How to Build a 2-Story Masonry Fireplace/Chimney

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If you like an open fire and can afford the cost go for a fireplace and a stove. One for efficient heat the other for fun and some heat. If you like gathering and processing wood who cares if a fireplace is inefficient. People burn outside fire pits all the time. A properly built fireplace will warm the room it is in. The stove will warm the house.

Don't even think of using a mason who won't build a proper footing. Also make certain that the mason uses steel in the hearth. It spans the ash pit and the outer hearth cantilevers out around 18".
 
Fireplace Newbie said:
I have a builder telling me that the the fireplace doesn't need to statrt in the basement, and i am not following how all of the weight can be supported w/o the base at the bottom.
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Don't walk away from this guy, RUN! Unless he was referring to a stick built chase with a stone face...which would be MUCH cheaper (and lighter) to build. And as others have already stated, it also would be alot easier to clean with a stainless chimney, and draft better, and use much less wood (the stove, not the chimney) now, you would have to go to a stove with this setup, but there are stoves out there that can be used with the door open and a screen up. A cast iron or soapstone stove would give you the overnight heating you are looking for.
If I were doing a new build I would have to consider one of those dual sided glass door fireplace deals...seems to me there was a thread about one here a while back. Also, a rocket mass stove would have to be investigated also...all IMO of course...
 
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begreen said:
. If the room is more closed off then try using a fan on the floor outside of the room to blow air from a cooler part of the house into the stove room.
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My stove room gets to 95 degrees with several high velocity fans going. Thats why id like to surround 3 sides of the stove with stone or some type of concrete heat sink. My stove usually only run once a day unless its very cold. The stove room is essentially unusable while the stove is running due to high temps. Cant dial the heat back much more and if i could the rest of the house would be too cold.
 
That sounds like a lousy situation. It sounds like it's not a stove issue as much as it is a room layout situation. Maybe there is too much stove in this room, 400 sq ft is a small area to heat. Which stove is this? Are the 3 stoves all in the house?
 
Its the harman and its a bear,puts out a lot of heat even on the lowest setting. I have it in a finished basement and it does heat 2 floors above it but like i said,with a lot of help from fans blowing warm air up thru floor vents. On a typical winter day i can heat on 1 load a day ,unless it very cold and cloudy.
A few tons of masonry would soak up a lot of that initial heat and spread it out over a longer time period.
Other stoves are in workshop and other houses.
 
Ah, basement heating explains it. This is not untypical of basement heating. Is your setup working as well as possible with natural convection to circulate the heat?
 
I dont blow any air from the 2nd floor to the 3rd floor ,2 staircases do that ,but from the finished basement to the first floor i have one fan blowing cool air down (return) thru a floor vent on the far end of the house and one blowing hot air up thru a floor vent right above the stove on the other end. The Harman does a very good job heating 3000SF(each floor 1000SF) of partially insulated 100 yer old house. The far end of the finished basement stays around 80+, 2nd floor 75, 3rd floor 68. I dont use the wood stove every day in winter, just when i have time. Rest of the time a very small coal stoker boiler takes up the load.
 
Sounds like the 95 degree room is "by design" then.
 
Simonkenton said:
OK, new construction. The builder who is telling you that the weight of a masonry fireplace can be supported by 2x10 wooden floor joists does not know what he is talking about. Get a new builder.

Since I built the fireplace at left, and the log cabin that it is in, and it is 20 years old and is still in good shape, I think I know what I am talking about.

New construction is simple. Figure out where your fireplace will be in the basement. Let us say your fireplace will be 6x5 feet like mine is.
Let us say that the construction has begun on your new house. The concrete walls are in place.
The dirt floor of the basement is ready for the concrete floor to be poured. This floor concrete will typically be 4 to 5 inches thick.
Where the fireplace will be you simply dig down 8 inches deeper. If the fireplace will be 6x5 feet, you need a 12 inch thick section of concrete floor that is one foot wider all the way around. You dig a hole, 8x7 feet, and 8 inches deep. Make sure to put the rebar in. Rebar needs to set 4 to 6 inches off the ground.

When the concrete basement floor is poured it will all be one smooth level floor, you will not be able to tell by looking that there is a 12 inch thick, 8x7 foot section of the basement floor.

Versteht?
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Thanks Simonkenton!! Do you want to come to GA and build my Fireplace?

Who are some reputable Fireplace Masons in North GA/North Atlanta?
 
Add some cedar benches and it could be a nice big sauna.
 
Thanks for the invite newbie, sorry I can't make it I am now an over the road truck driver. I am in Montgomery Alabama tonight headed to Uvalde Texas.
Is your new house going to be in Lawrenceville? I grew up in Atlanta, went to Chamblee High, long, long ago.
 
Buy this book:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0911469176/?tag=hearthamazon-20

This book will give you the history of the Rumford fireplace, and will give you all the specs on how to build a proper heat-producing fireplace.

Interesting that the Rumford was invented in 1778 and yet, the design was lost to mankind for many decades. If you find a good mason and he is not up to speed on the Rumford, he can learn the specs from this book and he will build you a proper fireplace.
 
Simonkenton said:
Thanks for the invite newbie, sorry I can't make it I am now an over the road truck driver. I am in Montgomery Alabama tonight headed to Uvalde Texas.
Is your new house going to be in Lawrenceville? I grew up in Atlanta, went to Chamblee High, long, long ago.
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Mr. Simon... The Home will be in Jackson County, GA (Near Braselton) Do you know any good masonry People up that way?
 
Fireplace Newbie said:
Mr. Simon... The Home will be in Jackson County, GA (Near Braselton) Do you know any good masonry People up that way?
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What have you done so far to try to find a masonry contractor? Have you tried talking ot local chimney sweeps about it some build chimneys themselves but most have masonry contractors they recommend.
 
No I don't know any masons in Georgia. In fact when I went to build my fireplace in Madison Co. NC, twenty years ago, I wanted someone expert to help because I had never laid a brick in my life. But, I had that book as a guide.
So I called the best mason in town, he said he hadn't built a masonry firebox since 1985. Told me to go to Home Depot and buy a steel firebox. I quickly lost his phone number.

I wanted all masonry. So I got that book out and built it all by myself. Had to have help setting those flue tiles, they weighed 104 lbs each and there were 7 of them. I am a log builder and carpenter primarily, just became a fireplace mason by accident.
Worked my ass off building that fireplace. Took 10 weeks. Lost 25 pounds. Looked in the mirror and my ass was gone. I worked my ass off.
I never had known that expression had a literal meaning.
 
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Yea, building chimneys is a work out. I spent some of my summers in high school and weekends working for my brother lugging stone, mortar, flues liners, bricks and blocks to keep him supplied as well as mixing mortar and breaking up stone that wasn’t good enough for face stone to be used to fill the voids. When we got a brick chimney job it was like a vacation handling bricks instead of chunks of granite. I did absorb everything like a sponge while doing this for around 6 years off and on. Some poorly built or worn out fireplaces and chimneys we would tear down and rebuild. This was around the time prefabs were taking over but he had plenty of customers who wanted masonry.
 
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