Upgrade Your Fireplace Instead of Replacing It

Have you considered replacing your fireplace, whether due to heating inefficiency, an outdated appearance, or safety concerns? You could cut costs by upgrading your fireplace rather than replacing it. There are many options that may provide the solution you’re looking for.

Improved Efficiency

The secret is out about traditional fireplaces: They are woefully inefficient. Heating your home costs more than any other energy expense. Most homeowners are seeking ways to cut utility expenses, and upgrading your fireplace is one way to accomplish that. The following are a few of the upgrades that you can choose from, to improve fireplace efficiency:

• Have a fireplace insert installed inside of your traditional fireplace. Fireplace inserts create a completely different type of burning environment. Your firewood will burn longer but also provide significantly more heat after a fireplace insert is installed. Your woodpile will also last longer. Rather than up to 90% of the heat from the fire going up the chimney, as with a traditional fireplace, the heat from a fireplace insert will enter your home. You can turn off your central heating system and allow your upgraded fireplace to share the job of warming your home.
• Install a heat exchanger in your existing fireplace. A heat exchanger produces much higher temperatures, as compared with typical fires. What heat exchangers do is to use waste gases to produce additional heat. It is, therefore, essential to have your chimney and fireplace inspected to ensure that they are capable of withstanding the temperatures produce by a heat exchanger.
• If you have a fireback installed in your fireplace, it will not give you results as effective as a fireplace insert, but it will generate additional heat for your home and provide additional insulation.
• If the damper in your fireplace doesn’t seal tightly, the result will be that heated and cooled air in your home will escape year around, leading to higher utility costs month after month. If your damper has rusted, been broken, or simply worn out, contact our chimney professionals and have a new damper installed.

Updated Appearance

Are you dissatisfied with the appearance of your fireplace? There are numerous options for giving it a whole new look. You can have a new mantel and fireplace face installed. The possibilities are virtually endless, when it comes to upgrading the appearance of an existing fireplace. You can choose from countless materials and go with an elaborate mantle or no mantle at all, for instance.

Glass doors can be installed, and they can close off the fireplace when it isn’t being used and as embers in fires die down. There are many different styles of glass fireplace doors, and they could provide the new look you’re looking for.

You can convert your fireplace to a gas fireplace. There are many new looks to choose from, and faux logs are far more realistic than they were in former times.

Improved Safety

There could be numerous reasons you lack confidence that it is safe to use your fireplace. Perhaps a chimney sweep advised you to have a new flue installed and you are unsure about the benefit of doing so. If you are unsure about the safety of your fireplace and chimney and have doubts regarding what you should do, contact our friendly chimney technicians. They are professionals who are glad to help homeowners gain the peace of mind in knowing that they can safely use their fireplaces.

The bottom line when you upgrade instead of replacing a fireplace is that you save money. Contact us today for ideas or to schedule your annual chimney inspection.