How to Tell If Your Fireplace Can Handle an Insert

Fireplace dimensions determine the suitability of an insert.

A fireplace insert installs within your existing fireplace to provide a covering for the fire and enhance the room's decor. Inserts are typically made of brass or cast iron. Many models feature metal screens and glass doors to prevent sparks from leaping onto the carpet. The insert fastens to the top fire bar over the fireplace and to the sides with tension rods that exert pressure on the masonry to hold the insert in position. Determining whether your fireplace can handle an insert is merely a matter of measuring the dimensions accurately.

Things You'll Need

• Measuring tape

Instructions

1. Push up on the damper control handle inside the fireplace below the opening to the chimney. Raise and lower the handle to open and close the damper. The damper must be working properly before you install an insert or use the fireplace because the damper controls ventilation of hot smoke and gases through the chimney.

2. Measure the inside width of the fireplace from the front edge of the interior left wall to the right wall, using a tape measure. Write down the front width. Measure the width from the left corner of the back wall inside the fireplace to the right corner of the back wall, since many fireplaces taper inward and are not perfectly box-shaped.

3. Measure the height from the inside top edge to the surface of the hearth. Write down this number.

4. Take a depth measurement from the back wall of the fireplace to the front edge at the top --- not the front of the hearth, which juts into the room. Write down the number. You now have the internal dimensions of your fireplace. You'll need these measurements to buy a fireplace insert that will fit. Inserts typically list a size range on the packaging, so as long as your fireplace measurements fit within that range, the insert will work.

References

• Hearth, Patio and Barbecue Association: Fireplace Inserts