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Fireplace Door Buying Guide

Fireplace doors are an essential part of your gas or wood-burning fireplace. The doors on your fireplace are more than just a decorative accessory, and they serve a real purpose for both your fireplace and your home. There are several types of fireplace doors available for sale today, so shopping for a new fireplace door or fireplace door replacement can be a difficult task when you’re not sure what to look for. 

Buying new fireplace doors to match your home’s design or complement the style of your existing fireplace is not always an exact science, and many homeowners find themselves with more questions than answers. To help you understand what to look for, we’ve put together this helpful fireplace door buying guide. It has all of the information you need to make an informed buying decision and choose the best fireplace doors for your home and hearth. 

In this guide, we'll go over how to find new doors for your fireplace and take you through the following sections: 

  1. Benefits of Installing New or Replacement Doors for Your Fireplace

  2. Identifying Types of Fireplaces

  3. Determining Inside Fit or Overlap Fit Fireplace Doors

  4. Finding the Best Fireplace Doors that Work for You

  5. Finding the Best Masonry Fireplace Doors

  6. Finding the Best Prefab Fireplace Doors

  7. Completing Your New Fireplace Door Purchase

  8. Summary of Buying New or Replacement Fireplace Doors

Before we get into how to choose the best fireplace doors for your home, it’s important to understand the array of benefits and advantages of having quality doors installed on your fireplace. There are many reasons people buy new or replacement doors for their fireplace. Some benefits of new doors for your fireplace include: 

  • Safety: fireplace doors protect your pets, kids and other loved ones from the dangers of a roaring fire in your firebox. 

  • Energy-efficiency: fireplace doors keep the cold air out, the warm air in and likewise. A good set of fireplace doors goes a long way toward helping you save money heating and cooling your home.  

  • Cleanliness: a new or replacement set of fireplace doors are great for controlling the odors, ash and debris coming from your fireplace. Moisture and soot build-up can create odors that are more than unpleasant, so fireplace doors are a great way to block those out of your home.  

  • Stylish and functional: without doors, your fireplace is just a hole in the wall. Fireplace doors and screens add style and can serve to complement your home and fireplace’s existing design.

These are just a few of the reasons why people need to buy new fireplace doors, and some of the ways new or replacement doors can improve your home. Everyone wants a stylish, efficient and clean-smelling home and fireplace, so choosing the best fireplace doors for your home should meet some or all of these needs.

Regardless of the type of fireplace you have, adding decorative glass fireplace doors to your wood, gas, rustic or modern fireplace is a great way to complement the design in your home and living room. So, let’s get into how to choose the best fireplace doors for your home.    

fireplace door buying guide infographic with four steps to buying new fireplace doors

To be able to buy the right fireplace doors, you first need to know what type of fireplace you have in your home. This is the most important step to finding the right type of fireplace doors for your home. Whether you’re having a home and fireplace built or you’re buying a home with an existing fireplace, you can’t start shopping for new doors without knowing the type of fireplace you have installed.  

There are two main types of fireplaces for glass doors – masonry and prefabricated. To help you better understand the type of fireplace you have in your home, here’s a short overview of each type. 

Masonry Fireplaces

Masonry Fireplace ExampleMasonry fireplaces are built at the same time as your home in such a way that it is part of your home’s structure. The interior of a masonry fireplace is constructed with brick and mortar or stone while the exterior is designed with matching materials such as stone, brick, marble, granite and sometimes tile. Masonry fireplaces are unique to the homes in which they are built, so no two masonry fireplaces are the same.

Masonry fireplaces also have what is called a lintel bar or lintel iron, this is a piece of steel that supports the row of bricks across the top of the opening. This is the only piece of metal used in the typical construction of a masonry fireplace, and some fireplace doors utilize lintel clamps to secure the door inside the opening.

 

To help you quickly and easily identify your fireplace, here are some of the clear characteristics of masonry fireplaces: 

  • The firebox that sits within the fireplace is made of individual firebricks.

  • The chimney is made of brick 

  • The fireplace itself is built with brick or stone and mortar

Masonry fireplaces come in a range of sizes, shapes and designs to match your house. From standard square fireplaces to beautiful arched masonry fireplaces, each has its own unique design and build. Understanding the details of your masonry fireplace will help you immensely when shopping for new or replacement fireplace glass doors.  

shop for custom masonry fireplace doors

Prefabricated (Prefab) and Zero Clearance Fireplaces

Prefab Fireplace ExamplePrefabricated fireplaces, sometimes called factory-built or zero-clearance fireplaces, are generally made of metal and installed after your home has already been built. Prefab fireplaces are affordable to install and don’t require much maintenance to keep them performing efficiently. 

It’s important to know that prefab, factory-built and zero clearance fireplaces all mean the same thing. They are called zero clearance fireplaces because they don’t require any clearance between the firebox and combustible materials such as your home’s framing.

It is important to note that there are many different styles of prefab fireplaces, and the openings can vary widely between different brands and manufacturers. As you can see from the picture above, some units have vents along the sides while others do not.

Zero clearance or prefab fireplaces have clear characteristics to help you easily identify your fireplace. To help you quickly identify your fireplace as zero clearance, here are some of the design features to look for: 

  • A steel or metal chimney pipe

  • Black metal framing around the fireplace and its opening  

  • A square or rectangular shape (zero clearance fireplaces do not have arched openings)

  • A metal tag that displays the unit's model number

If your fireplace has any of these characteristics in its design, then it is a zero clearance or prefab fireplace. Identifying your fireplace is the first and most important step to choosing new or replacement doors for your fireplace, so you’ll need to start there.  

Once you understand the type of fireplace you have installed in your home, the next step is to identify whether you need inside fit or overlap fit fireplace doors. The premise of this is doors fit your fireplace opening in one of two ways - inside or overlap. 

The majority of prefab or zero clearance fireplace doors are designed for an inside fit while masonry fireplace doors are designed for an overlap fit. But, both types of doors are available for both types of fireplaces, and your feature will determine whether you need inside fit or overlap fit doors so there is no predetermined formula for the types of doors you need. 

What are Inside Fit Doors?

Inside fit doors are installed in the frame of your feature’s opening and do not overlap the sides or the outside of your firebox. Prefab fireplace doors are typically designed as inside fit doors, but they also work with masonry fireplaces without a raised hearth where the firebox sits below the opening. A raised hearth where the firebox sits below the opening makes installing inside fit doors impractical as you wouldn’t be able to open the doors – the hearth would be in the way.  

What are Overlap Fit Doors? 

what are overlap fit fireplace doors Overlap fit doors are designed to overlap the sides of your fireplace and come in two styles — 3-sided and 4-sided. These indicate the number of sides the doors will overlap on the front of your fireplace. 3-sided doors overlap the sides and the top of your fireplace while 4-sided doors overlap your fireplace on all sides including the bottom. 

Overlap fit doors are common for masonry fireplace door designs but are available for both types of fireplaces – masonry and prefab. 3-sided overlap doors need a hearth to sit on and typically work best with a flush hearth design. If you have a hearth that doesn’t sit flush with your fireplace opening, then you can mount a riser bar to help make up the difference in space between your hearth and fireplace opening.

Unlike 3-sided overlap doors, 4-sided overlap fit doors work best without any hearth installed in your home. This is due to these doors fitting over all four sides of your fireplace opening, and with a hearth, the bottom of 4-sided overlap style doors will not fit.

At times, some homeowners have been able to fit 4-sided overlap doors on a fireplace with a hearth low enough but it’s a tricky process and you’ll need exact measurements to ensure the bottom will fit. 

In fact, you'll need exact measurements for both types of fireplace doors -- inside fit and overlap fit. To ensure you're buying the right size doors for your fireplace, let's take a look at the fireplace measurements for both types of doors.  

Fireplace Measurements for Inside Fit and Overlap Fit Doors

It’s important to note that both inside and outside fit fireplace doors require exact minimum height and width measurements. After you’ve established the type of fireplace you have and whether you need inside or outside fit doors for your fireplace, then it’s time to measure your fireplace opening. 

For inside fit doors, you will need exact measurements so you can ensure the doors fit snugly within the opening of your fireplace. Overlap fit doors need accurate measurements to ensure you have enough clearance for mounting and hardware for your doors. 3-sided overlap doors need accurate measurements to ensure they will sit comfortably on the hearth while also having enough space for mounting and hardware.  

Now that you have your measurements to match your preference of fitment and type of fireplace, it’s time to start shopping. Let’s go through how to find the right doors for your fireplace using the Fireplace Doors Online store and the handy built-in search tools. 

Fireplace Doors Online (FDO) makes shopping for new or replacement doors quick and easy. To help you find exactly what you need for your fireplace, we’re walking you through the process. Again, you have two categories to choose from – masonry or prefab. 

fireplace doors online masonry or prefab fireplace doors

You’ll start by choosing either the Masonry Fireplace category or the Prefab Fireplace category from the FDO homepage. These are the first two categories on our site, so you'll see them as soon as you go back to the homepage. After choosing a category, you can begin to refine your search using our refined search tools. We have further separated each category to help you find the best doors for your fireplace. 

Refining your search for masonry doors that will meet your needs and match your home’s style is easy in the FDO store. Once you choose the masonry fireplace category from the FDO home screen, you can refine your search by choosing from the following categories:

  • Masonry Doors 

  • Shop by price

  • Shop by fireplace facing

  • Custom Designs

Masonry fireplace door categories for shopping

Shop for All Masonry Fireplace Doors

If you want to see all of our options for masonry doors, select masonry doors from the list of options. Once you’re on this screen, you’ll be able to choose from one of the largest selections of fireplace doors online in the world. 

shop for all masonry doors for a fireplace

Once you choose a category, you can further customize your selections. For example, let’s say you choose the Rustic Doors category for your style of masonry doors. From here, you will see the first page of rustic-style fireplace doors and can further refine your search. You can search from common options for masonry fireplace doors such as: 

  • Styles: choose from cabinet style or bi-fold glass fireplace doors for certain types of fireplace doors. 

  • Mounting type: this is where inside fit or overlap fit fireplace doors come into play during your buying journey. 

  • Material: some types of doors for your fireplace are available in different materials such as brass or stainless steel.   

  • Fireplace mesh: choosing fireplace glass doors with a screen or without a mesh screen is a common option for buyers looking to replace their fireplace doors. 

  • Price: search for all fireplace doors within a certain price range. The system automatically loads minimum and maximum prices, so you can adjust the slider from there. 

Using the FDO store, you can refine the search for the perfect fireplace doors to match price, material and even color. Narrow down your choices even more and sort by frame style, mounting type and door styles.

using the search filter to find new or replacement fireplace doors for your home

Shopping for Custom Fireplace Door Designs

Many of our masonry fireplace door options are available in custom sizes and designs. Just choose the custom sizes option from the search filters and you’ll see the options for doors that can be custom sized by our team of specialists. We offer the largest line of custom fireplace doors online, hence the name. 

If you’re looking for custom fireplace doors, then you’re certainly in the right place. Our team has the experience needed to place your custom orders directly with manufacturers who fabricate your custom doors from raw materials. To place an order for custom masonry fireplace doors, contact us directly or call 888-986-1535 and a member of our team will walk you through the process of submitting your request.

Shopping for prefab or zero clearance fireplace doors is a little bit of a different process than it is for masonry fireplace doors. Once you’ve selected the prefab fireplace option from the homepage, you’ll see options to refine your search. Since prefab doors are designed for pre-built factory fireplaces, then you have the option to search by manufacturer.

prefab fireplace door categories

Shop for fireplace doors from popular manufacturers of prefab fireplaces such as: 

  • Heat-n-Glo 

  • Majestic

  • Heatilator

  • Temco

shop prefab fireplace doors by manufacturer

From there, you can refine your search further to choose doors that fit popular models of prefab fireplaces from your manufacturer. Again, the majority of prefab fireplace doors available are inside-fit mounted doors. If you want to see all types and designs of prefab fireplace doors available, then choose the prefab doors option from the prefab fireplaces screen. 

From here, you can shop for prefab doors by category. This is where shopping for masonry doors and prefab doors differ. The prefab selections are a little more limited due to manufacturer specifications and model releases. But you can still shop for doors to match different fireplace fronts and meet the needs of your home. Browse for doors to match your fireplace fronts including brick, stone and marble just to name a few. 

all types of prefab fireplace doors

After browsing our large selection of masonry and prefab fireplace doors, it’s time to complete your purchase and check out. We’ve walked you through the things you’ll need to consider when buying a new or replacement fireplace door online. Let’s go over the steps you’ve already taken to complete your new fireplace door purchase for both masonry and prefab fireplaces:

  1. Verify which fitment you need: fitment types are either inside fit or overlap fit. Overlap fit doors come in 3-sided and 4-sided options.  

  2. Measure your fireplace opening: You’ll need the exact minimum height and width of your fireplace opening before finding doors that will fit your feature.  

  3. Find a door with that fitment: Browse the FDO store for overlap and inside fit doors to match your masonry or prefab fireplace. 

Once you’ve found the right new or replacement doors to match your fireplace, it’s almost time to complete your purchase and enter your shipping information. We pride ourselves on providing you with the right doors the first time around, so before you finalize your purchase, we need a few additional details. 

Entering Your Fireplace Dimensions and Choosing the Right Size Doors

After you’ve refined your search using the FDO store search tools to find the doors you want for your fireplace, it’s time to further customize your choice. Depending on the style of doors you’ve chosen for your fireplace, you’ll see more options for customizing your order. 

entering your fireplace dimensions and choosing the right door

As you will see, some of our doors are offered in different finishes, various glass tints and even allow you to choose from an array of designs for your handles. Some of our door options will ask you for additional information before you can place your order. Additional details vary between products, but you might be prompted to enter information such as: 

  • Hearth position: the position of your hearth will help dictate the fitment style of your new doors. Common hearth positions include a raised hearth, a flush hearth and no hearth. Remember, 3-sided overlap fit doors need a hearth to sit on, so understanding what type of hearth you have installed is vital to finding the right doors to fit your feature.  

  • Draft assembly: some of our fireplace doors include options for a new draft assembly to go with your doors. 

  • Spark protection: fireplace doors and screens are often paired together so you can ensure you’re keeping your home and loved ones safe while burning a fire. 

Depending on the doors you choose, these are just a few of the additional options you might come across while completing your purchase. Once you’ve made all of the required selections and have the fireplace doors you want, there are only a couple of more steps before your order is on its way.  

Uploading a Picture of Your Fireplace

The last step in the process is to upload a picture of your fireplace along with your order for verification purposes. Before we can place your order for new or replacement fireplace doors, we ask that you include a picture of your fireplace. We do this for a couple of reasons, but it’s mostly to help protect your purchase. 

shop for fireplace doors online by uploading a picture of your fireplace

This box was taken from the Arch Masonry Door product page, but you can see where you'll need to upload an image of your fireplace beforehand. Since most fireplace doors are non-fundable purchases that can’t be canceled once they’re in production, we want to be sure you’re buying the best doors for your fireplace. Here’s how to submit a photo of your fireplace using the FDO tool:

  1. Stand at least 6 feet away from your fireplace, not too far though. 

  2. Snap a picture of your fireplace standing directly in front of your feature – head-on. 

  3. Select the upload photo option from the bottom of the product page and attach the image you just captured in front of your fireplace. 

Once you’ve selected your options, customized your doors and uploaded an image of your fireplace, it’s time to checkout. Be sure you have all of the required boxes checked including the purchasing agreement located near the bottom of the product page and select the add to cart button from the bottom of the page. 

If for any reason you overlooked one of your options or haven’t checked the boxes that need checking, the store will automatically prompt you to go back and make all of the applicable selections. Double-check your selections, ensure your image is visible and continue to check out where you’ll securely enter your payment information and submit your order for processing. A member of the FDO team will check your order for any possible oversights and contact you if we need additional information before processing your order.  

New or replacement fireplace doors are a great way to improve your home’s heating and cooling efficiency while complementing your home’s existing style and design. Whether you have a masonry or a prefab fireplace, the type of fireplace you have will dictate your new fireplace door buying options. Other factors that determine your choices for new fireplace doors include design aspects such as hearth position and the size of your fireplace’s opening.  

The majority of masonry fireplace doors are overlap fit while prefab or zero clearance fireplace doors are inside fit. You’ll also need exact minimum height and width measurements of your fireplace opening to ensure your new doors will fit your fireplace. Once you’ve determined whether you need inside or overlap fit doors, the next step is to refine your search using the FDO store’s built-in search tools. Filter your choices for a range of finishes, colors and materials to create custom fireplace doors right from the FDO store. 

After you’ve chosen the right doors to match your style and complement your home’s design, you can further customize your choice before uploading an image of your fireplace and checking out to complete your order. Choose from a range of add-ons such as door handles, glass tints and draft assemblies all from right on the product page.

Get a Snapshot Quote from Fireplace Doors Online

If you have any questions or need help finding the best doors for your fireplace, consider using our handy snapshot quote tool. Our snapshot quote tool offers customers a way to get the expert help they need without the hassle of dealing with pushy salespeople or fighting through crowded stores. 

get a snapshot quote for your fireplace doors

Simply snap three quick photos of your fireplace, fill out the online form and submit your photos to the Fireplace Doors Online team of experts. We receive hundreds if not thousands of snapshot quote submissions every week, so a dedicated member of our team will get back to you with more information as soon as possible.  

Continue Browsing Fireplace Hearth Accessories

Do you know what’s better than a new set of doors for your fireplace? Pairing those new fireplace doors with some beautiful hearth accessories and home decor, of course. 

Fireplace Doors Online is your one-stop shop for all your fireplace needs and accessories. We carry a range of products designed to add style and flair to your home and your fireplace. Shop our selection of tools, hearth rugs and other accessories to make your fireplace safe, functional and stylish. 

Need help placing an order or finding the right items for your home? Feel free to contact us online or give us a call at 888-986-1535 to speak with a member of our team.