I'm lost and need help

I would not do a fireplace for heat. It's 2018, not 1918.
Hearth, freestanding wood stove.
I would do an alcove for a wood stove like they do for vented gas fireplaces, just big enough so there are no clearance issues if I was building new.
You get sort of the look of a traditional old-fashioned fireplace with the efficiency of a wood stove.
Plus you don't lose floor space to a hearth. Especially if the bumpout is deep enough / part of the poured foundation rather than cantilevered with litle depth.



If the bumpout is deep enough you can have no hearth intruding in the room.

 

I absolutely would NOT allow a builder to handle all of this for you.

First, select the stove YOU want. Don’t let a builder or any vendor make that choice for you. The best specialty stoves are much better than a mass market whatever stove, and they don’t cost that much more, or maybe even less. Woodstock and Blaze King are good places to start if you want long burn times between loading. Or maybe a pellet stove? Do some research, especially with the community on this forum.

Next, design a chimney and hearth that meets that stoves requirements for clearances, R value, chimney size and height etc. For example, if you want an Woodstock Ideal Steel, you want a 6” chimney. If you want a Blaze King King you will need an 8” chimney. Floor and wall requirements are different as well.

Finally, use a contractor for the stove pieces who knows what they are doing and is familiar with wood stoves and building codes. This is not a place to cut corners or make mistakes. You want it to pass inspection with flying colors and you want it to be safe.

 

Thanks for the suggestions and that, plenty of info to read on here.

 

Big oops Matt! Only one of the many Blaze King stove models requires 8" vent. The King. The largest stove option they offer. cere19 you have several BK models to look at that use standard 6" vent. Most of the models actually! Carry on.

 

Still thinking of a fireplace? Hope not.

 

in the beginning, that was how I got started. but then I realized how much money I was saving on heating oil...now I'm obsessed...

 

Ayuh. Haven't fired our oil burner here since we moved in. Cha-ching.

 

Where exactly is the oops? I said if you want a Blaze King King you need an 8” chimney and I believe that is 100% accurate. Yes there are other Blaze King models that don’t require an 8” pipe, but if you want the size and burn time of the King, the pipe needs for the smaller stoves isn’t really relevant.

That is the point I was making. Pick the stove first so you can build around it as the requirements vary.

 

By god I stand corrected. I did not see the King model designation in your post. Apologize!

 

Maybe he read your post too quick.

 

No problem, I was just confused a bit.

 

As others have said the fireplace is quite a different animal from the stove or an insert ... Which is just a stove with an air jacket around it that you stick in a fire place fire box. The 1800i is a great unit but if you are building new get and integrated stove / fireplace or just a standalone stove instead of buying both a fireplace and insert.

 

So with talking to my wife both me and her both kind of want the mantel. We stopped at a fireplace store near us and they carried Regency Fireplaces, does anyone have any experience with them. We'd be looking at the Classic R90 which is an EPA fireplace I believe.

 

We’ve got the HI300, Hampton is in the Regency line.

We built 20 years ago and plugged our fireplace with this insert 10 years ago. If I had a do over I would have placed a fireplace foundation right in the center of the house, instead of at the very end of a room that is at the very end of the house. Second I wouldn’t have put in a fireplace: it would be a stove or insert or similar.

 

The R90 looks to be much better than an open fireplace, but still not gonna perform like a stove.
You can still have the hearth and the mantel with a free standing stove...best of both worlds

Wise words right there

I was trying to find some of the gorgeous free standing stoves/hearth/fireplace pics that I've seen on here...I was thinking there was a thread (or two)...can anybody else confirm and/or find this?

 

The added expense and reduced heating of a fireplace...for a shelf aka mantel.
The sky's the limit designing a hearth for a freestanding stove. Plus, stoves can be easily swapped out for a different model in the future, which isn't the case for a fireplace.

 

Freestander. All the way if creating a new build. Maximize return for your efforts gathering/processing wood

 

I’m with the majority here, wood stove all the way. If I was building new I’d most likely do some sort of alcove install with a big masonry wall or else a centrally located wood stove. You can build a beautiful mantle without having the fireplace.