What Size Fireplace Grate Do I Need? (Find Out Now!)

Fireplace grates are often considered to be a staple component of open wood-burning fireplaces, as they help enhance the efficiency of the fire. They also keep the heat of the fire from the hearth and the walls of the firebox. Though, when it comes to purchasing a new fireplace grate, it’s important that you obtain the right measurements.

This brings us to the question at hand and the one that’s likely on your mind: “What size fireplace grate do I need?” In order to determine what size fireplace grate you need, to know the rear width of the fireplace firebox, the front width of the fireplace opening, and the total depth of the firebox. These measurements will give you a guide to begin shopping for the ideal fireplace grate.

With that said, let’s take a deeper look at what exactly a fireplace grate is, what purpose they serve, how to know if your fireplace needs one, and how to ensure that you get the right size fireplace grate for your home.

While you can certainly put the wood directly on the floor of your wood fireplace’s hearth, having a fireplace grate will improve the appliance’s overall safety, performance, efficiency, and appearance. Simply put, a fireplace grate is a device that consists of either steel or cast-iron bars with legs and is placed on the floor of the fireplace.

Wood, other forms of solid fuel, are stacked on the fireplace grate when operating a fireplace. These grates serve to raise the logs off the floor, which improves the flow of oxygen to the fire. They generally have a rectangular shape and grille or mesh-like features that allow the ash to fall through onto the hearth. Fireplace grates also enhance the safety of fireplaces, as they prevent burning logs from rolling out of the hearth and, thus, causing a house fire.

Some fireplace grates are outfitted with curved bars that are meant to direct unburnt logs toward the flames as the fire is burning. Whereas, other grates feature baskets that can hold a significant amount of wood.

Although fireplace grates are not a necessity, they offer a number of benefits. For a relatively affordable price, a fireplace grate can help make burning and maintaining fires in your fireplace easier, while also maximizing heat output and efficiency. While you do not have to have a fireplace grate, they can make your life a whole lot easier.

After all, open fireplaces are traditionally not very efficient sources of heat for a room or entire home. By using a grate instead of burning fires right on the floor of the firebox, you can increase the overall heat output of your open wood-burning fires. So, whether or not you need a fireplace grate is a matter of preference, but definitely worth considering.

Whether you’re looking to purchase a fireplace grate for the first time or you need a replacement, it needs to fit inside the firebox of your fireplace. It cannot be too large or too small. A fireplace grate that is too small will not hold enough logs and a grate that is too big simply won’t fit in the firebox.

Since fireboxes do not come in standard sizes, you’ll have to do the measurements yourself. Ensuring that you obtain the correct measurements is a crucial step in purchasing a fireplace grate. In order to do so, you’ll need a measuring tape, and a pen or pencil and paper to jot down the measurements as you collect them.

In order to determine the proper size fireplace grate that you need, you must measure width and depth of your firebox.

The reason for taking two measurements for width is because many fireplaces taper from the front of the firebox to the back. You don’t want your fireplace grate to fit snugly inside of your firebox. Instead, there should ideally be about three inches of clearance between the fireplace grate and the fireplace on all sides.

To account for this clearance, take the minimum width measurement and subtract six inches from it. This will give you the maximum width that your fireplace grate can be for your particular fireplace.

To measure the depth of the fireplace, start at the fireplace door, or the beginning of the fireplace opening, and measure to the back wall. With the depth measurement, subtract six inches from it to account for the three inches of clearance needed on all sides. This will give you the maximum depth that your fireplace grate can be for your specific fireplace.

Now that you’ve obtained the maximum width and the maximum depth for your fireplace grate, you can use these measurements as a reference point when shopping. Keep in mind that the grate you choose can be smaller than these dimensions, but should not be any bigger.

The main difference between a vertical fireplace grate and a bar or basket grate is that it keeps the fire constrained against the back wall of the firebox. Their vertical shape holds logs vertically, which pins them against the rear wall. As the logs located at the bottom of the fireplace grate burn, the above logs drop down onto the embers to replace them.

With this design, virtually no tending is required by the user. Plus, since the logs are stuck to the back of the hearth, a very small amount of smoke can escape the firebox and end up in your living spaces.