Expert: James Ball - 11/17/2008

Question
Hi.We are going to remove the wall between kitchen and living room to make a great room. Presently have fireplace facing into living,,,no insert,,,never been used,,waste of space.It has a chimney,,That chimney is presently used to vent our free standing gas stove fireplace downstairs. Question: is it possible to buy a two sided fireplace and use existing chimney that is presently only being used to vent downstairs gas fireplace. We have propane heat at our house. Our propane furnace is vented directly to outside.
Is this a real expensive venture?? Is it possible to use the same chimney to vent a two sided fireplace. We would totally have to take out the huge brick set up in the living room,,it is never used,,nor has ever been used or even had an insert put in,,,total waste of space as no one uses the lving room area.
What do you think? Costly or not.

Answer
Hello Meg, 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, to be sure if you can find a double sided unit will work. Then check with your local building department. and a good mason. not sure about how much it would cost.
James