The house we live in is a rock house built by my father in law in the 1950's. At that time it had two fireplaces one upstairs and one down. Both were built using a metal heatalator system encased in stone. The one upstairs was inspected last season by a sweep and still functions fine even though I'm sure it's not very efficient due to the 4' firebox. However, over the years a water leak went unchecked in the lower fireplace flue and the metal heatalator box has rusted out. I found an antique Montgomery Ward Franklin stove/insert and was hoping to make it useful. If I'm not able to make it work, I still love it and I plan to still use it as decoration so nothing lost. Today I am trying to find out what is needed to make it safe. When we had a local sweep come out they told me that they couldn't work on it and could only sell me a zero clearance insert. However, aesthetics vs heating is my primary concern. What I want to know is if I install an insulated flue liner, is there some way to line the firebox either with metal or fire brick to make a stove of this type safe to use. When fully inserted there is about 1" clearance vertical, 6-8" clearance right to left and about the same front to back. Thank you all for any ideas or suggestions you can offer.
