macv - Thanks, so much for the reply. Well, with the 42" x 30" opening, our ratio is 1.4. If we had gone with the 36" opening, we would have hit 1.2 on the head. I know I should have paid more attention to previous discussions on fireplace proportion. darn. All of the imitative stone chimney enclosure is above the roof surface on the rear of the house. I think only one neighbor will have any kind of view of it during the winter when the leaves are down. Due to the slope of the lot from the road to the house, only the very top is visible from the road which is why we want this to have a nice treatment like the one you showed in the picture. I just talked to DH and he & the fireplace guy have come to a mutually agreeable to solution to trade some aesthetics for avoiding potential water issues. He said that he would write that up for me so I can post it. The corners won't be visible at ground level. However, we are using the same real stone thin veneer which will be at "foundation" level below the Nichiha shakes. DH says that there are corners for it. I know you were upset when you had to have your stamp removed from that project, so I'm sorry if I stirred up unpleasant memories. However, thank you so much for the insight. It really helps. Jo Ann

About 15 years ago we moved in to a ranch and noticed the brick masonry fireplace had been converted to gas. We used it for a year and decided we just really didn't like it. So we capped the gas and donated the ceramic logs and fake "coals" underneath and made it into a wood burner again, though we kept the glass doors. We used them a ton and really liked how it kept down (reduced, definitely did not eliminate) the cold air coming down into the house when we weren't using the fire. We had an energy person come in and assess the fireplace, and he said it was so bad to have the glass doors there but nothing else that he recommended putting some sort of insulator over the fireplace when it wasn't in use. Haven't seen any of that but it got me thinking and now I'll have to look for something more efficient. Now we bought an old tri level that had a big fireplace in the lower level. We took it out but saved the insert. Now we realize we really want a wood-burning fireplace again, for all the reasons listed by jujubean, so we'll likely sell the insert on Craigslist. I thought we'd just have someone come in and build one adjacent to our living room on the main level (the other side of that wall is the garage) and now that I see the FMI Georgian I'm thinking that maybe we can just buy one of those and have the fireplace folks put in the rest. We also have a tile roof and aren't sure how to get an opening through that puppy. Finally, the wood burning fireplace is only allowed as a grandfathered one in this city. One can only put a gas fireplace in now, so there is that as well.

Now hold on guys. Yes, caution is absolutely required here. However, I have a builder grade fireplace that looks very similar to the OP's unit. Mine is designed for either wood or gas. My unit has the same cheesy thin metal like stuff. If you look at the other pics on flicker, you will see that the unit has a full above roof chase and what appears to be a spark cap. I believe my unit has one of those huge 14" flues which is common for these units. This one doesn't seem to be that large, which makes me wonder if it is indeed a wood burner. The top of the front of the unit also has something that looks like sheet metal extending down into the firebox that is different from mine and that makes me think of gas. Remember, these are open fireplaces and don't really generate dramatic heat. My cheesy back fake bricks never got damaged in any way. So, two points: the 'fireplace' may indeed be designed for wood and you will need to check further; AND you aren't going to heat much with this thing either.

Do you want the fireplace for heat, or for looks? Because fireplaces are heat LOSERS. Commonly called "negative" heat. The room heat goes right up the chimney. We had a "zero clearance" or prefab fireplace in our last house. It wasn't efficient at all so we installed a woodstove insert in it. The fireplace flue was 8 inches and the stove flue was 6 inches. Now if you want the fireplace for heat, then look into an airtight fireplace from the woodstove manufacturers. They look JUST like a fireplace but are heaters. And they have 6 inch flues.