Young House Love

Home Decorating & DIY Tutorials

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Removing An Old Woodstove Fireplace Insert

As of today we’ve lived in our house for six whole months. And in all that time we’ve never formally introduced you to Bart. How rude of us.

Bart Before With Chair

Bart, aka Black Bart the woodstove insert, is hard to miss in our kitchen. We know the previous owners got a lot of use out of him (although they did warn us that he made the house pretty smoky and coated a lot of nearby surfaces with fine black dust). We’d always planned to replace him down the road when we hopefully convert our fireplace into a double fireplace (that can be enjoyed from the living room as well as the kitchen).

Floor Plan Fireplace

But Clara spurred us into action a bit sooner. See, the bean is just too obsessed with Bart. And the potential harm to Clara thanks to a searing hot 30+ year old wood burning stove has always outweighed any potential benefits. So although we moved in the middle of winter, we didn’t fire him up once. And Clara still finds the sharp metal edges of Bart oddly fascinating, no matter how many times we say no or redirect her with toys/the dog/insane dance moves, etc.

Bart Label

All kidding aside, we know many folks who love wood stoves (even those with kiddos), but Bart just wasn’t working for our fam. We couldn’t keep denying that he was truly (and weirdly) a Clara magnet, and after she once managed to get the stove door open and her hand into some soot before we could pull her away, Sherry and I were officially fed up with this sharp and dirty metal monster that we weren’t even using.

Never ones to act hastily (you know us, we prefer to overanalyze while hemming and hawing), first we considered locking the doors with a kid-proof lock, adding foam pads to the pokey parts, and even blocking him off with baby gates or some sort of homemade blockade contraption. But in the end we realized that building everything short of a moat around something that we didn’t use and already planned to replace down the road seemed more than a little wacky. In other words: it was time to bid ol’ Bart adieu. So we borrowed some confidence from Layla and Kevin‘s fireplace makeover and decided to give our kitchen a Black-Bart-ectomy yesterday (don’t worry, we won’t trash him- Bart will live on, but more on that later).

Bart Inside

When it came to the whole wood stove removal thing, I didn’t really know where to start. And this was one of the few times in my life that google was no help. So during Clara’s afternoon nap (so as not to set a bad example slash taunt her) I just sort of started pulling at things. Lucky for me, the flashing around the sides easily pried away. So much so that I’m kinda surprised Clara hadn’t figured it out yet. Yikes.

Bart Peeling Away

I learned there was only a little bit of glue holding the three pieces flimsily in place (which made the stove look flush on all sides).

Bart Glue Stuck

The only questionable moment was when I revealed a bunch of wires on one side and worried that some electrical work might be involved. Thankfully I soon realized that they were just connected to a fan on the back of the unit, so I didn’t have to disconnect anything after all (I just kept it all attached and removed it all together). Phew.

Bart Electrical Wires

With all sides of the stove revealed, the only place I could see it attached to the house was right here at the top. It seemed to be bolted to a vent that snaked up into the chimney. So I figured I’d just attempt to take that apart and hope for the best.

Bart Vent Attached

The good news was that my hunch was right- those bolts were the only things holding that baby in place. The bad news was that the bolts were really friggin hard to get off. Okay, just one of the five was (the top of that bolt was so soft that my wrench had trouble gripping it). Oh and did I mention that space was tiiiight? My skinnier-armed wife tried to save the day, but she’s also shorter-armed, so alas… no dice.

Bart John Unscrewing

But I kept at it (and Sherry kept trying as if her arms were growing by the second). And after getting covered in ash and enduring a few knuckle scrapes we got Bart fully detached from the vent. Ta dah!

Bart Pulled Out

Okay, so it was less of a perky “ta-dah!” and more of a grunting “ohmygoodness” because that beast was HEAVY. But as you can see, we managed to shimmy Bart out of the fireplace and onto a piece of scrap cardboard (which helped us slide the whole darn thing out of the way). So our fireplace could go from this…

Bart Before Front

…to this:

Bart Gone Front

Admittedly it’s not the prettiest before & after. In fact, the after kinda looks uglier in a way… despite the fact that I got my Cinderella on and scrubbed the inside it with some warm water and mild soap:

Bart John Scrubbing

Sherry really wanted to be the one to yoink this beast out all by herself (short arms be darned) so she made me scrub things down while she sulked slash snapped embarrassing photos. I’m making that face for two reasons. 1) because the sooty clean-up job was pretty nasty, and 2) because I’m realizing that a photo of me in my high school gym shorts would end up on the Internet. Yep, still own ’em and still fit in ’em… sort of.

Short shorts aside, Bart is currently residing in our dining room (where Clara rarely goes), just waiting to be craigslisted or otherwise donated (haven’t yet figured out if a Big B is worth anything to anyone, but we’ll share the craigslist link if he ends up there).

Bart Before Side

And hopefully soon we’ll have a prettier version of our fireplace to share. Immediate plans for it include painting the firebox a dark charcoal color to even out the stained brick interior. And that’ll probably be followed quickly by painting the brick and mantel. Spoiler alert: we’re leaning towards bright glossy white (we’re planning to bring some color onto the kitchen walls, so a white fireplace should be a nice counterpart). But we’ll share all those painting details as we go.

Bart Gone Side

Down the road we’re also planning to take the fireplace makeover a step further – perhaps by eventually tiling it, beefing up the mantle, or even framing it out all the way up to the ceiling to give it more height. Not to mention the whole double-siding plan. But all that future fireplace stuff is TBD at this point. We’ll just have to see where we end up. Oh, and Sherry wanted me to mention that she scraped off that big circular blotch of glue that you can see just outside the upper left corner of the firebox in the photo above. Despite how easily the metal flashing peeled off, the gummy glue didn’t come off the brick as easily. So she got all ninja on that blob and ended up using an exacto knife to slice it off in pieces.

Have you guys removed a wood stove or any other fireplace insert? Was google surprisingly unhelpful? Does anyone have a kid who loves their wood stove as much as ours? Do you think Big Bart is worth craigslisting or should we donate him to the Habitat For Humanity ReStore?

Psst- We’re sharing a fun, functional, and affordable little kid-art corner over on BabyCenter today.

Comments

  1. Kate says

    Great, great, great idea! Kevin and Layla’s method and finished product is an awesome inspiration. Can’t wait to see the transformation.

    Reply

  2. Libby says

    Awesome job guys! This post came at a PERFECT time. I’m considering painting the inside of my (decorative only) fire place. Maybe something ‘different,’ like a slight metallic or a color? Very interested to see what you two come up with.

    ps. Clara is getting cuter every day!! So big!!

    Reply

    • Bethany says

      I’ve been thinking of doing the same thing (our fireplace no longer works) but had never thought of metallic paint, I was going to go with just a chocolate brown, the metallic is such a good idea!!

  3. Kate says

    I have been dying to see what you guys do with your soon-to-be double fireplace. I have a similar situation in my ranch, and I also want to turn it into a double. It’s an intimidating process, so I’m waiting to let you guys make the first attempt!

    Reply

  4. Rachel says

    I’m not sure about in Richmond, but up here in the mountains you could get some decent money for Bart on Craigslist.

    We had a standalone wood stove in the middle of the living room at our old house, and our son LOVED it. We had to be on baby-watching duty all.the.time. Thank goodness in the new house we have a wood furnace that has cool-to-the-touch sides and is located in the basement. They are more work as far as keeping the kiddos safe, but they save us a ton of money on heating in the winter.

    Reply

    • Vikki says

      I grew up in a house with a “buck stove” and we also loved it. We almost never ran the heater in the winter because of that thing. My brother and I only had to touch it a couple of times before we learned. LOL… When I was 10 years old, Hurricane Hugo hit SC and my dad and brother and spent that fall and winter accumulating what wound up being a 15 year supply of wood. We finally got rid of it because my dad was tired of spending so much time chopping wood. (We gave the rest of the 15 year supply to my uncle.)

      I understand you guys getting rid of the stove because it isn’t at all pretty, but boy is it functional. :D

  5. Rebecca @ the lil house that could says

    I don’t have kids, but in my old place when my cats were kittens they managed to climb in the fireplace and get all sooty. That stuff does not come off! My poor white pawed, orange cat had a black eye for days! We lost him a few years ago and it’s now one of our favorite memories of him :)

    We tiled around our slate fireplace, using the same mosaic tile as our kitchen backsplash since they are essentially one great room. I still plan on (hopefully) painting the slate on the floor piece since tiling over it would make for exposed funny edges. One of our contractor friends recommended concrete paint, but we were warned that the VOCs are god awful for indoors. So it’s been on the back burner with no help from google :( Hopefully your project goes smoother!

    Reply

  7. Sami says

    I started reading YHL right about the time you guys moved into this house – great to celebrate the anniversary!

    We just completed our very first big DIY project at our house – installing a second-hand freestanding wood heater/fireplace (winter’s just starting here Down Under!). Aren’t they difficult to work with – heavy and messy!

    Keep up the awesomeness!

    Reply

  10. Sonnie says

    So what did Clara think of her missing fireplace insert? Any reaction from her?

    Can’t wait to see what you do with the fireplace next!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      She woke up from her nap and I carried her in there and she immediately noticed and pointed and let out a whole excited strong of not words (ex: bah booo beee bay bah!!!). It was funny that she was so happy and excited to see her friend gone. Maybe she sensed that she’ll be allowed to meander a lot more independently now that we won’t have to shadow her when she’s in the kitchen.

      xo,
      s

  12. Kristen @ Popcorn on the Stove says

    I can’t believe you guys were able to remove Bart! It’s actually sort of scary that it was so easy to remove the flashing/siding. I think the kitchen looks better this way (almost bigger without the excess clutter).

    Can’t wait to see when it’s a double fireplace… or even when it’s painted for that matter!

    Reply

  13. Jen says

    Hi there- We recently gave our fireplace a makeover, as well. It didn’t have an insert, but tearing down a rock surround turned out to be an ugly mess! Anyway, the fireplace remodel is near finished now, but I do have a question. We scrubbed the inside, however we still are left with the yucky uneven black stuff. You mentioned painting the inside of the fireplace. What kind of paint do you plan on using? We still want to use our fireplace (no gas insert). Do you know what type of paint is safe to use? Thanks so much for all your inspiration!

    Reply

  14. tarynkay says

    You mentioned painting the inside of the fireplace- can you do that with regular paint? Or is there special paint for that which would withstand the heat? Or are you not planning on using it as a fireplace?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      There’s high heat paint for functional fireplaces, but ours isn’t functional right now (it’s still vented for a wood stove, so we just closed the damper to seal it off for now). More on the whole painting step as we go!

      xo,
      s

  15. laxsupermom says

    Awesome job! The fireplace is already looking better. Can’t wait to see the rest of the rehab. Bart is definitely worth something. I’ve seen woodstoves go for $200-300+ on our local Craigslist.

    Reply

  16. Suzanne says

    We didn’t have a woodstove to remove, but recently painted our firebox with black paint and it made a WORLD of difference. Looking forward to seeing how the fireplace makeover turns out!

    Reply

  18. Allyn says

    It never ceases to amaze me how kids are just naturally drwan to the most dangerous thing in a house. Without fail. I so wish I had a fireplace in my new house! Enjoy it.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We have the damper closed so it’s nice and sealed. We could always add insulation and stuff to further close it off down the line though!

      xo,
      s

    • Frances says

      Here’s an idea for both insulating it and making it fun (this project is in the works at our house): make a giant felt board! You need a piece of wood the size of the opening, then just wrap in felt & wedge it in the opening. Mine is going to be green on the bottom and blue on the top with a sort of wavy edge between the two. Perfect for storytelling and making art, and best of all out of the way.

  20. Amanda @ Our Humble A{Bowe}d says

    We have a wood burning stove and I wish we didn’t. My husband bought our house before we met and his family grew up heating their house with a wood stove, so he put one in. Your fireplace is actually better than ours because all four sides are exposed: http://ourhumbleabowed.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/just-hangin-around/

    I hate that we’ll never have a mantle and we can’t put anything within three feet of it. And, it does get hot, so we have to keep our kids away. Fortunately, our three year old knows, but our 14 month old still wants to go for it every time. I totally feel your pain about the wood fireplace. I bet you feel mine, too, right?

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Yes! I totally feel it! I think we had the best night’s sleep we ever had last night, just knowing we wouldn’t wake up and have to chase Clara away from that thing all day anymore! Sending you lots of no-more-stove-interest vibes for your little one!

      xo,
      s

  21. Alex says

    Your firebox is roughly the same size as ours is on the interior. Since our house is 125 years old, ours was most likely a coal fireplace rather than wood burning. We ended up using a reproduction coal basket free standing insert for our fireplace. It is not a lot of heat but looks very nice. I think they make wood ones as well. We got ours from a Richmond, VA company, actually. http://www.gascoals.net

    We like that it is in a basket and we also put a screen in front of it. That way pets and children have little chance of getting into the area, but the whole thing isn’t behind glass.

    Reply

  22. Kim says

    Looks so much better already! And definitely safer, though you will still have to keep her out of it somehow. Babies are “strangely attracted” to what is forbidden! Is it functional as a regular fireplace? When ours were little we had a glass door on the fireplace. But we just remodeled and removed it altogether to make more wall space for the new living room. We put a gas burning fireplace on the screened porch instead. We are hoping to DYI the tile, but we’ve never done any tile work at all! Yikes! thank goodness for YHL!

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We actually don’t think it’s functional as of now since the inside of the chimney is still vented for the stove, but it probably could be converted by an expert down the road if we go that route. Not sure yet.

      xo,
      s

  23. Jul says

    I never thought about this really, but my parents raised all 3 of their kids in a home with a giant protruding wood stove. Out of all the kids in and out of our home, we never had a burn incident. It’s so toasty in the wintertime and saves a great amount of money on heating. Plus our stove gives off this campfire smell (not like a smoker, but more bonfire-y). As you can tell I adore our stove, but I can see where its a safety issue for Clara. I would definitely sell Bart, because there are plenty of folks like my parents (and, I guess, me!) who love wood stoves. (:

    I have a friend in east end who did a lovely tile over her brick- I was surprised by how lovely it turned out.

    Reply

  27. darcie says

    My parents removed the insert in their home. It looks so much better! They had gas logs installed and they use them all of the time. My mom made a fireplace cover to hide the logs during the summer. Good job! :)

    Reply

  28. Loren says

    I grew up with not one but two wood stoves in our house. (There was no other form of heating because the house was more than 100 years old) While I am still alive, and asthma free, I can tell you that I burned myself/hurt myself on those things plenty of times, also they were always super dirty. We did move one of them from one room to the other. But all I remember about that move though is the hole left in the wall my parents covered with something that looked like a paper plate made out of tin. It had a little farm painted on it.
    At the time I thought my parents were being clever but I see those things at antique stores all the time now.

    Reply

  29. Karen says

    Great job! I am looking forward to seeing the transformation. The idea of black dust getting on everything would have been enough for me to nix the wood burning stove. Even though they smell delightful.

    Reply

  31. Alissa says

    That looks so much better! And I’m sure it will become Clara’s favorite nook now :)

    Did you see if the chimney is just open to the sky now? Besides any AC concerns, you might want to close it up to avoid bats in the house…

    (PS I grew up in a house heated only by wood stove. They require a closer eye when kids are very young, but it didn’t take us too long to learn not to go near it and there were never any mishaps.)

    Reply

  32. Susan @ Busy Home Adventures says

    Great job, guys! I recently removed a fireplace insert in our living room. It was one of those 80’s style brass jobbies. I was surprised by 1) how easy it was and 2)how none of the soot came up easily, even after trying several methods of cleaning. My fireplace is also brick and is just as-is for the moment. I’d love to paint or tile it but my husband likes the brick–so for now I’ve moved on to other, more agreeable projects. :)

    Our chimney is apparently made with the kind of bricks with holes in it (according to the home inspector) which is bad news. It needs a liner or some other intervention before it could be useful, so for now the whole thing is just decorative. I’d love to convert it to gas though!

    I can’t wait to see what Bart’s old resting place becomes!

    Reply

  33. Giulia says

    Glad you got it out, those old ones would not pass inspection here in Canada, not sure about your area.
    Best bet for it would be to drive it to a metal/scrap place, you’ll be amazed at how much money you’ll get for the metal. You can have people come and get it, but you’ll get less money for it. We dropped of our old rads and got hundreds of dollars.
    We have a new insert which we love to use but the visual appearance of our fireplace is a big project on our reno list.

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      Woah- never thought about it not passing inspection. Love the idea of bringing him to a scrap metal place so he can live on as something more up to code!

      xo,
      s

  34. Torrie @ a place to share... says

    In the house that I grew up, my mom painted our brick fireplace white. It made a huge difference, as she was trying to brighten up the room as well. My dad was not happy about it (parents are divorced)… He was disappointed and felt that it took a lot of ‘character’ away.

    I look forward to seeing updates!

    Reply

  35. Lisa says

    Hi. I have to comment on this post and we had a wood stove “insert” as well. Great blog!

    We had a wood burning insert that wasn’t even inside the fireplace. It sat in front of the hole on top of the hearth like a huge, hideous, black box. One could seriously harm themselves on its edges. Our daughter was about 7 months at the time when, after a few beers, my brother-in-law and husband decided to remove it. Taking it off was the easy part, but, oh my gosh, it weighed a ton!

    They borrowed a dolly, rolled it down the wood (!) front steps, accidentally let go, and dropped it at the bottom. The stove was parked on the curb until we figured out what we were going to do with it.

    The next morning a gruff looking man rings my doorbell and asks about the stove. I told him it was his if he could get it out of there and I’m not helping move it. In a few hours, I hear loud cursing as his two sons are realizing just how heavy this thing was! I pretended like I wasn’t home.

    People told us we could have sold the stove or scrapped it but we were just happy to be rid of it! Good luck with yours!

    Reply

  36. Anne says

    The previous owners of our house tried to sell us their ginormous, cast iron, wood-burning stove FOR $1000!! We turned them down (we live in Atlanta…it seemed like overkill), but I bet you could make a pretty penny off of Bart.

    Reply

  38. Betsy says

    We recently bought a house with a fireplace stove/insert, too. Our real estate agent said they go for a really high price on craigslist. Especially “vintage” ones! Good luck!

    Reply

  40. Craig says

    great blog! i’m reading with a chuckle, as i plan on building up my little shack..will not be having my home office adjacent to the kitchen though, no work will get done.

    Reply

  41. April says

    “Cinderalla”? Don’t you mean Cinderella?

    Also, it sounds like Sherry’s a bit desperate to prove that all the “hard” projects aren’t done by John… Lol, no worries! Just ignore those you unjustly judge you. You guys do incredible things that these people will never do, and Sherry, you’re obviously a very capable woman! Don’t feel insecure. :)

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We learned that our floor can’t support the weight of tile so it really limits us. We’ve thought about things like lightweight cork and even some sort of great modern marmoleum but we’re not sure yet. Details when we decide!

      xo,
      s

  43. audrey says

    Don’t you paint that beautiful brick!! I urge you to paint the inside black and the mantle white…and then live with it till the rest of the kitchen is more finished. The crisp white mantle against the paneling will add a little interest alone, turning eyes towards that lovely vintage bricking. Painting the whole surface white, IMHO, will only remove interest. It’s too predictable. Plus you guys said you wanted a mix of old and new in this hoise. This is a huge & potentially very attractive piece “old”!of

    Reply

    • YoungHouseLove says

      We’re just shameless brick fireplace painters! We painted not one but two in our last house so we’re hopelessly sold on the idea! We’ve definitely seen gorgeous unpainted ones, they’re just not for us.

      xo,
      s

  44. Jessica @ Decor Adventures says

    Hi John and Sherry,

    I live in a 111 year old house and had the heating/cooling company remove a gas insert from our 2nd story fireplace a little while ago: http://www.decoradventures.com/2010/11/babys-got-her-fireplace-back.html

    We knew it was connected there some 30+ years ago and didn’t want to mess around with the gas line. Surprisingly the gas company doesn’t remove them.

    Then I washed the brick: http://www.decoradventures.com/2011/04/how-to-wash-old-brick-office-update.html and now I’m working on a plan to decorate it.

    We also have a fireplace that’s dark on the inside and white on the outside in our downstairs foyer, here it is on Valentine’s Day http://www.flickr.com/photos/asteriahanover/5445377828/

    There’s definitely a lot of options to decorate them. I look forward to seeing yours :-)

    Reply

  46. Mandi says

    If you’re not ready to paint yet, you can clean masonry with muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid) – they sell it at pool stores to help buffer the water. I used it when we lived in Florida and my concrete plant bed edgers were nasty from the black muck that grows on everything down there. Obviously it’s a job to do with good ventilation and something on hand to neutralize as you go, but it does an amazing job at getting rid of those smoked streaks.

    Reply

  47. Mandy Ford says

    It looks SO much better already! I can picture it painted and lovely. :) We have old brass and glass doors on ours that I’m dying to take off – this has given me extra motivation for sure.

    Reply

  48. Jennifer says

    We removed our wood stove and sold it on CL for $400 and it was similar to yours! Ours was in our playroom. We painted the brick the light greyish/white you used in your last house and added glass/stainless steel doors. It looks soooo much better. There were a lot of responses to the CL ad! You could profit quite a bit!

    Reply

  49. JennyB says

    I actually found you guys by looking for before and after fireplaces on the web. We bought our house in September and the previous owners had painted the fireplace Amittyville/hell-hole RED. I found your house tour from your first house & saw both beautiful fireplaces and I was hooked! We painted ours a lovely chocolate brown and the paneling around grayish beige. LOVE IT! I need to paint the inside though..I just never thought of doing that!

    But yours already looks 10X better..can’t wait to see the end result!

    Reply

  50. Katie Carroll says

    While I’m loving the transformation…I’m REALLY looking forward to when you guys do something with that tile on the floor in front of the fire place. We have the same stuff in front of ours (sans the insert) and I have NO clue what to do with it…or more specifically, what to put down in its place!

    Reply

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