THGL

Here's the deal. We have 2 small children (20 mo. & 4.5 mo.) and our new home has a buck stove insert in the family room. The hearth is about 3 or 4 bricks high above the floor and my wife is concerned about our oldest daughter tripping and smacking her head on the bricks, so right now we have some blankets laying over the bricks. We're not using the fireplace (stove) right now because the chiminey needs cleaning, but I'd like to in the near future so we need to keep the kids away from it when we do.

In a catalog we have there's a metal gate that goes all the way around the fireplace to keep kids out and it's perfect for what we need - except that it's almost $300.

I was thinking I could build something similar out of 1"x1" wood stock as the frame and 3/4" dowels for the rails but I'm curious as to how much heat a buck stove can output and is there any danger of having a painted wooden gate about 1' to 1.5' away from the front of the stove.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated. Thx.

braisler

How did children survive fireplaces before the invention of such products? Use that.

Seriously, it may sound harsh, but open fires and children have co-existed for a long, long time. Ditto for sharp rocky edges like bricks.

If you are dedicated to the idea of protecting your kids from this sort of danger, look into recommendations/requirements for code regarding the spacing of wood burning stoves from walls etc. I was considering installing a wood burning stove in our current home and the number that kept coming up was 18" from any flammable material. I can't recall if that was for the stove or the flue.

THGL

A little background info for your, braisler.

My 3 yr. old nephew tripped while running down his driveway and fell face-first into a stack of bricks his father had next to the house. That was 2 years ago and he still has a knot on his forehead from it (that will have to be surgically removed).

My wife had a slight accident with our youngest when she was 2 weeks old (car seat handle wasn't locked and when my wife picked up the seat it rotated and dumped our daughter onto the concrete) that ended in a small skull fracture.

Both of these incidents make my wife a little protective of our children.

Yes, children and fire have lived together since the dawn of man (and bricks soon thereafter), but if I can do something to ease my wife's concerns I will.

braisler

Oh, I didn't mean any slight against you personally. I understand the parental drive to protect the young-uns.

I don't worry too much about head injuries myself. I've had 22 concussions in my lifetime, the first when I was 6 months old, and I still turned out OK. Hehe. Well, it didn't affect my mental capacity as I managed to work my way through graduate school and get my Ph.D. in molecular genetics.

Kudos to you for trying to ease your wife's concerns. As an additional comment on your plans with the wood build. I would suggest that 1x2 stock would be cheaper and sturdier than 1x1, and 1/2" dowels should be stout enough for your purpose. 3/4" might be overkill. I would use a half-lap joint at the corners of the 1x2s and round over the outside edges of the 1x2s with a router. That would look a little more finished, plus you get less splinters and the corners aren't as sharp.

Cheers!