Hi:

I'm new to this group and wondered if anyone had any advice about the
following:

We have an old house with a nice old granite fireplace which seems to
let in a lot of cold air. It also doesn't allow passive solar heating
during the day, as the adjoining room (both south-facing) does, which
has windows. We don't use the fireplace, and won't. Does it make sense
to knock it down and put in energy-efficient windows across the
south-facing wall, adding heat and light during the day? We're not
planning on selling the house -- at least within 10-15 years. We live
in a Northwestern marine climate (Tacoma): lots of rain, not too hot in
the summer, down to about 20F in the winter.

Thanks for any help

Art

It may reduce the resale value but it depends on what you ultimately do to
make up for it. If you believe this modification better suits your
lifestyle then go for it. You can always put in a gas fireplace in a
different location if you want, much less substantial chimney is needed for
those. Unvented models are also available, you could have your fireplace
and your windows.

You might even be able to dispose of the bricks for free, try a post on
craigslist for example. They can be used for fill or cleaned off and
reused.


"Art" wrote in message
ps.com...
Hi:

I'm new to this group and wondered if anyone had any advice about the
following:

We have an old house with a nice old granite fireplace which seems to
let in a lot of cold air. It also doesn't allow passive solar heating
during the day, as the adjoining room (both south-facing) does, which
has windows. We don't use the fireplace, and won't. Does it make sense
to knock it down and put in energy-efficient windows across the
south-facing wall, adding heat and light during the day? We're not
planning on selling the house -- at least within 10-15 years. We live
in a Northwestern marine climate (Tacoma): lots of rain, not too hot in
the summer, down to about 20F in the winter.

Thanks for any help

Art

Art wrote:

Hi:

I'm new to this group and wondered if anyone had any advice about the
following:

We have an old house with a nice old granite fireplace which seems to
let in a lot of cold air. It also doesn't allow passive solar heating
during the day, as the adjoining room (both south-facing) does, which
has windows. We don't use the fireplace, and won't. Does it make sense
to knock it down and put in energy-efficient windows across the
south-facing wall, adding heat and light during the day? We're not
planning on selling the house -- at least within 10-15 years. We live
in a Northwestern marine climate (Tacoma): lots of rain, not too hot in
the summer, down to about 20F in the winter.

Thanks for any help

Art


Off the top of my head:

Will removing the nice granite work devalue the home
when it *is* time to sell?

Get a dollar est from a contractor to do the removal.
Weigh that cost too.

Is there a flue in the chimney work for furnace/water heater?
If so, there will be a big expense to get around that.

Jim

On 27 Mar 2006 12:11:51 -0800, "Art" wrote:

Hi:

I'm new to this group and wondered if anyone had any advice about the
following:

We have an old house with a nice old granite fireplace which seems to
let in a lot of cold air. It also doesn't allow passive solar heating
during the day, as the adjoining room (both south-facing) does, which
has windows. We don't use the fireplace, and won't. Does it make sense
to knock it down and put in energy-efficient windows across the
south-facing wall, adding heat and light during the day? We're not
planning on selling the house -- at least within 10-15 years. We live
in a Northwestern marine climate (Tacoma): lots of rain, not too hot in
the summer, down to about 20F in the winter.

You can't just improve the damper-arrangement so it stops leaking air,
and stick a greenhouse on the outside wall where the chimney is?
If you do that with a door and a couple of high vents,
you will gain a little bit of living space, and a LOT of solar gain
that you can shut off when you want to.

A fireplace increases a houses value, block off the chimney with a
baloon designed to stop out drafts, I just covered my opening with
foamboard and atached magnetic tape, on the fireplace I screwed in steel
L channel. You might consider an efficient stove insert.

Thanks for all the helpful advice and suggestions: exactly what I was
looking for. I really like the idea of the greenhouse on the exterior
wall around the fireplace. Just to make sure I understand what you're
suggesting: a door on one side of the fireplace leading to a glassed in
'greenhouse/porch' (perhaps a large window on the other side of the
fireplace to light the room?), with vents moving air from the
greenhouse/porch area into the living room? This sounds very nice.
As for blocking the chimney/fireplace -- didn't quite understand the
suggestion. You covered the opening on the roof with foamboard? May I
ask what L-channel is?

Thanks again for all the help -- very much appreciated!

Art

On 27 Mar 2006 21:45:47 -0800, "Art" wrote:

Thanks for all the helpful advice and suggestions: exactly what I was
looking for. I really like the idea of the greenhouse on the exterior
wall around the fireplace. Just to make sure I understand what you're
suggesting: a door on one side of the fireplace leading to a glassed in
'greenhouse/porch' (perhaps a large window on the other side of the
fireplace to light the room?), with vents moving air from the
greenhouse/porch area into the living room? This sounds very nice.
As for blocking the chimney/fireplace -- didn't quite understand the
suggestion. You covered the opening on the roof with foamboard? May I
ask what L-channel is?

Thanks again for all the help -- very much appreciated!

Art


What I was envisioning for the greenhouse was
something like this:

www.goedjn.com/sketch/greenhouse.gif

You need at least one low opening, which
would normally be a door, and at least
one high opening, which could be a vent or
a window. All the other details depend
on how much greenhouse you can afford/want,
whether the chimney is interior or exterior,
how close you are to your setback line, and
whether the greenhouse blocks any egress windows
on the upper floor(s)

The Balloon idea for stopping the cold draft from the chimney I think
was referring to a Chimney Balloon like the one on this website
www.chimneyballoon.us They run for $40-$50

I like the thought of the greenhouse too, MY wife would LOVE if i put
in a greenhouse! Although that is a rather high cost option, it would
likely be less than removing the chimney all together.

Greenhouses don't have to be terribly expensive, but they certainly can
be depending on the model and style.

Question: does this fireplace take up the entire wall? Might you leave
the fireplace and chimney, but have the walls knocked out (granite or
whatever) and put in some windows. If you combined this with the
greenhouse idea, you would end up with a semi-freestanding fireplace,
which can be very nice.

-Kevin

Thanks again for more interesting ideas. The sketch is helpful: those
are just about exactly the proportions of our fireplace/wall. No,
Kevin, the fireplace only takes up about a third of the total length of
the wall, so putting in windows and a door to the greenhouse would
work. Besides cost, I have to think about how this would look on this
old house -- it seems, at least from a heat/light/environmental
standpoint -- like a good idea.

Thanks again. If we decide to do this I'll report back.

Art