Fireplace refacing. Fall 2007.

As you can see... ugly.  I tiled the hearth with slate a few years ago, when I put the insert in.  I needed to extend the hearth, to bring it up to code, and also lower it to the same level as the fire box.   The hearth used to be finished with the same yellow bricks.   I thought furring out the brick wall would be easier than trying to knock off all the high spots to glue the drywall up. I put 2x6's down the sides to bring the width of the drywalled portion past the hearth.  I thought finishing would be difficult, otherwise.

Drywall up, cut fairly tightly to the ceiling and on the return to the walls. I just needed a tiny bead of caulking in the corners and where the drywall meets the ceiling.

Taping in progress.

Painted to match.

Surround being glued up. The legs are hollow and the whole surround is built from plywood.

Here, the surround is just leaning against the wall. Oak veneer is on and almost ready for varnish. Cement backer board is installed. The mantel shelf with crown moulding will add about 4" on top, and there will be plinth blocks at the base of the legs and some small trim around the inside of the surround. 

 The clearance to a combustible surround  for this insert is 14" on top and 7" on the sides, measured from the stove itself. . The wood surround may look a bit close on the sides, but it could actually be touching the side panels, since they are 7" wide.

October 20, 2007 -  I finished installing the tile this morning.  The support for the shelf and crown moulding is installed.  The shelf still needs a run through the table saw to even up the edges before I can veneer it and put on the edge banding.

The shelf support isn't very high tech, but it's pretty strong. The bottom piece is an oak veneered door jamb, ripped to size, and the rest is built from plywood.  The vertical pieces have an angle to support the crown moulding.  Everything is glued to a plywood back which is glued/screwed to the wall.  The shelf is hollow, with 1/2" plywood top and bottom.

August 12, 2008 -  I finally started working on the fireplace again the other day, time sure flies.  At this point I just need to put on some buttons to cover the mounting holes on the front and varnish the whole thing.  I did pre-varnish the parts that return to the wall to make the job easier. 

 The shelf trim is just a piece of #356 casing ripped to the right thickness and sanded round again on the bottom.  The plinth blocks are solid 1x6 with a small trim around the top.  I may add corbels in the future if I can find some suitable ones or have them made fairly cheaply, then the buttons could go.

I should have the varnish on in the next few days and I'll add a final picture.  Many thanks and much credit to Reinhardt Quelle and Barbara Tallent for their excellent fireplace book.  

I drew up the finished product in 3D with Google Sketchup, this is a 2D picture I exported from the program.