I can't find the thread now, but there was one about fireplaces and wood-burning stoves a few months ago.

When I saw the thread, we had just received a few quotes on re-doing our builder-grade (cheap) gas fireplace.  We have a nice house, but the builder just put in something cheap, surrounded the fireplace with cheap ceramic tile, and we tolerated it for 20 years that we've lived here.

My wife was all on board with a new gas fireplace and upgrading the surround with rock or brick.  Fine.  I hate the fireplace now, let's make it look nice with a new gas burner and some rock.  But, in the back of my mind, I could not shake the thought that flipping a switch and having gas flames lick the fake wood just seemed too..... fake.  

So, when I saw the wood burning thread, it was crystal clear: we will have a real wood fireplace in our house.  I called the various contractors, and we finally found a wood-burner that would fit in our fireplace area without a whole bunch of modifications.  I shudder to think what we spent on the whole project.  We'll never recoup that money (by gas/furnace savings), but we are totally thrilled with how it turned out.  I haven't run our furnace since April.  I doubt it'll keep the house warm when it drops below 20 deg, but so far, it does the job down to 30 deg.  

Best of all... it's REAL.  Big flames, crackling wood, and fun to watch.   We now hope for cold weather, and I've been eyeing my neighbor's dying Ash tree.  I've got the chainsaw chain all sharp and ready to harvest that tree!

If I hadn't seen that ARFcom thread, I'd be about $10k wealthier, though!

Old fireplace:

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Progress:

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Finished:
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That's bad ass dude.

WOW excellent job OP. What make or model fireplace is that? I really like the stone work.
There is nuthin like a good hot wood fired heat.

Thays awesome! I'm kinda surprised that it puts out that much heat being mostly enclosed but it looks amazing.

How many square feet is your living space? Does the heat "pennetrate" walls to other rooms?

An electric fan blowing hot air off the stove makes a huge difference versus just radiant heat.
A freestanding woodstove with a $20 box fan set on low just above the top of the stove will do wonders to heat a home  

Thanks guys.

It's a STUV model 16 something or other.  Very shallow, so we didn't have to build out the wall much.  It doesn't hold a ton of wood like some fireplaces, but it's been working well for us.  Wide enough for 18" + wood.

I think it's rated to heat a 2000 sq ft home.  Ours is 2500.  It doesn't have a blower.  A box fan does help.  We put a fan on low in the other room to slow circulate if we want the heat to circulate.  So far, so good.  Ceiling fan on low helps a bit too.

Looks good.  Try a tower fan, point it at the wood stove.

Get a proper vacuum for dealing with dat ash.  

Ditch the carpet.  Buy maintenance parts/consumables for the wood burner now.  

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Everyone likes wood heat.

I fail to see a problem. Now if we had convinced you to spend that much on say, precision rifles, you wouldn't be whining a bit!
Wifes new fireplace looks good by the way.

Ain't that the truth!

Very nice.

You won't regret it.

That looks very nice.

Looks awesome,  you will love it

Great job. It looks like from the pictures,that you had to raise the wood stove from the original gas stove height. What kind of bracing/support did you have to add underneath for the added weight?

I'm not sure what type of bracing they added to raise it.  I think it's 2x4 framing, probably with a heat-shielding layer or two.

I have questions. My house has a wood burning fireplace and a rather large one at that . Does that make the conversion to wood stove easier?  Also based on my wood stove in my old house I would have extended the rock on the floor for a couple of feet in front of the stove.

Possibly. Check into a wood burning insert that goes into the fireplace. Most run a 6"(?) flex liner down the  existing chimney to connect to the new stove. I put one in my existing fireplace and it works great.  Mine sticks out into the room a bit for decent heat transfer, but also has a fan to move air out into the room from around the firebox.

Maybe, maybe not.  When we did our conversion from zero clearance wood fireplace to wood burning stove, the only thing we used was the chimney chase.  The chimney itself was not rated for wood stove use and therefore it was useless.

Hire a pro, installing and using a +2000 degree solid fueled wood burning stove inside your house is not a laughing matter.

We went from this:





To this in about 8 months and $12k:



BTW, we heat our home exclusively with wood heat.

I don't have the option of removing my fireplace and doing anything but an insert. My fireplace is large and brink and also connected to the master bedroom fireplace and a fireplace that is on the back porch. I have 3 separate chimneys but a massive rectangle built out of brick to support them all.