Fireplace damper

[Jasonrkba]

I have a house that was made in the 50s and at some point someone installed a wood stove in the existing fireplace. I would like to remove the stove and burn wood in the fireplace again. When the stove was installed the damper was removed. My question is how hard is it to replace the damper. It has the squared tarra cotta chimney and it looks like the old one was cleanly removed. My knowledge with this stuff is very limited.


Thanks. Jason.

 

[U&A]

I hate to be “the guy” but if your knowledge is not very high on this kind of stuff find someone in your area that does know more about it.

I’m not trying to rain on your parade. Sorry


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Jasonrkba]

No that's fair info. Sometimes these projects are not DIY but if it's simple enough why pay the extra for someone else to do it. I have done a lot of my own home improvements, enough to know when to say when. Just wanted to see if it was something to tackle myself.

Thanks. Jason.

 

[Ryan'smilling]

Out of curiosity, why do you want to go back to a fireplace? Obviously they look nice, but they really are poor at heating a space and they pull in a lot of cold air. They also burn very inefficiently and are big emitters of particulate and carbon. There are some very nice wood stoves with glass fronts that offer a very nice compromise, giving you a clean burn and a very nice view. My dad's place had an open fireplace for 25 years or so before I finally convinced him to put in an insert. His propane consumption dropped dramatically and he really likes watching the fire in the stove.

 

[Jasonrkba]

It burns us out of the house. Its not big and its in the dining room so when it's running it will have you sweating. I have two more fire places, one in the back living room and another in the basement.

 

[Jasonrkba]

Off topic but I found an excellent way to clean the glass. Take a couple paper towels and soak them with Windex pat them in the ashes. Get them good and dirty. Use that to scrub the dirty part of the glass. After everything is broken free clean again with clean paper towels and windex. You will be amazed unless you already knew this trick.

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

Off topic but I found an excellent way to clean the glass. Take a couple paper towels and soak them with Windex pat them in the ashes. Get them good and dirty. Use that to scrub the dirty part of the glass. After everything is broken free clean again with clean paper towels and windex. You will be amazed unless you already knew this trick.

Or just burn a hot fire, it'll clean it.

 

[Jasonrkba]

I've had it hot enough for the little rack that the wood sets on was bright cherry red and it did not clean it. Do you think its the red oak im burning?

Also, im not sure it matters but this is a dual chimney. Meaning two stacks. One goes to the basement and is used by the fireplace down there that I have never used and I believe my oil furnace/boiler uses.

 

[Blue Oaks]

You might try measuring the layout inside the chimney and looking online for a damper. It's a simple mechanical device. Worst case I think you'd have to sink some anchors for some bolts.

 

[Matt93eg]

As others said not sure why you would want to go back to open fireplace other than purely asthetics.

But if you must you can look up top sealing dampers. If you have clay tile protrusion on top of chimney these mount on top, just figure out the size of the tile. you drop a cable down the chimney, mount a bracket and open and close the top damper via cable from the bottom. Here is one I have personally used before. If on a cell phone zoom out.

https://www.woodlanddirect.com/Lyem...1gz4aAsSZEALw_wcB#Lyemance Damper:13"W_x_13"L

 

[Mustang71]

As others said not sure why you would want to go back to open fireplace other than purely asthetics.

But if you must you can look up top sealing dampers. If you have clay tile protrusion on top of chimney these mount on top, just figure out the size of the tile. you drop a cable down the chimney, mount a bracket and open and close the top damper via cable from the bottom. Here is one I have personally used before. If on a cell phone zoom out.

https://www.woodlanddirect.com/Lyemance-Damper-Energy-Saving?st-t=shopping&gclid=Cj0KCQiAsJfhBRCaARIsAO68ZM67PigeumL2EBPvKH7dPkpksq-nMIFRBNfquf1bFSs_t2RZsrF1gz4aAsSZEALw_wcB#Lyemance Damper:13"W_x_13"L

I was going to suggest the pop up chimney cap also it's probably the easiest way to close off the chimney when not in use.

They have some damper chimney caps on Amazon for around 200$

I'd keep the stove over the fire place. I grew up with a fire place and for the same amount of wood that you can set on the log stand I can heat my whole house with my wood furnace. The fire place would get you a couple degrees in that room if you burned all night.