Wood Burning Fireplace Just Cracked

[PatMcNr]

I had a nice small wood fire going in my real brick lined, stone faced fireplace yesterday.

After about 6 hours, I added a buch of wood to use it up, not a dangerous amount though.

Later on I noticed that the stone facing cracked.

I looked inside this morning with the fire out and I don't see the inside firebrick cracked.

Did I just heat it up too much or too quickly?

 

[cmonSTART]

Wow. How old is the fireplace?

 

[PatMcNr]

15 years old.

Its concrete block construction with fire brick lining.

The stone on the face is veneer.

A couple verticle cracks occurred throught thre mortar and right through thr face of the stone.

These are above the arched glass doors and below the mantle,

Above the mantle is fine.

The extended hearth is fine.

The fireplace is in the center of my home and you can walk all around it.

no cracks on the back side or inside the fire brick

 

[tiber]

That's probably normal heating and cooling. Unfortunately new construction (new being less than 20 years old) suffers from this kind of stuff alot.

But, I would also check UNDER the hearth. My fireplace actually sits in the foundation wall and the hearth sits on top of cinderblocks in the crawlspace. My house is from the 1960s, and the idiots who did the asbesdos removal for the previous owner knocked out some cinderblocks. The hearth settles and... tada! it's a summer project to get under there with some poles and hammer them into position to support the cinder bricks AROUND the furnace pipe.

 

[PatMcNr]

The whole foundation for the fireplace is visible in the basement.

Because its in the center of the house, you can walk right around it.

No cracks or settling problems down there.

It seems to me that adding some extra firwood may have heated it up to a higher temperature too quickly???

 

[Wood Heat Stoves]

has it been humid in your home lately?

 

[PatMcNr]

No, we've been in the dead of winter

 

[PatMcNr]

Also, we don't use the fireplace all the time, just several times a year for the novelty of it. We don't use it for heat, just recreation.