The fireplace is a staple of every American home, it is a place where families come to gather around a roaring fire, it novels it is the place of romance – with the flickering light clothing everything in the room in the dance of shadows.
It’s such a staple that there are fireplaces put in states that don’t really get temperatures below 50 degrees like California or Southern Florida.
Should you consider removing it
But when it comes to space in the home, especially when renovating, sometimes the fireplace might be in the way – this is especially saddening when considering winter holiday traditions.
The fireplace is something that has made us closer throughout the decades, it is a representation of the first fire around which all tribe members gathered around – it’s a reminder of your history and origins.
You are not using it
One way of knowing you might have to remove the fireplace is that you are not really using it aside for stacking things on top of the mantle or using it for stockings during Christmas.
Depending on the design itself, it might take quite a lot of space from the room not only in floor space but also in wall space as well.
Remodeling the house
Renovations and remodels are quite expensive, especially if you want to change the layout of the house, sometimes a fireplace gets in the way and it just needs to be removed.
This becomes quite obvious and necessary when it’s in the middle of the house and is in-between two rooms making the remodel quite a lot harder.
In cases where an increase of floor space and the addition of an extra room, required the demolition of several walls and the removal of many other assets of the house – of course done in a safe manner.
Though the fireplace is one way to make your living room brighter, if your priority is to make your house more spacious and are looking for a more open plan location, then consider removing the fireplace – this will increase floor and walls room quite a lot.
It’s not a small project
This is no quick project however, while the fireplace itself can be removed in 1 day, the removal of the footprint and the chimney, as well as the patching of the roof itself, can be quite a lot.
So before you go into such a big project, consider if you can really afford or handle it – and whether or not you really don’t need that fireplace during the winter.
