Which Fireplace Do I Need? Insert, Prefab or Stove

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(571) 436-0844 Text (540) 660-7785 Showroom · 1314 N Royal Ave, Front Royal VA Mon–Fri 8–5 · Sat 10–4 Firefighter Owned · Licensed VA & WV

Pick My Fireplace

Three questions get you most of the way there: what are you putting it into, what do you want to burn, and how much heat do you actually need. Answer those and the list goes from six hundred units to a handful.

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The Three Questions

What are you putting it into?

An existing masonry fireplace takes an insert. A blank wall takes a prefabricated zero clearance fireplace. An open room with no fireplace at all takes a freestanding stove. These are three different products and they are not interchangeable.

What do you want to burn?

Wood is the most heat per dollar and the most work. Gas is instant, clean and runs on a remote. Pellet is hands-off and needs power. Electric is for the look and a bit of warmth where there is no venting.

How much heat do you need?

One room, or the whole house on a cold night? Oversizing is the most common mistake — a stove that is too big gets damped down, and a damped-down stove glazes your chimney.

Got those three? Open the builder and filter by them. You will see every unit we carry that fits, with photographs, and you can click straight through to the full specs on any of them.

Not Sure Yet

How to Answer Question One

You already have a fireplace

Insert

If you have a brick or stone firebox and a working chimney, an insert is almost certainly what you want. It is a sealed firebox that slides into the opening you already have, with a stainless liner run all the way to the top.

It turns an open fireplace — which loses more heat than it makes on most nights — into a real heater.

The wall is blank, or the old one is worn out

Prefab zero clearance

A listed metal firebox framed into a wall with its own chimney system. It goes into a room that never had a fireplace — and it is also what replaces a prefab that has reached the end of its life.

Sizes rarely match one for one, so we reframe the opening as needed to get the fit and the clearances right.

You want the most heat

Freestanding stove

Stands out in the room on a hearth pad, radiating from all six sides. It is the most heat for the money and the least dependent on an existing chimney.

It will also keep the house warm when the power is out, which around here is worth something.

Before You Come In

What to Bring

Three photographsThe fireplace from the front, the chimney from outside, and the front of the house. Between them they answer most of what we would otherwise have to ask you over the phone.

The measurement worksheetIt asks for the twelve measurements we actually need. Print the worksheet (PDF), fill it in and bring it — it stops the wrong-size order before it happens.

What you burn now, if anythingAnd how you get on with it. Half the job is not repeating whatever annoyed you about the last one.

The room, roughlySquare footage, ceiling height, how open it is to the rest of the house, and how well the house holds heat.

Or nothing at allBook us out and we will come and measure it for you. That is the surest way to get it right.

Then come and stand in front of it. Over forty units are on the showroom floor at 1314 N Royal Avenue, most of them burning. A spec sheet cannot tell you what a flame looks like across a room.

Next Step

Open the Builder

Filter by fuel and type, see the units that fit, and click any one of them for the full specification. Then come see the shortlist lit at the showroom.

Open the Fireplace Builder Book a Showroom Visit Call 571-436-0844

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