Skip it!
I was looking to build my own mantel, and was looking for a few ideas, this book had very few. Poor models (i.e. dimensional issues) and bad editing made it a drag to get through. And on a personal note, the mantels featured in this book are simply put, ugly, and would work in very few homes.
You will be frustrated if you try to build using this book
The book looks nice, and when you first read through the book it APPEARS to be a book you can use to build a mantel. Before I built my mantel I would have given it 4 or 5 stars (like the other people who rated it that have yet to try and build with it), but after building my mantel I wish I could give it less than one star. There are diagrams, but they omit crucial measurements and steps. There are instructions, but once you start to build you realize they are insanely vague at points, and omit crucial steps. The measurements in the text sometimes conflict with the measurements in the diagrams, and both sometimes conflict with reality. The book is OK to get ideas, and you could take a chance and hope the mantle you pick has decent instructions (I didn't build them all), but you will likely just get frustrated - there are much better books out there. Fortunately I am an experienced finish carpenter and was able to make the mantel I wanted DESPITE the book's errors and omissions - but keep in mind this is the first one-star review I have given a woodworking book (and I own hundreds).
Building Fireplace Mantels
Excellent for the beginner to the advanced woodworker. Covers framing considerations well, as well as atachment schemes and fasteners.
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