I had a good time with this but I think it turned out great. Pictures very sortly
The first two show how i knocked out the lintel and everything in the middle up to the mantle course which was tied back so it so it held up by itself. I actually re installed the lintel higher where the red face bricks are showing just for overkill.
The black arch is 1/4 inch steel, old heatilator, which I cut out, the kids loved the sparks as I needed the hole higher as is was installing the stove 1 foot( 1 tile) above the floor to give it a floating feel(wife insisted) I also installed a horizontal cement board at the old mantle level and then cemented it in place with lots of cement.. this is a safety measure as a heat/fireblock.
The third picture I drew some lines showing how I framed it with steel. I put 4 cinder blocks on the ground for the stove to rest on. Black line in the lintel re-installed. Red blocks are bricks reinserted with mortar to hold it in place. Blue is the wiring for the fan(switch and receptacle to the right) If you get it…. the face plate is nearly impossible to get off without air tools or more…like drilling out the bolts(ask the dealer to take the face off first for you). in my case i just left the face plate on and i waxed the cinderblocks it sat on and it slipped the whole unit right in against the tile. You can do this because you install(tighten down) the stainless flue from the inside of the unit after its already in place.
I fabricated out of two 5/8’pipes about 10” long a way to create a floating mantle. These are attached to the studs and poke through the tile… drill holes in the wood mantle and it just slips on. There are a couple of tighted down screws underneath to keep it in place. There is wiring in the ceiling for Coax, Cat6 and HDMI and AC Power if I ever want to pull it down to put up a TV.
The key to all of this was lots of measuring. Basically had to account for the steel frame, cement board, thinset, then the tile itself. All of that had to equal 6 1/8’ from the wall. The side tile is exactly 6’ and tucks in behind so you see no edges from the front. The whole thing is 6’ ¼ in order to get 6 full tiles across with almost no grout(is that called dry stack?)
They have changed the model to the 5660 and 5660 standard… I think the new one does not have a fan but ask your dealer. They might be different sizes. The fan can be added later if you want to try convection first.
I did lots of research ( I would have bought the Nestor Martin IF or IT series if they had it through EPA testing by the time this was going) This was in the works or at least in my mind for 2 years so I thought it out pretty well and had some help from my father.
I have zero material negatives on the stove. The blower takes some time to come on as the termalcouple is well underneath. Sometimes the tile gets very hot just above the unit(only about 8”) before the fan kicks in and takes away the heat.
The first two show how i knocked out the lintel and everything in the middle up to the mantle course which was tied back so it so it held up by itself. I actually re installed the lintel higher where the red face bricks are showing just for overkill.
The black arch is 1/4 inch steel, old heatilator, which I cut out, the kids loved the sparks as I needed the hole higher as is was installing the stove 1 foot( 1 tile) above the floor to give it a floating feel(wife insisted) I also installed a horizontal cement board at the old mantle level and then cemented it in place with lots of cement.. this is a safety measure as a heat/fireblock.
The third picture I drew some lines showing how I framed it with steel. I put 4 cinder blocks on the ground for the stove to rest on. Black line in the lintel re-installed. Red blocks are bricks reinserted with mortar to hold it in place. Blue is the wiring for the fan(switch and receptacle to the right) If you get it…. the face plate is nearly impossible to get off without air tools or more…like drilling out the bolts(ask the dealer to take the face off first for you). in my case i just left the face plate on and i waxed the cinderblocks it sat on and it slipped the whole unit right in against the tile. You can do this because you install(tighten down) the stainless flue from the inside of the unit after its already in place.
I fabricated out of two 5/8’pipes about 10” long a way to create a floating mantle. These are attached to the studs and poke through the tile… drill holes in the wood mantle and it just slips on. There are a couple of tighted down screws underneath to keep it in place. There is wiring in the ceiling for Coax, Cat6 and HDMI and AC Power if I ever want to pull it down to put up a TV.
The key to all of this was lots of measuring. Basically had to account for the steel frame, cement board, thinset, then the tile itself. All of that had to equal 6 1/8’ from the wall. The side tile is exactly 6’ and tucks in behind so you see no edges from the front. The whole thing is 6’ ¼ in order to get 6 full tiles across with almost no grout(is that called dry stack?)
They have changed the model to the 5660 and 5660 standard… I think the new one does not have a fan but ask your dealer. They might be different sizes. The fan can be added later if you want to try convection first.
I did lots of research ( I would have bought the Nestor Martin IF or IT series if they had it through EPA testing by the time this was going) This was in the works or at least in my mind for 2 years so I thought it out pretty well and had some help from my father.
I have zero material negatives on the stove. The blower takes some time to come on as the termalcouple is well underneath. Sometimes the tile gets very hot just above the unit(only about 8”) before the fan kicks in and takes away the heat.
