Something sounds fishy. The glass size makes a difference? With an insert the unit heats up and radiates heat. Would that mean an insert with no viewing window generates no heat at all? Really? I had an insert installed in my home in northeast PA with a big glass window. (Yes, I know it's really ceramic, not glass) And it did the job very nicely. It heated what we wanted heated, and that was the whole house. It was installed into a Heatilator ZC fireplace. Sure they had to modify the ZC unit, but we had no intention of using it again once the insert was there. How does the new fireplace work in a power failure? $3800? Sounds like they're pushing what makes them the money. That's gonna take a long time to pay for itself in fuel savings.

Unfortunately, because brick is so porous, it's very difficult to remove paint from it effectively as the paint absorbs into the brick. The best way is to hire someone to sand blast it (which will also clean the entire brick front), however, this method is pretty messy when done indoors. If it's just small drops you can try scraping them off with a wire brush. But be careful not to brush too hard as brick is relatively soft and the brush can leave marks and/or discolorations (try it on a small area first). Paint remover can also work although it may not be effective in getting the paint out of the pits and recesses in the brick. As far as cleaining it goes, it depends what you are trying to clean off. If it has whitish deposits you can acid wash with muriatic acid (pool acid) but be sure to follow the directions carefully and wear gloves and eye gear. If it's soot, some household cleaners may work. If you decide to have it sand blasted, that will clean everything off. Hope this is helful.

Like stated above, you need to be sure this is just one layer of decorative brick with just drywall behind it. If it is one of those fireplaces that the chimney is brick and all, you have a bigger issue. If just decorative, you will need something like we used to remove our faux rock. We got a little pneumatic attachment for our aircompressor. It lookes like a large screwdriver or mini jackhammer. Starting at top, you chizzle away. This is very time consuming but can easily be done. There will be lots of dust and debris. When all you have left is the studs, you simply put in new drywall. Again, this is all easy, but since this is a fireplace I am not sure what safety issues are involved like if you need specific materials on wall because it is a fireplace. My regular firebox just had drywall and so does my zero clearance. Also as stated above, there may be issues with what kind of mantle material you can safely use and at what distance from firebox. 12" is pretty standard but depends on mantle material. We lowered our mantle but we also brought firebox down to floor level. Rebuilding it was not that difficult. We simply built the legs, built the mantle and hooked them all up. The cost of redoing the brick is up to you. If you do the work it is just materials. But obviously hiring someone to do this will cost you. I would imagine mortaring brick is very time consuming because they are so little. But a seasoned professional can go pretty fast. But again, it will cost you. Sounds like what you want to do is doable and can vary in price depending on who does the work.

I actually just went through this. My family room had a floor to ceiling brick veneer wall with fireplace and a hearth spanning the length of the wall which extended out about 18" x 18". B/c the wall was a veneer (i.e. a single layer of brick butting up against studs and insulation) I was leary of framing over it with 2" x 4" to hang drywall, shelves, TV's etc. It was also huge (20' x 10' wall), took up too much space and made the room look a lot darker. I believe alot of home owners did this back in the 70's, but the wife and I just weren't into it. In any event, for removal, I thought about using an angle grinder with a diamond wheel, but then I thought of the incredible amount of dust which would be generated and went after it instead with a cold pick chisel (or brick chisel) and a small sledgehammer (otherwise known as a "drilling" hammer). I'd basically go at it with the chisel in the mortar seams. Once I got the top row out (it butted right up to the ceiling drywall) the rest of the wall came down relatively easily. It took about 3 days (30 hours) and once completed I counted over 500 bricks and about 20 bags of broken mortar. I decided to save the whole bricks I was able to harvest from the wall and clean them with the chisel to remove excess mortar in case I'd like to use it for a future project (which probably added 2-4 hours to the job). As others have noted in this forum, the veneer is "held" to the studs and/or back wall using small thin strips of metal. The center of the strip is nailed to the stud and the ends of the strip were stuck into the morter between the bricks. The 18" extruding hearth was a little more difficult as the inside center (once I removed the outside bricks) contained large cement blocks. To "frame" out the fireplace and hearth to the size that we wanted I used the chisel and cut bricks where necessary. This by no means gives you a smooth cut, and I will need to tack a frame back around the fireplace edge and fill in the gaps with mortar to complete the job. Above the fireplace underneath the veneer was either brick, cement or a wooden header (at the top). When attaching studs to this I used both tapcons and masonery nails. Luckily I had a large wooden header at the top of the wall which I screwed into with 3" nails to hold the top of my stud frame. I first screwed/nailed in two by fours and then build it up further with 1" x 4" studs. Extending the depth of the frame was necessary so that I'd have enough space in the wall above the fireplace to contain electrical boxes, electical/video/audio cables and in-wall speakers. I also used this new frame to fasten the HDTV to. Other's have noted concerns about fireplace heat in regards to hanging HDTV above it and installing framing ontop of the brick. Our fireplace holds a wood pellet stove that is a closed system to increase efficiency. In this way, little heat actually goes up and out the chimney as a blower motor forces it all out into the room. I have little heat above the fireplace b/c of the way the stove is engineered, so I wasn't too concerned about damaging the TV or excessive heating of the chimney material above the fireplace creating a fire hazard with the wood frame that was added. I'll admit, it was alot of work and alot of material to remove, but then again, demo-ing a room (especially a room built back in the 60's) is always a messy job. Hope this info helps anyone interested in tackling the same job. smithmal