Expert: James Ball - 11/17/2008

Question
Hi Jim: I recently bought a house that is only 7 years old. It has a beautiful masonry fireplace in it, the only thing that is puzzling me is this. About 1 foot from the floor on two sides and the back of the fireplace the bricklayer cut and installed his bricks in a vertical position with a space of about 1/2" apart. Only about 1 foot in length on each side and about two foot in the back. I also have a place about 6 foot up on the side of the fireplace with no brick. Opening is 9"wide by 8 1/4" tall a piece of conduit is inside the brick opening. Tracing the conduit it goes to a switch on the wall by the fireplace. My question to you is this,do I need to put some kind of low cfm fan in this opening to pull in air so it is heated by the fireplace and it exits on the two sides and back. Also what type of fan am I looking for,or what web site? Looking forward to hearing from you.   Mike

Answer
Hello Mike, I would have a local Certified Chimney Sweep (www.csia.org, there you can look up by zip code to find one near you) take a first hand look at what you have, it sounds like a Heatolator Box (metal fire box) and if so the fan would circulate air to heat it and send it into the room. a sweep will be able to find out for sure and guide you in the right direction
James