I had a stone mason out today for an estimate on refacing my stone fireplace which is 8' x 8'. His charge for removing the stone and the hearth tile was $400-500. The stone mason said the cost to reface it depended on what new materials I chose to reface with. He also told me that if I wanted to reface with cultured stone I could probably handle doing it myself. My chimney sweep strongly advised me to have a stone mason familiar with fireplaces do the removal and not to let anyone start wailing away with a sledgehammer because it could easily damage the chimney behind the stone. He said he had seen many damaged chimneys caused by diy'ers and tile guys. I hope this information helps you. I live in Southern California.