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Your Fireplace-related Questions answered here
If you only use your wood burning fireplace maybe 30 times during winter months and only heat one room do I need to clean the chimney every year opposed to someone who uses the fireplace to heat the whole house?
Backing up a little bit: fireplaces aren’t a great way to heat a room, especially if you live in a place with electricity. Most of the heat goes up the chimney. If you want to warm the room, you’re better off with a space heater.
That said, fires in the fireplace are warm, cozy, and provide great ambiance. I use mine all the time.
(1) Make sure the wood you use is seasoned and dry. This means it shouldn’t be freshly cut, it should have sat out drying for a year or more, and shouldn’t have been in the rain recently. Damp wood creates smoke, and smoke will make your chimney dirtier and smellier faster.
(2) Use wood from hardwood trees (oak, maple) not pine. Pine sap makes it catch fire easily, but it also generates a great deal of smoke. Smoke is your chimney’s enemy.
(3) Make fires that burn well and cleanly, and provide enough air for complete combustion. In theory, if your wood burns in the perfect combustion reaction, no smoke or creosote will form. In practice, I find this very hard to do in a fireplace, but maybe you’re better at fires than I am.
Even if you’re careful about using dry, hardwood in your fireplace, creosote will naturally build up on the walls. Creosote is a thick black coating which is smelly, ugly, and also dangerous, as it can combust and make a chimney fire.
Creosote ranges from a thin coating of smoke to a thick tarry substance. If you look up your chimney and see black, and you scratch the black and can’t readily see brick underneath, that means you’ve got creosote buildup and it’s time to clean it.
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“Electric fireplaces are fairly easy to install — a whole project can be accomplished in a day’s time (assuming you have a helper). The first thing you’ll need to do is find a suitable size for your electric firebox. Select a firebox proportional to the size of your wall, and then decide on the model.
Built-in fireboxes are less expensive, though installation and framing will raise the overall cost. Wall-mounted electric fireboxes are easier to mount, but will protrude from your wall and take space away from the room. These units arrive with a 6 to 7” wide trim (either stainless steel, leather, or wood) that serves as the decorative encasement of your firebox.
Because built-in units need to be installed into the wall, installation requires a few more steps when compared to wall-mounted fireboxes. If you have the necessary depth (usually 6”) in the wall for your chosen fireplace, you just need to cut the appropriate-sized hole to accommodate the firebox. You’ll then insert the unit and pour the glass beets’ onto the front part of the firebox to close it up. If the depth of your electric firebox is more than the wall can handle, you may need to frame another wall right front of the original wall to accommodate the fireplace’s size.
Stone veneer will help mask the difference between your firebox and the wall. Cultured stone veneers are around 2” in thickness, while stacked stones and profit ledge stones are around 1 ½”, allowing your electric firebox to stick out from the wall a bit. This gap can be covered with stone veneer.
Placing the electrical outlets for your electric fireplace requires some forethought. Have a new outlet ready before installation, or position the firebox to connect to an existing one. Hiding the cables behind your drywall is a wise idea.
Do you have to frame out for the built in unit? Fear not! You can use this opportunity to your design advantage. You can include cool built-in shelves and accents to store pictures and candles, and create visual interest. To see a detailed article on how to build a built-in shelf for your fireplace, click here.
If the electric fireplace protrudes a few feet from all, you will need to install stone or brick veneers with corner pieces. In my opinion, electric fireplaces bring forth a modern feel to the room. I’d dress up the fireplace façade with a complementing stone veneer to add a modern touch to your new fireside.
Cultured stones, such as stacked stone veneers, are an excellent choice to harmonize your electric fireplace. Dry-stacked stone veneers offer both a rugged charm and a seek modern design.
Natural stone panels are the newest invention of the stone cladding world. Natural stone panels offer a wide array of styles and a colors for designing around an electric fireplace.
For installation instructions on how to install natural stone panels, click here.
While fireplace hearths for wood burning fireplaces are practically mandatory, electric fireplaces would just do well without one.
Electric fireplaces are an easy alternative to gas or wood burning fireplaces.
Keep the colors of the room and the style of the surrounding furniture in play and create a focal point by using stone colors to accentuate the shades.
If you keep these simple design principles in mind during installation, you’re sure to have a modern conversational piece that can be turned on with a push of a button. Enjoy the process of installing your electric fireplace, and if you have a question that you want answered, just ask us or join the conversation below.”
Taken from: Morton Stones[1]
Footnotes
[1] How To Install An Electric Fireplace
UltimateFireplaces.com.
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