Want a wood fireplace but can’t afford it? It’s probably because of the chimney

Want a wood fireplace but can’t afford it? It’s probably because of the chimney.

Everyone loves the thought of sitting beside a roaring fire, the warmth, the glow of the flickering light and when it is planned properly, it becomes a point of focus in the home.

What most people don’t understand is that it is rather expensive to have a wood burning fireplace installed in your home. Depending on what type of wood burning fireplace that you want, will dictate the price of the fireplace.

Size, shape and where the fireplace is suppose to be installed all factor into how much it will cost you to have a wood burning fireplace installed. Because everything that is installed around a wood burning fireplace has to be made to be fireproof or fire resistant it adds money to the cost of prepping the area for the wood fireplace install.

No matter what type of wood fireplace you install the one big constant is that it needs a chimney, the chimney has to be installed so that the smoke can freely rise up and out of the house and away from the building. Because of this fact, the chimney is as expensive or more expensive then that actual fireplace that does all the burning of the wood.

The cost of a chimney for a wood burning fireplace is at a minimum 200 dollars a foot. That adds up depending how many stories that chimney has to rise up and how many feet above the roof the chimney ends up protruding to allow the smoke to drift away. The distance the chimney has to be installed above the roof depends on the slope of the roof and the distance that the chimney is from the peak of the roof when it penetrates through the roof.

Other factors that make a chimney more expensive are as follows;

• If the chimney goes through the house and not the outside.

• If the chimney has to pass through multiple floors before it goes out the roof. Interior chimney chases are expensive to build and they take up valuable square footage in a home.

• If the fireplace is a stand-alone stove then the chimney pipe has to be double lined for all pipe that is exposed to the room.

• If there is certain types of insulation that will require heat shields when the pipe passes through them.

• If the roof is fairly steep then the chimney can end up rising up higher off the roof. When a chimney rises up too high off a roof re-enforcing rods are required to hold the chimney straight against wind and snow.

If you hire a good contractor they will be able to give you an accurate quote so that you will know what you are getting into before you even start shopping to buy your wood fireplace. Hiring a proper company to install your fireplace is important because the risk that is created when you burn things in a fireplace that has an improper chimney are extreme. Make sure that your installer is certified and can give you a certification number because your insurance company will ask for a copy of it.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.