Expert: James Ball - 2/11/2010

Question
QUESTION: I have a wood burning fireplace that does not have an insert.  I was wondering if it is possible to place doors on the fireplace wall by attaching the doors to metal surround.  The wall is drywall over brick.  The heatilator doors that are sold appear to attach to inserts but I am wondering if there is a way that one can attach by any other means if there is no insert.  I know it is possible for a screen to be attached but because glass doors are heavy I'm not certain other then to say that I do have brick behind the wall and that may help as far as that goes.  Any ideas?
Wendy

ANSWER: Hello Wendy, it sounds like you have a prefab fireplace, and  if so you can only use doors made for that unit (I have seen other doors cause a fire).
find the owners manual and see if they make doors for that unit and i f so try to get them and install them
James

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I'm sorry I think you misunderstood me.  The fireplace I have is just a plain ole fireplace that at one time had a insert installed in it.  I'm sure it started off being a fireplace that burned wood because the inside has nothing but brick and the whole wall was made of brick as well.  Then the previous owners installed a gas/wood insert that looked really bad so we took it out and started burning wood as it was once used.  I am now wondering if it is possible to place doors over the whole area without installing an insert).  I say this because the fireplace still has a way of opening and closing so the smoke clears out and the inside is brick.
I hope this helps.

Answer
Welcome back Wendy, if you have a  masonry fireplace and not a Prefab then you can mount masonry glass doors to the out side.  You will need the height and with  and the doors should over lap (as per their installation instructions)
Also if it has not been checked in a while 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 they should be able to help.
Hope this helps
James