Indoor gas/outdoor wood burning fireplace?

15 years ago

Hi all,

We are in the early stages of building a house and are trying to figure out if what we'd like to have is even possible. Here's the house we'll be building: Long Meadow. As you can see, there's a screened-in porch on the other side of the living room fireplace. My husband and I would like to cover the chimney in stone to match the front facade. But what we'd really love is to build in a fireplace on the outside. So the inside fireplace would be gas, and the outside would be woodburning, and there would be something separating the two inserts (and they would share the chimney). I don't want a see-through unit.

Is this just a pipe dream, or is something like this possible? We're going to visit a hearth and grille shop at some point, but I find your opinions just as important. Thanks! And post pictures if you have any!

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Comments (3)

SeattlePioneer
15 years ago
You'd need to have separate flues for each fireplace.

I'd spend time considering whether you could be happy with a gas fireplace that had windows inside and outside both with the same piece of equipment. That would save you lots of money.
fandlil
15 years ago
I agree that you need 2 flues, and the chimney can be built to accomodate two, especially since you're starting from scratch. Unless you are wedded to the idea of burning wood on the outside, I suggest that you consider going with gas direct vent on the inside, because that's the safest and most energy efficient system you can have, and having a plain vented gas fireplace on the outside. For the outside, most of the heat will go up the chimney, but you probably won't care too much because your priority for the outside is the cozy feel and appearance of a fire when when the outside temp drops to between 45 - 60 degrees and you want to take the chill out of the air. If the porch is screened and therefore exposed to the elements, you probably don't want more heat than that on the outside.

But I think your priority for the indoors would (or should) be generating heat safely, efficiently and as cleanly as possible. A direct vent system will do that for you.
stovetechri
15 years ago
I agree. They have stainless steel outdoor wood zeros that can be framed in the wall