Many homeowners desire a wood fireplace as they can add a little something extra to the home and will often play a large part in increasing its value should they elect to sell the property later on down the line.
Building a fireplace can often be a time consuming task, so this article looks at three of the most common choices and how to go about getting each one built.
Masonry
Fireplaces made using masonry are probably the most common types of fireplaces, due in large part that they are very attractive. However, they are also quite difficult to build if you are retrofitting, so it is a good idea to begin construction alongside the rest of the house, where possible, so that it can be incorporated into the overall design.
You will need to take the size of the fireplace and the dimensions of the firebox inside it into account when building. Furthermore, you also need to ensure you have all of the relevant materials and abide by local building codes that will require you to have the fireplace a certain minimum distance away from any potentially combustible materials.
You will also need to consider an air-circulating system that ensures that the fireplace takes in cooler air from the surroundings, heats it up and then transmits it to the rest of the room. If you don’t, you may find that the Victoria BC wood fireplace takes in heated air and sends it up through the chimney, which can lead to a very high energy bill if you aren’t careful.
Zero Clearance
A Zero clearance wood-burning fireplace is usually much easier to install than the masonry option, as it requires far less construction work. As such, it is often chosen by people who are operating on a budget.
They are lightweight in nature and have fireboxes that are always kept cool, which means you need to worry less about building regulation. As such, you will have more flexibility when it comes to positioning a zero clearance fireplace, making it a much more attractive option for those who want to keep the building process as simple as possible.
They are ideally suited to smaller rooms and they tend to operate much more efficiently than the masonry option due to the fact that they vent through an external feature in most cases. This means that they do not take in air from the room and cause it to be expelled.