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January 18, 2009
fireplace on rowhouse backyard
My wife is looking to by an outdoor fireplace (something like this: http://ace.imageg.net/graphics/product_images/pACE3-4570939reg.jpg) and put it on our backyard. Do NY codes mention anything in conjunction? Is it perfectly legal?
Comments
That's cute, contained and I wouldn't worry about it. Plenty of people have open ones and the city doesn't give a sh*t. They got bigger problems, yanno.
Posted by: pattunia at January 19, 2009 2:56 AM
The rule is no fire, bbq or anything similar closer than 10 feet to the house or property line. The URL has been mentioned on the forum before. You can find it in a search.
Posted by: corolla at January 19, 2009 8:37 AM
Dont impose this incredible nuissance on your neighbors. This is a tightly packed major urban area, not the back woods of Arkansas.
While you are enjoying the crackling fire and warmth, your neighbor's eyes are burning from the smoke, their kids asthma is acting up, and the smell is intruding through their windows and sticking to every piece of fabric they have.
I think the legality of these things is questionable, but if I was your neighbor, I would call the fire department every time you fire it up and they definately will come.
It is not a fireplace with an exhaust 50 ft above ground. The smoke will hang in the yards and alleyways of every building surrounding you.
I dont want to be a downer, but these things are so rude and obnoxious to your neighbors - I know because I once looked into the same thing until my neighbor got one...
Posted by: newsouthsloper at January 19, 2009 11:12 AM
I have one and it's awesome. My neighbors, all of whom I know, have never complained. Get some decent seasoned hardwood, it won't smoke much worse than a barbecue. And keep it toward the back of your yard. It's a great way to keep using your outdoor space in the winter.
Posted by: Frederick Law Homestead at January 19, 2009 11:24 AM
People in the slope are such downers.
Posted by: daveinbedstuy at January 19, 2009 5:29 PM
Not everyone Dave, just seems to be the 30 year old, CPA condo owner who might have asthma. I'm going to build one in my back yard. I'm not in the south Slope, I'm probably closer to you. Viva outdoor fire's in Brooklyn!
Posted by: pig three at January 19, 2009 7:36 PM
Not sure why you guys decided to knock me for living in South Slope, and expressing my honest thoughts on how obnoxious those things are. But I guess you are feeling trollish or whatever tonight...
For the OP - In case you think Im the only person that thinks this way, you can find plenty of others in these old threads, the May 9 2007 thread was started by me:
http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2008/02/fire_pit_in_bro.php#comments
http://www.brownstoner.com/forum/archives/2007/05/fire_bowlchimin.php#comments
Posted by: newsouthsloper at January 19, 2009 9:13 PM
I had a neighbor call FD because they smelled smoke on the block (who does that?. The engine company traced it to my backyard and once they determined my fire place was fully enclosed, 10 feet from all adjacent structures, and noted that I had a working hose nearby; they told me to have a good night and left.
People will always find something to bitch about. Like FLH said, use seasoned wood - it produces very little smoke and burns better and completely. And remember burning leaves or trash is illegal in the entire state.
Posted by: Bklyn Fire Alarm Guy at January 20, 2009 9:12 AM
I've been meaning to get one just like that. And unless you are going to use it day-in and day-out, entertaining outside through 365 days and 4 seasons, the only thing 'obnoxious' is a nimby like newsouthsloper who want to tell everyone else what not to do.
Posted by: MAT at January 20, 2009 12:44 PM
Well said, MAT, I'd think newsouthsloper would've picked a better moniker so we couldn't pick on her/him so easily.
What a killjoy. Some people actually like the smell of smoke.
Posted by: cmu at January 20, 2009 2:26 PM
I'm sorry to have to add to this thread but let me just say that, yes, these fires can often create quite a bit of particulate matter and do cause air pollution problems in the yards. A light smell of a clean-burning woodstove emanating from a chimney in wintertime is comforting to many people although even a little wood smoke can trigger asthma and allergies for some. Mind you, I'm not totally against burning wood. As the fire engineer above points out, use well-seasoned wood, and make sure it's hardwood, not pine. Even better, if you can get wood charcoal, that would be better. It is much, much cleaner burning than the original wood would be.
A dirty-burning fire pit or fireplace, especially one without a tall flue can cause a LOT of pollution. It's as simple as that. It can cause a lot of problems for people living in the block. In the warmer months, when people have open windows, these kinds of fires (and even barbeques...especially with lighter fluid) can create a huge stink and get pulled right into houses.
Also, there are real fire safety issues to consider. If you put this proposed fire pit way out back than there may be much lower risk but don't be too smug. Safety first...always! (I hope you have one of those very deep backyards!...sometimes houses are near corners and have a house from the side street up against the rear of their backyard so they can be really hemmed in by buildings.
I write this because a house in, yes, "prime Fort Greene" (sorry), had an outdoor fire that got out of control. The deck caught, the sunbrella nylon valance over it caught and then the whole house went up in flames. The two houses on either side also sustained a LOT of damage, mostly from the fire fighters immediately going up on their roofs, chopping holes and putting hoses in them to rain down water from the top floor to the basement to keep those hoses from catching fire.
The whole event and damage were ghastly. Eventually, the house that sustained the fire had its back wall collapse.
It was a long, expensive renovation after that and a lot of money, probably NOT covered by insurance, paid out to the neighbors on both sides.
Remember, for all the problems with city air, the reason it is not worse than it is already is that we heat quite a bit with "natural" gas. It makes a big difference. If we were back using coal it would be awful. Incidentally, because of last year's run up in heating oil prices, there was some talk of fears of more wood being used in fireplaces which would add more air pollution.
By the way, there were problems in the 70's from people burning wood as an alternate fuel. Eventually, this led to air quality standards for the wood stove and fireplace insert industry. There is a lot of info online I think.
You'll note that many wood-burning stoves have catalytic converters which I think are often ceramic honeycombs covered in platinum. The problem with them is the stove has to reach a certain high temperature before the element heats up enough to start catalysing whatever it needs to catalyse. We were thinking of putting in a masonry stove which can be extremely clean-burning without a catalytic thingue...the fire box heats up to a high temperature and because it is not a stove with thin side, a masonry oven can super-heat with a very fast burn which is much cleaner.
The problem with a masonry stove being put in is that we would need to support the extra masonry up from the basement level into the ground floor kitchen...we still may do it though. I think they can do it with cinderblocks set on a footing.
I love the tile stoves in Germany. I less love the huge soapstone stoves from Finland. I find the big gray soapstone stoves a bit lugubrious.
I also love the idea of having a bake oven for bread...and slow cooking sounds great to me. Of course, lugging wood and cleaning out ashes sound less great. I can just see myself using it to store pots and pans I'm not using!
Does anyone have any experience putting a masonary stove into a Brooklyn rowhouse?
Posted by: BrooklynGreene at January 20, 2009 6:24 PM
Granted, the city isn't going around looking for these outdoor fireplaces, but last time I checked, all outdoor fires-regardless of whether you have a hose and are 10' from property line- are illegal. Charcoal grills are okay, with the hose and 10' requirement. You can probably find the NYC fire/bldg code on line.
Posted by: Nickus at January 28, 2009 11:22 AM
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