Project #10769 - Glass Doors for Rock Fireplace
Customer Comments: Replacement Glass Bifold Door. Hi, I'd like to take advantage of your fireplace door design service. I have a masonry fireplace with a stone front and hearth. I need to replace the existing bifold door with one of the same rough dimensions. The stone opening doesn't really lend itself to an insert type fit. The current door overlap fits the opening and 1" thick dense fiberglass mat was cut and used on front face sides and top to seal off the door frame. For that reason, there are some soot deposits on the stone under the flange. The top of the opening does not have a steel lintel. The top of the opening is a piece of solid stone (no mortar joints). The stone lintel is 4" thick. The fireplace opening measures 27" from floor to underside of lintel. The width of the opening measurements are as follows: bottom=36", middle=36.5 inches and top (at lentil) =36.75".The existing door outside dimensions are 44.5" W x 28.625" H. All mortar joints in the stone are 1 -1.5" recessed from the back side of the existing door frame. When I seal the new door I will have to get some rope fiberglass or something to help seal at the mortar joints. Maybe an internal fit as well as some front overlap is the answer. I prefer not to sandblast the front stone, so a door with a frame overlap like the existing would work best. We like the tracked bifold design of the existing because we can close the doors a bit to provide some log rollout security when leaving the fire unattended. Attached are some pics of the existing setup. I can send more.
Our Comments: For rock fireplaces like yours, we normally recommend fitting the door inside the opening and filling the gaps with mortar. In your case, we understand that the stones are stained and you would prefer to fit the door on the outside. We have several ways of accommodating this request as shown below. We would recommend filling the gaps with mortar rather than trying to stuff insulating material in, which can look unpleasant from the sides.
Regarding Track Doors
The steel doors do not have a track, they open all the way out and can fold back 180 degrees flat to the frame. Most people do not want tracks because they do not open all the way and eventually end up binding over the years. The manufacturer does offer a track option on the aluminum doors, but we almost never sell it. If you are concerned about logs rolling out, the mesh curtains help prevent that, or you can just close the doors before you leave the room and open the air vent at the bottom of the door to feed air to the fire. This offers the most protection.
Fireplace Opening: 36" W x 27" H
Note: These mock-ups are not to scale and are meant to help you choose the model of your screen or door, not the finish. Although we may create a general representation of black, iron, bronze, gold and silver tones, you must choose your finish from our samples using the links below. Ask your project manager which samples apply to the items in your project.
Finish Samples: Design Specialties Finishes | Stone Manufacturing Finishes | Hearth Creations Finishes
Before:
Low End Aluminum Doors
If having a track is an important to you, then you will need to use the aluminum doors. Aluminum doors are made from pieces of extruded aluminum, so the frame width cannot be modified. To solve this issue in your case, we make a custom solid steel surround to overlap the stone as much as you want. The aluminum door will overlap the steel surround and hold it in place once the door is attached to the fireplace.
Option #: Savannah Fireplace Glass Door in Rustic Black with Custom Surround. This door has a wider frame, so there is less surround trim to see.
Option #: Stiletto Cutback Fireplace Glass Door in Rustic Black. This door has a very narrow frame, so you will see more of the surround trim.
Laser Cut Steel Doors
These doors are more substantial than the aluminum doors and are laser cut from a single sheet of 3/16" thick solid steel. So a Legend steel door does not require a surround trim, we just cut the frame to whatever width we want.
Other Pictures
Fig #1 - Inside of fireplace
Fig #2 - Lintel
Mesh & Insulation Options
The Mesh options are behind the glass so you can burn the fire with the doors open and still have spark protection. Great for real wood or gas logs since most gas long manufacturers insist that you have a screen in front of the logs when they are burning. Mesh panel doors are the most popular and are best for when there are toddlers present because they will not open backwards whereas the mesh screens are easily pushed in. Insulation goes between the back of the frame and the fireplace facing, providing a better seal.
Black Mesh Curtains - These slide back and forth on a rod behind the glass
Gate Mesh Doors - These are separate doors behind the glass that have a flat wire mesh and a black frame.
Insulation: Provides a better seal between the fireplace face and the door frame.
This page was created as part of our Free Fireplace Door Design service. Anyone who has a fireplace and is considering glass doors can take advantage of this program. All you have to do is email us some pictures of your fireplace and we will create digital mock-ups showing you how various fireplace doors will look on your fireplace. This is hands down the best way to shop for fireplace doors. Click Here to Begin Your Own Project!