Wood-Burning Fireplace Install

If you’ve been watching our Instagram Stories, you know we’ve been working on getting our fireplace up and running… at last! We’ve never had a house with a fireplace, and so we were stoked (see what I did there?) to get this baby LIT.

After doing our research we partnered with Osburn, for their modern, quality, and efficient, wood burning inserts. We went with a wood burning insert because we wanted to honor the tradition of our home and offset the cost of our natural gas utilities. And let’s be honest, we wanted a wood burning fireplace anyway. Love that smell and crackle!

Osburn is a Canadian company that manufactures wood stoves, pellet stoves, wood inserts, and wood fireplaces. Our particular wood insert is from their Inspire collection.

We started our install by bringing the unit into the living room. We removed the door, setting it aside to keep the glass safe and removed the fire brick to try and save some weight. Then we slide the unit into place to verify fit.

Our little helper gave us the OK to continue with the install.

We pulled the insert back out and prepared our Nexvent liner. Cypress was a big help with this.

We used parachute cord and dropped the Nexvent liner down the chimney, while securing the other end to the liner. Once the cord was fished out of the back of the chimney, we began feeding the liner down the chimney.

A little info on Nexvent liners…

• All of Nexvent’s components are manufactured from high quality metals, and have an exclusive No Sag/No Leak Top Plate. This makes for a much drier chimney for us! Simply put… it’s the best liner out there!
• Certified to UL 1777, ULC-S635 and ULC-S640 standards by an accredited Laboratory. 
• Nexvent Flex Liner 304L has a Limited Lifetime Warranty

Getting the liner into the chimney is really a two person job. One individual at the top feeding down the liner, while the other individual is guiding the liner with the cord. We were very lucky to have a friend that is not only knowledgeable with all things fireplaces, but he was also willing to give up his afternoon to help with this process. We’re so grateful!

With the liner in place, we attached the liner’s starter adapter (this connects the liner to the insert), then we slid the insert into the firebox and attached the starter adapter to the insert.

We also attached the glass door and firebricks.

Then we went to the top of the chimney for finish this installation. We applied a layer of silicone around the cap base placing it over the liner we screwed it to the chimney and tightened the pipe clamp to the liner.

Then we trimmed the liner back and tightened the cap to the cap base.

With the top of the chimney being complete, we went back inside and finished up the insert. An option to help eliminate drafts from the existing damper being blocked open or removed is to use a block of plate, or roxul insulation (mineral wool, sold in the states as Rockwool). We chose to do the latter.

Then we added the surround!

This entire process took about 2-3 hours, before we had a functional, warm fireplace. Needless to say, the entire family was jazzed about getting this thing up and running!

We are so impressed with the high quality of material that Osburn uses, and love that the fire bricks that line the inside of the fireplace are very dense. This will last longer and transfer heat more efficiently. This baby has a 77% optimum efficiency rate.

It’s also important to note that the EPA (who is responsible for setting environmental standards for the US) has rolled out a new standard for 2020, requiring that wood-burning appliances must have an emission of 2.5 g/h or less. Osburn is ready for this new regulation, and already has several units that are certified well below the strictest requirements! We love the fact that this means that 90% less particulate matter goes into the atmosphere, AND we get substantial fuel savings!

More info about this HERE.

First fire!

We’re so happy with the sleek look of this Osburn insert, and are thrilled to have a warm fire that heats this entire {giant} room… and more!

CAN. YOU. EVEN?!

There’s no way to describe how cozy and warm this makes our hearts. It seriously changes the whole atmosphere of the room!

This was such a fun project… that will reward us for years to come! Huge thanks to Osburn and Nexvent for partnering with us on this post!

~Nick and Bethany

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