I tore out a brick double sided fireplace between our living room and dining room and hung it from the ceiling at our house in Michigan. I put it at television height and tiled the floor underneath. Sorry, no pictures.

What are you wanting to do with yours? There are as many answers as commentors with this vague question

A good can of heat resistant paint, ie BBQ paint, to the back of the fire box goes a long way for a quick freshen up. I have done this numerous times for an immediate return. Also a bit of diluted vinegar will take smoke residue off brick facades. Always think heat endurance when choosing materials to reface with!

@ Joseph Corlett, LLC - sounds like an amazing as well as intriguing job, but....what was the lesson learned here? (might want to consider this myself)

The lesson here is keep the sledge hammer hidden away from your wife or that brick behemoth is going down and you're going to rebuild it, like it or not.

We had a really horrible, huge, dark, full-of-spiders, lodge-style rock fireplace (in a mid-century modern house!) that we replaced with an orange Malm gas fireplace. The lesson: the Malm met U.S. code, but not the international building code which our jurisdiction has adopted, so we had to buy an add-on device that saves an infinitesimal amount of energy, but cost more than the whole fireplace! Looks great, though.

Is there a way to clean the fake logs in a fireplace? I want to redo our double sided fireplace but not sure where to start.

Run the logs through a cycle of the dishwasher without using soap or rinse agent. Give plenty of time to dry out.

Darlene Mulligan Time for me to leave tonight. I read that as you saying, "Run the dogs through a cycle of the dishwasher....." OMG

Renee, I would love to see your new fireplace!

Gas fireplace will provide about 1/4 the heat of wood. Sad hard lesson once the chimney is taken down ; (

We "redid" our fireplace. We removed it! We’re in SW Florida, the house is 30+ years old, and the fireplace had never been used. It was huge, we gained 24 sqft floor space from the hearth alone. We did leave the chimney, the next owners have the option of adding a fireplace back. So our lesson is, if you’re living in a climate where a fireplace makes no sense, don’t be afraid to take it out.

Can I put a ventless ethanol fire place as a wall insert into a bathroom that is 8x6 but well ventilated?

We depend on wood heat to supplement propane heat during the cold months here in the California side of the Sierra Nevada (though there is lot less snow and cold months). My only regret is not designing the hearth larger for more wood storage and mess containment.

I don’t like the panel inserts in my Heatilater fireplace. Is it possible to remove the panels and put in real fire bricks to make it look better?

Invest into a fireplace insert. You get the look of a fireplace, but it has a recirculation fan, so now you have an alternate heat source.

Go with wood if you want a workout and don’t mind a mess, gas if you want clean convenience.

Ours paid for itself after 3 years in oil usage reduction.

Great improvement, but wondering why the cabinets were painted white?

toomanycats12 /I questioned a couple of things there too...but notice---The durock is still exposed. I think it's still in progress?

White contrasts good with the wood as well as brightens up the small space. Added a picture of the finished tile on the fireplace.

Lesson learned: Use the correct fireplace for the size and placement in the room. The fireplace in our purchased existing home had a double sided fireplace that was converted to gas somewhere over the years. Thanks to Hurricane Harvey flooding, we had to rip it out. Turns out the knowledgeable vendor explained that the fireplace had not been correctly installed and was drawing air from both sides and never generating adequate heat.

So we replaced it with a high-efficiency direct vent unit and stopped the drafts and will now be able to enjoy the warmth.

Lesson learned regarding installing a gas log set: turn the fire off before the installers leave your home. Listen for a whooshing sound of gas. If you hear none, the pilot light is set properly. If it's loud, then ask them to turn down the pilot light. Ours was so loud at first we could hear it in the next room. The guys had already left but we were able to get them to come right back. BTW, we love our gas fire and have used it almost every night since we got it 3 months ago. Almost sad to see the cold weather go.

I framed my log burning fireplace with stack stone. I built a frame that gave it some depth rather than applying directly to the wall- this method looks best. However, make sure you account for enough stone for underneath the frame just at the top of the opening of the fireplace. The exposed wood is dangerous and not to code. It`s hard to make it look right if you don't allow for enough room.

We removed a window in our living room, built a frame, covered it with stone and installed a gas fireplace. So cozy now in the cold winter months in Canada

The before fireplace was aftermarket DIY — we like the after much better!

Before

After

My husband installed an electric fireplace and surround during our remodel. Best decision we ever made as I feel it ties the room together around a central focal point. We looked at all different brands of inserts to ensure the "flames" were to our liking and the specs met our installation needs.

I am considering the same. Can you please tell us what brand and size (model number?) you chose for this electric unit?

etop1 - the unit was a Dimplex Model BLF5051. It is 50 3/16" x 19 1/2". We chose this model because of it's looks and realistic "flames", but also it provided a greater number of installation options; Surface mount, In-wall Recessed, and Flush Mount. As well as hard-wired or plugged directly in the wall outlet.

We will be purchasing a Napoleon CLEARion (double sided) next year. It's electric, but I have read that electric is actually more cost effective to run than gas. We will be replacing a wood stove and a pellet stove. We have a small house, so this should be just fine. We have our central heat for back up.

Will be following this - we have four fireplaces to restore and would love for all of them to be operable, at least with the super realistic gas inserts.

Following!!!

We have a propane stand-along stove which is pretty to look at and does heat well. BUT I MISS THE WOOD! There is nothing like a real wood fireplace. Nothing! I hope to work until I am 75 so I can afford to build a new living room with a REAL WOOD BURNING STOVE or fireplace. I promise I will do all the work. Anything to get back that glowing radiant heat during wretched stormy weather!

We bought an electric fireplace with the intention of building around and above it, including a white mantel. Unfortunately, our fireplace vents out the top, so the space that is 24" above the fireplace has to be empty. I guess we could tile it, but it's not the white wood look that I had hoped for. Wish I had done my homework. We spent a lot to rip out an ugly Franklin stove (fixing the hole in the ceiling and in the roof was not cheap), then it cost most money to pull power through a cement block wall for the fireplace. The attached picture shows what I wanted my fireplace to look like, but with that 24" clearance above the fireplace, that was not possible. Maybe someday I'll start over. This was my dream fireplace.

We has a brick floor to ceiling fireplace, with a wall to wall hearth/seating. We heavily edited it by taking out the seating, cutting the brick facing down to 5 feet, then plastering over the whole thing. We had it plastered in a very smooth finish with integral color. Love it!

Lesson learned: decide on the firebox opening size/shape before taking things apart. Our firebox was an odder shape than we knew, so we’re having a challenge finding gas logs or an insert for it.

If I could, I would has changed to a gas heat stove.

Make sure the BTUs are right-sized for your space. Just installed a Mendota Full View 36" because we loved the flame. It puts out so much heat we have to turn off the back flame to stay on the sofa! Sofa is about 13' from the fireplace. So disappointed - Mendota vendor who measured and advised should have known better.

Thank you for opening this line of dialog, Emily H!! There is lots of great info for those contemplating a fireplace redo - as we are!!

elizrob I could not agree more. We do have gas logs, due to our age, and the chimney/chase, however, with gas it's like watching a parade on tv, versus being on the street watching a parade march by. It "ain't really the real thing!" - And that wonderful smell you get. I would even go for a wood stove (glass front) over gas logs, but alas, our chimney won't support a wood fire.

barbara_escher Too funny we liked the same fireplace wall. When this pic was taken our floors had not been refinished. They will be a natural wood color. I still haven’t decided if I will tile the FP wall or put stone around the FP.

I wanted a wood-burning fireplace my whole life and finally got one in a rental apartment. When we finally bought our house, it had a gas fireplace in the corner, which was great but not my dream. As we've gotten older, we're SOOOOO glad it's gas and operates so easily. No wood to buy and we've got no place to store a cord of wood anyway. Plus carrying in wood at our age would be extremely difficult, and a space for wood at-the-ready is unnecessary. Gas is cheap, too. Our gas logs are over 20 years old and still look great -- flames look great whether the fireplace is on low or on high. Our friends and acquaintances who have wood-burning fireplaces tell us they rarely use them, due to not wanting to "mess up" their room, and always pine over a gas fireplace when they visit and it's on! Go figure, but we ended up with what is really perfect for us.

Some say there's a place in hell for those who paint brick. When we purchased our home, our brick fireplace was a huge, smelly, black hole at the end of a long living room and I couldn't wait to paint it white. Installed an efficient gas insert and have enjoyed it every day since. Biggest takeaway: hire a good quality chimney sweep before adding an insert.

Would like to remove hearth because condois tiny enough, but code apparently mandates fireproof material a foot or so out from firebox. And I dont want a tile floor. Iguess I could tile just around fireplace, but the photos showing the modern fireplaces seem to not have hearths...I guess they’re gas or electric logs.

RegularClouds, I buy scented tealight candles online that are scented so well that one tealight will permeate an entire room. When we burn our gas fireplace, I usually burn one with the scent "crackling fire" -- gives off the fragrance you miss. Two other good scents for winter are "leather" and "XO Cigar Reserve." You will see the tealight vendor If you search on Google for "Scented Tealight Candles: Crackling Fire, Three Times the Fragrance"

Fireplaces in central and south Florida are a waste of money and add very little to the value of the home. the space and money can be better used for other things. It's an item that may be used a couple times a year for nostalgia, You'll never get your return on the investment and probably have roof leaks eventually if you have a chimney. I'm a licensed builder in Florida and have dealt with housing here for 30 yrs.

Old fireplaces that are improperly vented will suck the heat and AC out of the house, They will warm the room they are in and the back rooms will get cold.