Fireplace Doors -The Final Touch in Fireplace Designs

Fireplace doors are a great investment. They are designed to help you save on energy costs, beautify your home, and protect your home from hot embers that may pop out into a room. Your fireplace is not just a means of providing heat for your home, it is usually the focal point of the most highly used room in a house. Fireplace doors accentuate the beauty and appeal of flickering flames and glowing embers thus contributing to the overall aesthetic looks of the fireplace and the room decor.

In addition to providing a much needed decorative touch to your fireplace, fireplace doors save energy by eliminating cold drafts and odors. An important consideration in the purchase of doors is the gasket material used where the doors contact the face of the fireplace. Make sure that the doors have a continuous woven gasket which in combination with a positive locking latch will help eliminate heat loss from the home through the fireplace opening. When properly constructed and fitted, studies have shown that fireplace doors can decrease air loss by as much as 90% if the doors are kept closed when the fireplace is not in use.

Another important feature of fireplace doors is the safety that they provide. Not only do they prevent hot embers from popping out into the room, they also prevent items from falling into the fireplace opening. The doors also help keep small children and pets from accidentally coming in contact with the open flames of the fire.


While fireplace doors come in many different styles and finishes, there are basically just two main types. The more traditional style doors that open and close by sliding back and forth on tracks, and cabinet style doors that open and close like regular cabinet doors. Regardless of the the type doors you choose, the shape of the opening will be the determining factor on whether you will purchase a set of available stock fireplace doors or whether custom made doors will be necessary.


Once you have decided that fireplace doors would be a worthwhile investment, it's time to break out the tape measure and take a few measurements. You will need to know the height and width of the fireplace opening. Since fireplace construction is not always exactly perfect, measure the height of the opening in a couple of different places and the width of the opening in at least three places. Note the smallest of these measurements and you are now ready to head to the fireplace supply stores and begin shopping for your new fireplace doors. Once you are home with your new doors, installation is rather straight forward and well within the abilities of most homeowners using very basic tools.

There are just a couple of other things you need to consider when using fireplace doors. Optional mesh curtains or mesh doors allow for the full enjoyment of your fire's warmth with the doors safely open. If you're going to burn wood, we strongly recommend adding mesh. Also, if instead of burning wood in your fireplace, you have gas logs, the doors should always be open when the gas logs are being used. The burning gas produces moisture which can cause the doors to corrode if left closed. Following the tips in this article will allow you to purchase and enjoy that perfect set of fireplace doors, as well as save money and energy, for many, many years to come.