We have a fireplace we eventually want to add a gas insert to. For now we want to remove the chimney (it leaks and after trying a number of things it still leaks) and repair the roof.

My question is can we remove the chimney in the attic and 2nd floor (the cement blocks and whatever else is there. We are going to remodel the bathroom, so that wall can be opened no problem.

We like the brick fireplace on the first place, and would like it to remain. We are hoping to add a gas insert someday. So will leaving the cement bricks in the basement & first floor be unstable? Or is it fine? Just seems wierd to have this hole from the downstairs fireplace going up to a floor upstairs.

Also – I assume we will need some duct for the gas insert. Can this go out a wall instead of up? Or should we put a vent in now? About how much space does that use up? I assume more than the size of the pipe itself.

Is this something we’d need a mason for or could our general contractor do a lot of it?
Who would actually put in the vent necessary for a gas fireplace, and will we need to know which gas fireplace we’ll buy?

Sorry for so many questions in one. Answering any of them will be appreciated.
How do I know if the chimney is a support for my house?
Our general contractor is a carpenter as is his father (father / son team). Who would I get another opinion from? A mason? A ‘builder’? About what should I expect to pay for this opinion?

I have no model number or any stickers on it anywhere.
This is going in a chimney, but I still need to know whether it is the vent free kind or not because I want to close the flue so I can keep the heat in. I need to know if there is a way to tell the difference between vented and vent free log sets, physically (my original question has not been answered).

Our new stove is of a ‘Lincoln’ variety and we would like to keep it going through the night. When we stoke it up, see that it is performing well,then close down the bottom vents as well as the flue vent it will not last until morning.
Our flue is 2 metres long and then the exhaust gases go into a large brick chimney. Could this be the problem?
Thanks for your assistance

My house was built in 1950 and has a coal burning fireplace. When I look up the vent, it is stuffed with paper and when my husband was on the roof cleaning out the gutters we see that the chimney is closed up. We were told when we bought the house that is had been "permanently closed up." My question is, is there a way to have it opened up and gas or electric logs put in? There’s no way it could be turned into a wood burning fireplace because there is very little depth as it was meant for coal. Anyone know anything about this stuff, suggestions on whom to call, prices etc.? I’m clueless. Thanks!

i have a pellet stove in my basement and the warm air
is trapped in the basement and can not get it to travel to first floor. I have opened the door which goes from basement to the first floor and also added a fan to push the air up, but still no luck.
The stove takes the air intake from outside so
there is no back draft. Any ideas? Thanks
Leo
Thanks for all the replies. I am just confused on one thing. The stove already gets the air from outside so i am not sure why it needs the air from upstairs. Also, what is the diff between adding a vent and opening a window in my basement, would that be the same ? Does the cold air is used to push the warm air up?

Thanks so much,
Leo

Forcing you to shut all windows on that side of the house unless you wanted to inhale the smoke in your home and peeling paint from your house from the tanic acid of the smoke that made you have to touchup paint every year?

This stove is not exhausted to a chimney. Rather it is exhausted into a 6" pipe out the back side of their cement cellar, fumes pushed towards my house.

I run an air purifier and if I have it on and it sucks in that smoke from outside to push out clean air in my house, it cakes up and eventually puts out the smoky air….looks like ash on top. I just threw out the home made filter and I have to clean the fan in side too and the vent. The ash is so fine it makes it through a hepa filter and makes even finer particles move into the air that made it by that micron filter and makes us sick in this house if I don’t clean it thoroughly and change the filter. I try not to leave windows on that side of the house open when they are running that stove.

I have glass on the front of the fireplace. I want to remove the glass and put on a screen so we can get more heat from the fireplace and enjoy the fire more. However, If I remove the glass, tons of cold air comes out from the vent box in the back. Can I close this? Any suggestions? I want the more realistic look of the fire.

I know the vent needs to be opened when the fireplace is on, but does the pilot light produce enough carbon monoxide to be dangerous when it’s on by itself?

We haven’t used our gas fireplace in over a week. Is it normal for the glass front to be extremely hot? It feels like a hot oven door when you’re cooking. The pilot light is on but the actual flames are off. It is a Napoleon Direct Vent Millivolt system (natural gas).
I’m actually here on my own-deployed husband I couldn’t even begin to guess how to turn off the pilot light. So….I guess I’ll try to find someone to come look. Thanks for the quick answers!

I’m looking at the vent-free and vented gas log setup, and was wondering if you can operate the vent-free setup with the damper open. Main reason I’d be interested in doing so is if it’s not too terribly cold, but we still want the fire going for "ambience", and we wanted to let some/most of the heat escape up the chimney instead of just circulating back into the room.