor intensive to do it right. It is worth getting an opinion and a quote though - mud over an inch of brick for the entire width of a mantel = a lot of holding power, and a mason may look at it and tell you it is as simple as mudding the stone onto the existing support.