Living in an apartment in the city means, in addition to having all the services at hand, having all the rooms you need in fewer square meters. This entails, a priori, giving up a large garden with a swimming pool or having a wood-burning fireplace in your living room… Or not. There is a safe way to install this supplement to your heating and enjoy the traditional warmth of home as if you lived in an independent house.
The first thing you need to install your fireplace is an independent smoke outlet. This must be large enough to expel the smoke properly without too much air entering through the outlet and a height of at least 4 meters so that it draws well. If your apartment is old, you are in luck, because surely there is already a smoke outlet enabled.
The flue must be circular and be properly insulated to resist the high temperatures that the chimney can reach. Avoid placing the smoke outlet next to flammable materials, so it must be kept away from gas pipes and other ventilation ducts. In case you have another smoke outlet nearby, for example, coming from the kitchens, the extractions must be at different heights to prevent the smoke from one from re-entering the other.
To comply with all safety guarantees, the outlet tube must reach the end of the chimney barrel, which must be finished off with a cap. In this way, the façade materials are prevented from cooling the smoke and from descending towards the interior due to the loss of density.
What happens if you live in a new apartment? You have to look for a space to condition the smoke outlet of your fireplace. Keep in mind that it is best if the future extraction is straight or you can accommodate it so that it has angles less than 45 degrees. If your apartment is on the top floor and you have a storage room of your own in the attic, this will be a relatively easy task since, otherwise, you will have to ask the neighborhood community for permission.
The conduit must pass through the piece of wall belonging to various owners of the property, which translates into a modification of the common elements. Luckily, if the idea of going through the façade does not convince your neighbors, you always have the alternative of extracting it through the interior patio.
