Archive for 'Fire Works Masonry News'
Garrison, NY Hand-Built Finnish Contraflow Heater
October 2, 2008 by admin, under Fire Works Masonry News.
This heater warms a home in the wooded foothills of the Hudson valley. The Appalachian Trail runs on the crest of the ridge behind the house. The clients designed the home to take advantage of passive solar heating and the clean heat of a masonry heater. They wished to use the colorful stone on the property for the heater finish as well as for masonry accents along the house. The heater divides a living and family room in the house with convenient bake oven access from the kitchen.
The rear of the heater with a black oven.
The family took a very active roll in the heater design. The clients were building a full finished basement to support a prefabricated house. They built the house with solar Southern alignment and added more windows on that side to provide passive solar heat. After researching clean burning, efficient wood heat on the internet the family decided on a masonry heater for the home’s main heat source. The large stone heater mass also adds to the home’s solar heat storage.
The heater was designed to the family’s wishe, dividing a living room and family room space. The bake-oven is adjacent to the open kitchen. The heater’s layout design and concept sketches were completed.
The hand built core is also designed.
*The heater is offset from the chimney by a three foot long heated bench/wood box. After the core was completed, it was wrapped in cardboard to form a thermal expansion gap. The firebrick bench to the left connects the heater exhaust to the chimney. The bench and chimney are both lined with firebricks to increase the overall thermal mass.
Once the core was completed and wrapped, the stone from the client’s property is started. The stonework was completed by local masons under the guidance of Amazin’ Masons. The large stones had to be carefully quarried. Ideal heater veneer stones are no thicker than five inches. Thicker stones decrease the surface temperature of the heater and increase the time it takes for the energy from the burn to be released into your home. Here we see the stone on the bake oven side of the heater near completion.
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May’s Landing, NJ Finnish Contraflow Heater.
July 25, 2008 by admin, under Fire Works Masonry News.
This Finnish contraflow heater warms the center of an open floor timber frame home in Southern New Jersey. The heater surrounds the comfortable space the family spends most of their time and also provides a direct view of the heater’s vibrant flames from the kitchen and dining room. The rear wall of the stove provides a vertical floor to ceiling radiant heat panel in the master bedroom behind masonry stove.
After reviewing the client’s house design and discussing his and her preferences for the look of the heater, several concept sketches were drafted and reviewed. Starting with the heater optimum location in the home’s floor plan.
The client expressed an interest in the convenience of the woodbox to store a few days supply of wood as well as the comfort of a wrap around heated bench. Rough sketches were refined to a final design plan.
The heater and chimney footing, foundation, and hearth pad were built to support the masonry mass. The large foundation also serves as an ash dump for the heater. It will be several seasons before any cleaning of the fine ash is needed.
Next the Heat-Kit core is positioned and assembled.
Once the core was finished the outer heater shell and chimney are started. This heater is faced with firebrick on edge and will later be covered with the natural thin stone veneer. The masonry chimney base has begun and the clay flue tiles for the wrap around heated bench have been roughed out.
After the firebrick shell and chimney base are completed, the entire surface is coated with a fiberglass reinforced stucco in preparation for the thin stone veneer.
The stone veneer continues.
A photo of the natural thin stone veneer chosen for this project.
The finished heater burning a charge of wood.
The heated bench and capping slabs are colorful Tennessee sandstone.
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Hillsborough, NJ Brick Hand-Built Finnish Contraflow Masonry Heater.
July 15, 2008 by admin, under Fire Works Masonry News.
This hand built brick contraflow heater replaced a cast iron wood stove in a Hillsborough, NJ basement. The heater exhausts into the same existing lined masonry chimney that the old metal stove utilized. The two short heated benches provide enough room for the family’s four cats to enjoy.
Tennessee sandstone with colorful swirls of red, yellow, and brown provides the stone accent on the heater. The sandstone caps the masonry heater as well as the two heated side benches, lays as a short shelf before both doors, and surrounds the bake oven door.
The soft radiant heat of the masonry stove has given new life to the formerly chilly finished basement. It is now a comfortable basement office. The television has been replaced by the radiant glow of the intense, rolling, mesmerizing flames in the heater’s firebox.
Heater design planning concept sketch.
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Plainfield, NJ Hand-Built Finnish Contraflow Heater.
June 11, 2008 by admin, under Fire Works Masonry News.
This brick heater was built into an existing home as part of an extensive renovation. The family wanted a more open floor plan between the living room and kitchen. This is an ideal situation for a masonry heater. The wall between the kitchen and living room was removed and appropriate measures were taken to address the load bearing wall issues. The family was delighted with the new space and freedom on the first floor. The new more spacious floor plan was also ideal for the inclusion of a radiant masonry heater.
The brick Finnish contraflow heater divides the living room and kitchen. The loading door and wood box heat and illuminate the living room while the bakeoven warms and cooks in the kitchen. A short heated bench under the wood box connects the heater to an already existing masonry chimney in the nearly 100 year old house. The existing chimney was used for a basement wood stove in the past. This original chimney was relined with an insulated steel insert for safety and to meet modern code requirements.
During the kitchen renovation, the heater’s bake-oven was the sole source of cooking. The family discovered the versatility of retained heat cooking for more than just delicious pizza, preparing everything from eggs and bacon for breakfast, hamburgers for lunch, slow cooked pulled pork and baked potatoes for dinner, finally to cookies or pie in the evening. They also mastered dutch-oven cooking, leaving a stew in the cast iron cookware in the morning to return home in the evening to a ready to go dinner.
Along with the great meals and aesthetic enjoyment of the heater, the family obviously also desired to cut their high heating bills in the old home. After finishing the heater, the next heating season the family burned two fires a day in the masonry heater and reduced their natural gas heating bill from the previous season by over 70%. The home is in a urban location. The home owner contacted local tree removal services and secured free delivered tree rounds to the home. With some time and a wood splitter the owner obtained most of his winter heat for free and saved trees from the landfill or mulch pile.
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Hillsborough, NJ Field Stone Finnish Contraflow Masonry Heater
May 30, 2008 by admin, under Fire Works Masonry News.
This Finnish contraflow heater is the centerpiece of a living room addition to this Hillsborough, NJ home. The family spend most of their time in this room conveniently beside the expanded kitchen. The well insulated space stays comfortable all winter with the soft heat radiating from the Pennsylvania field stones. The blue stone hearth before the loading doors is also from a local Pennsylvanian quarry.
The heater’s efficiency starts with the well designed and thoroughly tested Heat Kit core. The core is surrounded and slowly releases it’s stored energy created by the intense fire into the veneer stones. Here we see the core wrapped with a fiberglass blanket to allow for thermal expansion. The stone facade is about halfway completed at this point. A wooden form creates the open space for the later installation of the loading door. Similarly, the two lower small foam pieces hold the opening for the clean out doors. The doors provide seasonal access to the two side downdraft channels to clean any of the fine fly ash from the intense heater burn.
Amazin’ Masons
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Mark Twain on German fireplaces (Masonry Heaters)
January 11, 2008 by admin, under Fire Works Masonry News.
Mark Twain wrote the following description in ‘Europe and Elsewhere’. Although he spoke of German fireplaces specifically, his words are now true (in proportion) for all of the Masonry Heaters that we install.