New masonry, cultured stone and Grand Voyager

[Paul L]

We've had this place for 8 years and have been here full time one year. The 1982 Fisher insert did quite well, we thought, as our neighbor was heating his place with an open fireplace and having a heck of a time keeping up. We went through 6 cords of wood last year while he ran out of his 11 cords at the beginning of March . He couldn't leave his house for more than an hour and a half without the fire going out. We were sittin right pretty we thought.

My good buddy has a nice Jotul stove ... he taught us quite a bit about the reasons we should upgrade to an epa stove. I lined a fellow up here to do stone work and the stove install, with me providing as much labor as possible. That started with the demo. The stone work was way off level and we decided to start from scratch.



When I got all the old masonry removed, this heatform box reared it's ugly head. The local guy came by and said I could remove it If I wanted to. That didn't sound right to me ... that's the first day I found hearth.com. The more time spent here, the more comfortable I became with thinking I could do this myself. Trying to remove that box would've been nothing short of disastrous (Thank You hearth.com) so I let my "help" go and didn't look for a replacement.



This was my first masonry attempt and it went dreadfully slow but progress was made.






Next up was cutting a hole in the steel box for the flex liner. The chimney is big, 13 x 17 outside liner dimensions, and my hope was to get a big hole right under the flue and be able to install the liner from below rather than wave that thing above my head at the top of a ladder.

Bingo



Boral cultured stone next ... Country Ledgestone. Laid out a pattern for the part of the chimney above the insert but basically went by shape and fit for the rest.



According to plan



The Grand Voyager manual says the stove was designed for 6" liner, 14 to 16 feet long. Floor to top mine is 17 feet but we are at 8500 ft. Dealer said insulation was not necessary but reading here I felt different, so we wrapped the blanket.

Fire In The Hole


Love the Grand Voyager so far. I tried to light a tame fire last night for the first one (even though the manual doesn't say anything about break in fires). Totally botched the start up. Firebox filled with thick smoke and a nasty stain on the glass that wouldn't budge with glass cleaner or water/ash mix this am. Saw something that said a hot fire was the best next step and Hot Damn I thought that was a fine idea ... Got a hot one going now and we're very happy with how the insert burns and also with the quietness of the fan.


Paul

 

[BrotherBart]

Very nice job.

 

[Ram 1500 with an axe...]

I got scared when I opened up and saw that first picture, but man, that is one sweet job you did........congrats and enjoy....

 

[begreen]

That's a great improvement. Nice teamwork! Thanks for sharing.

 

[bsruther]

That is a very nice looking fireplace. I like the three horizontal stones above the stove and the square one in the middle, nice touch.

I see you have a spud bar. I'm in the process of demolishing my fireplace and don't know what I'd do without mine.

 

[CenterTree]

I got scared when I opened up and saw that first picture, but man, that is one sweet job you did........congrats and enjoy....

LOL,,,exactly what I was thinking. I thought, "holy cow, this looks like a nightmare project". But the OP REALLY made a good looking result.

VERY NICE!

 

[Paul L]

LOL,,,exactly what I was thinking. I thought, "holy cow, this looks like a nightmare project". But the OP REALLY made a good looking result.

VERY NICE!

Thanks folks. It felt like a battle every step of the way but all's well that ends well.

Never heard the term "spud bar" before. Didn't use it that much but when you need it,
you really really need it

I have found that this stove really prefers a top down start ... another great tip from Hearth.com!

 

[SteveKG]

Very, very nice. I, too, am at 8500 ft. here in Colorado. Happy burning!

 

[Oregon aloha]

A lot of work, but worth it. I just finished my conversion from a 1977 Fisher without glass and glad to be back to wood heat. Looks great. Happy wood heating.