Fireplace Conversion

[killerbee1970]

I am looking to purchase a home and one of the things that I would like is a wood burning fireplace. Most of the homes that I have been looking at have propane fireplaces or no fireplace at all.

1) How difficult is it to convert a propane fireplace into wood?

2) If the home doesn't have a fireplace, or the fireplace is propane, how difficult would the job be to put one in?

I'm not sure how hard it would be to add a chimney to a home.

Thank you for your help.......

[HayZee518]

A propane fireplace really doesn't vent off much toxic fumes that much - principally its exhaust is dilute carbon monoxide and water. Wood's exhaust contains a miriad of hydrocarbons including harmful carbon monoxide, sulfides, creosote etc. Now yer talking a fireplace not just a side vented stove or so. A scratch built fireplace from the ground up can be very expensive. Litterally they start at the bottom - ground level and build up. A concrete base, then the firebox, then a smoke shelf, damper and the flue, a clay tile lined flue inside a concrete block exterior all the way to the roof line and above. Then the fascia of the fireplace - brick or decorative rock - a lead sheet or aluminum flashing around the roof line and a chimney cap. In my standards construction of it in a brand new house is messy and takes a lot of time. Imagine what a mess it would be like in an old house! That, and you'll need to re-construct a lot of the internal bracing for a hole where the chimney would go up - something that wasn't in the original house's wood framing plan.