I love fireplace mantles - they add so much character. I would guess that you probably need to reline one of your chimneys for your boiler flue. If that is the case, then you might as well pick a line where you want to open up some fireplaces, and go ahead and at least open up the one in your living room/parlor. That's what we did - once you have to open up the walls anyhow, you might as well drop some extra dough and get a real wood-burning fireplace. Even if you decide to go with gas, its best if it is vented. There is a bit fo controversy over vented vs. nonvented gas fireplaces. Gas produces Co2 and H2O as bi-products. If unvented, this is exhauted into your house. Not such a big deal in drafty old houses, but a really big deal in newer "tight" construction where gases can build up to dangerous and destructive levels. If you find more info on unvented gas fireplaces, I would love to know more about feasibility for brownstones.

I have 2 gas fireplaces and I hate them. They're like watching a bad television show in perpetual loop. No smell, no sound, no randomness. Splurge for the wood. Open the walls.

Agree - gas is warm but otally boring. I've rented bed & breakfast suites that have gas fireplaces and it just ain't the same thing - not by a longshot. My mom has a gas fireplace too - and it's really just a big heater.

I have a non-working gas fireplace in my lefferts gardens brownstone and recently looked into getting it working again. what i heard from a number of contractors is that ventless gas is illegal in nyc and basically noone responsible will get you to a working state without bring you up to modern code, which means opening up the wall over the fireplace, creating a smoke chamber and possibly relining the chimney. for our 1 fireplace on the ground floor of a 2 story brownstone, we could expect to spend 3k+ on the job. maybe next winter.

My parents have a gas fireplace, and I agree, it's lacking in character. Then again, they can turn it on with a remote control and never have to clean up any ashes.

What exactly are the fireplaces that have the metal covers, like two of the photos above have? How are they used?

sorry to hijack but need some advice from brownstone renovators. looking to buy a house that needs fixing up. have the cash for downpayment but not all for renovation. can that be financed as part of mortgage? when we bought our coop we couldn't get a loan for renovation until the equity in the unit went up. thanks!

Nicole,
There are definitely ways to get a combined renovation & Purchase loan. Why don't you post the question into the Services section? Sure you will get responses there...

Nicole,

I work with a guy at Wells Fargo that does this kind of financing. You can get 100g to 1.4 mil with the 203k. I could put you in touch if you wish.

Justin

All (almost all) of these brooklyn brownstones were originally heated by these gas fireplaces. Coal burning furnaces that produced steam or hot air came later. My brownstone was built in 1905 and the "modern" steam heat was added in 1915 (I found a newspaper stuffed in an old fireplace from that date, closing the flue).
You only heated the room you went into by turning on the gas fireplace (very convenient for city slickers, no wood chopping). The ornate grating on the fireplace is where the flames stayed close to keeping the heat to the front. Some fireplaces had fake logs with porcelain jets, hence the ornate covers that slid up and down. To be true to the home, gas is the way. However you will probably have to run a new gas line to the fireplace. Yes you will see a pipe running up the wall. And reline the flue using a "gas insert" style which gives off good heat, or an ornate faux wood gas fireplace that is decorative and not effecient.
Wood is sexier but you may lose alot of the original detail of your fireplace.

True, most of the brownstone fireplaces were gas. As a result, the fireboxes tend to be on the small, shallow side, which is not good for wood-burning. Also, you will need a new firebrick lining, which can take away even more space. We were given two choices: (1) Build out the wall behind the mantle to create a deeper fireplace, or (2) Install a chimney fan - literally a special fan that sits on top of the chimney and draws air up the flue. We chose #2 as it had the least interior asthetic implications, although that chimney fan is kinda weird looking - looks like an alien landed on our roof. Anyhow, the fan requires an electrician to run wiring up to the roof and also install a variable speed switch near the fireplace. When you use it, you turn on the fan and you get instant draft - which keeps your room from getting smokey even with the relatively shallow firebox.

If you strip your woodd fireplaces....DO NOT USE Peel Away. It is a pain to clean up and there are much better ways. use a heat gun first and takw as much as you can off....be careful not to burn the wood....it's pretty intuitive as you go.

Then use Rock Miracle stripper....paint it on ...leave for 10 minutes....than take off with medium steel wool.

Repeat as many times as needed.

Then use Lacquer thinner for a final coast using Fine steel wool.

Buy some little stripper brushes / tools to get in the cracks.

The chimney fan Tom refers to is officially known as a draft inducer -- I had one installed when I rehabilitated my fireplace in my co-op in an 1870's tenement in the East Village. It's now a wood-burning fireplace that works like a dream.

If you have the money, you can save the mantles -- detach them, open the walls, rebuild the fireboxes, line the chimneys, install a draft inducter and tax the mantles back on. Halstead Welles Associates is the company that did the work for me -- they are pricey but otherwise a contractor's deam, their work was done perfectly.

I had heard that it's now legal in New York to have metal tubes (don't know the official name) installed in the chimney instead of relining the chimney. Can anyone verify?

Hi There - Important Important Important - DO NOT USE Heat Gun on the capitals of the columns on the wood mantels - I just ruined one of mine that look very similar to yours - it was made of some sort of composite back in the day and cumbled under the heat gun - I was very disappointed and now I am in the process of finding new columns and/or capitals. Heat gun and chem stripper worked fine for the rest. Good Luck if you do strip them down and be patient.