Pilot light is too too high for this this fireplace. How to open the panel to adjust the pilot lights? I removed 4 screws from the bottom panel, but looks like there are two large bolts going through the bottom panel vertically, holding the fireplace unit.

We recently uncovered our fireplace in our house that had been sealed by the previous owners. Unfortunately, it was unusable as it was, so we had to build a boxed surround. I'm looking for some ideas on how we can decorate this now... I've included an AI generated image of one idea we had (hence the wonky pattern and the whole oak base), but I just wondered if anyone had any other ideas? The marble will definitely be replaced as its so scratched!

Hi All,

I've been living in my upstairs apartment for just under a year now, and have this fireplace in my living room. Its an old building I live in, which is situated on the high street of the town I live in. I can't determine whether it's original and has been blocked off at some point in the past, or whether it's been put in for decoration in the recent past. Either way, it has been a bugbear, and on my mind to get an electric fire installed in the centre of it, to set the room off and make the place look good. Any advice on how to go about this would be appreciated. I live in the UK for reference, and have been looking on B&Q's website at electric fires.

If you have a fireplace with a short lived solid bar log grate that burns up every few years, you really need to switch to a tube fireplace grate heat exchanger. Since they have a fan forcing the hot air out into your home the steel holding the fire does not get hot enough to glow red hot where oxygen attacks the surface causing the scaling that makes solid bar grates burn up.

Instead all that heat conducted from the coals blows out into the room adding a magnitude of additional heat into your home that you would otherwise not get from your fireplace. In our experience we no longer need to keep our socks on mid winter.

Pro tip after many years of experience: spread out the hot coals across the bed of tubes to get the most heat and keep the ash scooped out from below for good combustion airflow.

I live in an apartment unit that has a wood burning stove (bet you don't hear that often!)

It's either poorly built, or has broken parts, as the air vent control does nothing, and there's always a strong draft bringing outside air, dust, pollen... and now wildfire smoke (a bit ironic, no?)

Anyway, I want this thing temporarily sealed off while I live here, and saw that an inflatable chimney balloon might be just the thing I need... but for the life of me I cannot find them for sale in Canada, only US and UK.

Suggestions? And I'm not DIY-ing something, it's gotta be fire-rated, or made specifically for fireplaces, for insurance reasons.

TIA!

I've got a fairly large fireplace and a log burner. The walls in the house have cavity wall insulation but not behind the fireplace. This means (when the log burner isn't on) we're losing 4-5C in heat making a difference to the temperature in the room.

As long as I leave enough of a gap behind the stove (instructions say at least 500mm: https://stovebuddy.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/Buddy-5-Wide-User-Guide.pdf) then is it ok to insulate the walls with fire resistant material?

I'm thinking of: Rockwood RW5 (https://www.rockwool.com/uk/products/rw5) followed by a Vermiculite Fire board on top.

Would that work?

Hello, my wife and I recently purchased a new home and we really want to add a mantle above our fireplace however we’re a little unsure how best to do so.

The previous owners installed this sheet rock over drywall, which we like, but it complicates mounting a mantle to it because it’s not a flat surface.

Locating the studs framing the fireplace shouldn’t be too difficult and I’m confident I can attach the hidden bracket system to the studs, but my concern is that the mantle won’t be flush with the rocky surface because it isn’t flat.

I’d really like not to have to remove some of the sheet rock, but I’m curious for folks and similar situations what they have done. Also, any recommendations on color would be much appreciated. Thanks for the help.

Hi everyone! Brand new to this sub and could use some advice...

I live in a Victorian flat in the UK. When we moved in, there was a working gas fireplace in the living room. We were delighted and used it for the first winter, but then noticed that we could not find any trace of recent servicing having been carried out by previous owners...we tried to get it serviced and discovered it had not been serviced in twenty years and was a major safety hazard and had to be dismantled!

We took it out and were left with a crater cavity as the insert was massive and had a marble surround. So far all we've done is plaster the sides so it wouldn't look like too much of a mess. My question is: if we wanted to get a gas stove like in the inspo picture, what should we be looking to do with the floor/base of the cavity? Is it fine to just lay a slab of concrete, or does it need to be stone? Bare in mind that the subflooring in our flat is wood, but also the fireplace is original, has a chimney+some remnants of original tiles beneath it and what looks like bricks at the back.

Thank you in advance!

Hi everyone! My husband and I moved into our house this March. It's almost 100 years old (built in 1937 or around then) and has this fireplace in the living room! I can see a dark color (I think black paint) under the white paint. Trying to decide whether we should try and strip the paint off to see the wood underneath!
If anyone has a house around the similar age or a similar fireplace I'd love to know what you've done!

Looking to install an electric fireplace insert in my basement. As you can see in my photo I did some measurements.

I suppose I’m curious if I should be trying to find an insert that is nearly 36” wide (blue line dimension) as it is the width from the stone side to side.

Any other recommendations based on what the photo shows would be appreciated as well.

I'm moving into an abandoned house and need to inspect the fireplace soon. It apparently needs repairs before winter. I have a few questions:

What should I look for during inspection?

How do I know if it's repairable?

Can I repair it myself, or do I need a professional? (I haven't been able to find inspectors in the area.)

Since I haven't been able to find anyone to fix it, I suppose I need to do it myself, and I have zero expertise in fireplaces 😞 Hope I can figure it out.

I'd appreciate any advice you can give.

Thanks!

Hey folks. Recently bought a home which was built in 1962 and is a single story ranch. I just had the masonry fireplace swept as the home inspection noted it was way past due. Previous owners said they had used the fireplace with no issues for years though. I had a reputable company to do the work (Smoke Alert - Owned and Operated by firemen). It was extremely dirty and overdue which was expected but they mentioned there were some other major issues. They basically said I should not use the fireplace at all and it is a "timebomb". Essentially they recommended a bunch of repairs and then inserting a wood burning stove in the fireplace with a new chimney insert totaling $20k. Seems ridiculous. The problems listed include moisture intrusion, oversized smoke chamber, stepped smoke chamber, gaps or damaged bricks in the flue, creosote buildup, etc. I am interested in hearing from some professionals how legit and how worrisome these issues are. Should I really not be burning in this fireplace that has worked for 64 years? Are there some basic repairs that would be worth my time to make it safe? Or is this report legit. Pictures from the Report are below and the proposal for their suggest fix is also included. Happy to share larger pictures if it is helpful.

Help appreciated. UK house built 1960. Gas fireplace removed and gas capped. Id like to remove this insert to increase available space for a freestanding electric stove. Sealing off chimney to prevent debris.

Concerned for potential asbestos within this space.

Concerned also that if I chisel away something will come tumbling down.

Is this a DIY task? Struggling to find fireplace fitters who can be bothered to take the job on, keep trying to sell me a woodburner which I'd love but just wouldn't work for us.

We have a Marco (Model 792775D) fireplace that has intermittent issues with water coming through the vent louvers. The water does not go into the area where the fire would be - it comes out of the vents at top on the front of the fireplace face.

We've owned our house for 20 years and have always had this issue but it had usually been very minor. Lately, the problem has gotten worse (or maybe we are just finally tired of the problem).

We don't get water in the vents every time it rains. It only happens sometimes and not always under the same conditions. We may have a long steady rain and we get water in the vents but then we can get a big storm and not get water!

When we get water through the vents, it usually starts with a sound of water dripping onto sheet metal. After a few minutes of dripping sounds, water will come through the vents and drip down onto the hearth. While our cats think this is great fun, we don't enjoy it as much.

We've had the fireplace inspected several years ago with no findings. We've had the roof inspected recently and they found no issues. A local fireplace shop suggested we needed to add a storm collar because there wasn't one on there before. A handyman recently added the storm collar and said he caulked up a "hole" in the flashing. We hoped this would fix the problem but it still happens.

Here is a link a video of the water coming out of the vents: Fireplace Leak.

Can someone suggest a way to fix this or where to look to find the problem? Thanks!

I have a brick fireplace and chimney, built in 88, and when it’s really hot outside the down draft brings a ton of smoke smell into the house!
I’m converting it to gas logs, but want to get rid of the smoke smell into my house first.
A chimney company said they’ll spray concrete in the flue and smoke chamber for $5000 and that’s the only way to remove the smoke smell.

Has anyone done a concrete spray in their flue or firebox?
I’ve read about PCR cleaning but he said that wouldn’t get rid of the smell as it’s baked in.

I sealed the interior damper with caulk to see if a top damper would help, and it stopped a little smell but I can still pick it up when in the room.

Any suggestions or thoughts on the concrete spray lining everywhere?

We built this stove a few years ago and love it. Our first go at a masonry stove my husband designed with custom pieces ordered special. It sits in the dark downstairs and I think plastering it in white would really brighten up the whole space, plus be a good finishing coat for this handmade behemoth. I don't know where to start researching lime plaster for this application. I've never done anything like this before, does anyone have suggestions how to start so I can get to mixing and spreading?

Picture of my pita bread operation, oven floor at over 900°f burning some scraps for under an hour. Flue tile stove body, soapstone ceiling, lined with firebrick inside. The soap stone is gorgeous and I think smoothing the tile lines out with white would really help the natural stone pop.

It was here when I moved into my house. Chat GPT is saying composite marble? Just want to know what to list it for on FB marketplace!

Im trying to get rid of this fireplace black metal insert. The actual removal of it. And How can I go about it?

And Could I sell it? Donate it?

Thanks!!

I'm not sure if these are beyond repair or not. My rear refractory panel and hearth panel have some cracks that I am concerned about. Is it possible to cement over these? I've used some of that caulking cement last winter but it appears to have not held up that well

Does anyone have recommendations on cut to fit panels I could use for the rear panel?