Throw a log on the fire: two fireplaces renovated
We restored two fireplaces last month, but I finally am getting around to posting the pics. To give you some orientation: There are two chimneys with three flues each in our three story house. We tackled the front chimney which vents the boiler through one of the flues (which was relined). The parlor FP above…
We restored two fireplaces last month, but I finally am getting around to posting the pics.
To give you some orientation: There are two chimneys with three flues each in our three story house. We tackled the front chimney which vents the boiler through one of the flues (which was relined). The parlor FP above it was restored and it’s flue was relined to burn wood. The bedroom FP above that was restored to a gel-burning FP. The mantels, surrounds and hearthstones were also reset or replaced where missing.
I had been warned by other brownstoners that it would be messy. And it was! Think of it as surgery on the house. Centuries of soot and a bunch of guys with jackhammers. But, it took only five days, although my partner decamped with the dog to his mother’s house, while I huddled in the two rooms that were dust free.
The finished products are more than worth it. The wood burning fireplace drafts just perfectly: not a wisp of smoke even on Sunday when we had those strong winds.
Here is the link to the pics:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/15516153@N02/a63B5C
If you watch it as a slideshow, make sure you click on the ‘i’ for descriptions and titles (all pics have them).
Thanks to the brownstoners who helped with my questions about FP restorations.
Enjoy!
9:39, you may be right about the ash, but not about the efficiency.
Open fireplaces heat via radiant heat and by convection. So while they can pull cold air into a room thereby cooling it, they also warm objects in the room. The balance between these two processes determines whether a fireplace will heat or cool a room.
Many stove and fireplace insert manufacturers have subscribed to the ‘fireplaces are inefficient heaters’ theory for obvious reasons, and would like it to become common knowledge. My open fireplaces raise the room temperature by about 6-8 degrees when they are lit. I can also turn off the heat when they are lit, which decreases the pollutants from the boiler that make their way into the air.
I think it is important for people to know how much pollution and health problems fire places can create. Even a well designed one like you have. An open fireplace releases lots of ash into the atmosphere and is highly inefficient. In fact, it pulls heat up the chimney and out of your home creating a vacuum in your home where warm air is replaced cold air from outside. I trust that people on this forum are as good as I am at doing a Google search.
But here is an interesting site to start your reading on open fireplaces.
http://www.greenlivingonline.com/HomeGarden/what-to-burn-in-your-fireplace/
Thank you for sharing the details and photos of this project! In the fall we bought a lovely old townhouse with three furnace-linked fireplaces. We’ve talked/mullled over changing them to wood burning, and while our project may be years away, we now have an idea of what it will entail. Great work, beautiful outcome!
hhitchc: You are welcome. Thank you very much for your kind post. If you have any questions, I’d be happy to help, here or via e-mail. Just get it done during the reno, so the dirt is not so bothersome. Also go to http://www.rumford.com for the technical info about what constitutes a FP that will burn well. You don’t have to buy all that stuff they sell, but the general ideas and articles will help.
10:18, that’s the gel FP (decorative) you are looking at. It does not get hot. The wood burning one (pic in the link) has firebrick and refractory mortar as it should. However, FPs with regular brick and portland cement mortar do exist. The problem with these is the faster deterioration of the brick and mortar, not the conduction of heat or hot gases.
Sorry but the brick work looks horrible.
Not only the brick it’s not fire proof,neither the mortar.
Step away when it gets really hot.
Thanks for posting this. Getting the fireplaces up and running is a huge question mark in my reno: how much will it cost, how messy will it be, gas or wood, and now I realize that mine are likely coal too. Thanks for the post, and the link to the photos. Very informative. I actually appreciated the link to the environmental things as well. Doubly informative.
Sometimes this blog hits the right spot. Ahhhh…
🙂
12:16: Listen, your question was: Can you tell me what is green about burning wood? And I responded to that. I also started with the comment that burning wood was greener than burning coal in a FP. And I hold on to both of those points. And that in some ways burning wood in a well designed FP can be as clean as burning it in a stove. So please read my last again, especially the link.Our air quality is compromised by multiple things (coal burning electric plants, cars) and I do not think FPs are a big part of that. I do not know what experts you are quoting and what they are saying, since you did not include that in your post.
However, I do not want to get into a debate over this. This was a post about my FPs which I posted because I wanted others to share the process I went through and my enjoyment of the finished product. So, seriously, I think this back and forth with you is detracting from that. And I do not want to participate in that. So have the last word if you want, if it bothers me I will just curl up by my new fire.
In the meantime John Ife and friend do not care about our green discussion and are going ahead with their reminiscences about burning coal. Go guys!
Hey John Ife,
Yesterday’s 6:13pm poster here. Yeh, the Rayburn brings back memories for me too. As a 6-yr-old I used to perch on the dish-towel bar of ours until I almost scalded my bum. Like yours, it heated all the hot water for the house so I remember my poor dad shoveling in the coal and “riddling” it (I believe that was the term) in winter and summer alike. Ah, those were the days. Of course we also had to walk barefoot to school 4 miles everyday, uphill in both directions.
Ohlise, I think all experts agree that wood burning fire places and stoves do not belong in urban environments and that if everyone used them in Brooklyn we would be in big trouble. In residential areas, wood stoves and fireplaces contribute the largest portion of particulate matter air pollution. If you are going to burn wood a high efficiency stove is the way to go, however even those contribute a significant amount of particulate matter to the atmosphere. The smell of a wood burning fire that we all know and love leads to increased respiratory symptoms, increased hospital admissions for lower respiratory infections, exacerbation of asthma, and decreased breathing ability and is particularly bad for children.