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Rating: 
Summary: save your money and pass on this book
Review: I purchased this book thinking it might help me build a mantel shelf and found it to be worthless. This book is an lengthy advertisement to try to sell mantels. I don't recommend it as one can purchase a magazine to view pretty pictures of mantels.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Homeowners Resource!
Review: I usually don't write book reviews but felt I should since I really disagee with the reviewers who gave this book one star. This book doesn't have any advertisements. It contains over 20 original mantel designs that my wife and I felt we could build from common materials. I am not an experienced craftsman, but this book helped me gain the confidence I needed to begin the project. We are quite pleased with the results. I built the "Oak Manor" mantel which was simple to build and was completed in a week of my spare time. Our friends can't believe how good it looks and I have loaned this book several times. The next fireplace I build I would like to be a ventless since this book answered all my technical questions and gave me several ideas on where and how to install various types of fieplaces. I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to know more about fireplaces and would like to build their own mantel.
Rating:
Summary: save your money and pass on this book
Review: I'm an ole timey (senior citizen) fireplace builder for 51 years. This book was fun for me and is choice for learning secrets about a useful fireplace. Hey author, I like your classy and easy mantels and build some but I can't find any book anywhere that has a bunch of more complicated mantel plans that I can sharpen my beever teeth on. Help me anyone!! Good job on this book but please write a new one quick for us ole timey builders. I need pricey mantel ideas to put in my toolbox.
Rating:
Summary: Great Homeowners Resource!
Review: If you are building your own home this book MIGHT be worthwhile. The mantel designs are mediocre at best.
If you are doing a remodel and looking for design ideas, don't waste your money or time looking at this book. I have found the same photos browsing through the internet or picking up brochures at a home center. There is absolutely NO effort on the part of the author to find interesting or unique fireplace designs. I was really hoping to find more ideas and was seriously disapointed within the first five pages.
Rating:
Summary: Good for remodelers
Review: Me and my husband have bilt and remodeled since 1939. That's lots of work. I bought him this book which he says is the best. He likes it for the details about new fireplace types such as the gasless. He also got good ideas on easy mantels. Buy it for your own good.
Rating:
Summary: Great Homeowners Resource!
Review: My wife and I recently bought a new house and wanted to install a fireplace. We knew little about fireplace technology or what manufacturers offered. I had no idea until I read this book that there were so many options. The book describes in detail not only the many options but how they work and whether they're appropriate for your particular fireplace. The book also gave us great inspiration with choosing a mantel design. The book contains several mantel designs and how to build each one. The beautiful photos and construction illustrations were very helpful when we built ours. The big fireplace suppliers are also noted in the book with lots of helpful photos of their offerings. For myself, the wealth of knowledge I gained about fireplaces was priceless and very easy to read! I would recommend this book to anyone who is thinking about adding a fireplace to your home or redesigning an existing one.
Rating: 
Summary: Not for serious woodworkers
Review: This is an informative, although rudimentary book. The chapters explaining the different types of fireplaces were well written with a reasonable amount of detail on both gas and wood burning fireplaces. I would recommend this book only for those considering a new fireplace.If your objective is to build a mantle and your skill sets are greater than operating a chopsaw, you'll be disappointed in Fireplace and Mantel Ideas. The mantle plans lack design details that could be added with simple tools such as a router.
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