I've had two other houses with woodstoves and am ready to put one in the house I live in now. The house is 150+ years old and I'm planning on putting the stove in an old non working fireplace. I've done a lot of research and am planning on a Jotul stove with a insulated liner. I have some questions and will be looking for advice, I'll just keep this as short introduction for now. Pictures to follow.
New member, old house
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Sorry, I'm also using this thread to figure out how to post pictures. I may change the topic once I get the hang of it.
![[Hearth.com] New member, old house](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/131/131370-26ba80aa3d2f342ca403528a6931b52f.jpg?hash=wkjCnF4jSo "[Hearth.com] New member, old house")
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OK, I think I got now. The first picture is a before picture, the second is after I've started work on the fireplace. I guess you could call this a hearth mount, except I won't have the 18" in front of the stove. I'll be adding ember protection to get my clearance. More to follow.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Cool! I think we'll get along just fine. Quite a few old house geeks, here.
I only see one photo above, so not sure if that's your before or after. Here's a link to one of the stove installations in my own house, very similar to what you describe, with regard to adding ember protection.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/old-fireplace.88498/
Oh, and if you don't already have wood split and stacked, you're going to have a rough year next year. So, go get some stacked! Now. Seriously. We'll wait. Were your prior stoves EPA, or smoke dragon variety?
I only see one photo above, so not sure if that's your before or after. Here's a link to one of the stove installations in my own house, very similar to what you describe, with regard to adding ember protection.
https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/old-fireplace.88498/
Oh, and if you don't already have wood split and stacked, you're going to have a rough year next year. So, go get some stacked! Now. Seriously. We'll wait. Were your prior stoves EPA, or smoke dragon variety?
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Welcome aboard. This is the place you want to be. Your install is right in the wheelhouse of many of our members. Ask away. Have you had the current chimney inspected for integrity? An insulated liner is very much the way to go, but I would still check the current one for piece of mind (and is it clean and in one piece).
Lake Girl
Moderator
I've inserted the missing picture.
This installation is going to be all about clearances if the mantel is wood or not if it is cast plaster. If wood you may need a much less radiant stove than a Jotul.
This installation is going to be all about clearances if the mantel is wood or not if it is cast plaster. If wood you may need a much less radiant stove than a Jotul.
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Lake Girl
Moderator
How tough is it to remove the old mantel? 100 year old house we used to have did not have a fireplace so no experience. If wood, there must be some way to salvage, adjust to meet clearances without destroying the integrity.
just my thoughts, but a stove that requires ember protection only and then lay nice slate tiles over the existing hearth and wood floor and some oak trim around the edge, might have to cut a sheet of plywood to shape as a backer for the slate to help level it, onve in place with stove on it wont be moving anywhere
in the future it could all be easily removed with no damage/changes to the orginal
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DevilsBrew
Minister of Fire
- Apr 21, 2013
- 687
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Yes, it is. But I think it's not complete. Should have that brick covered, similar to this example (same vintage):
![[Hearth.com] New member, old house](https://www.hearth.com/talk/data/attachments/131/131381-3b594158571a50ed4091083dc5048e14.jpg?hash=bzpte_fRkw "[Hearth.com] New member, old house")
it looks to me like it may have been coal burning with one of the old coal insert units in it that would explain the exposed brick. I could be wrong but that is what most of the old fireplaces that look like that here used to be.
Lake Girl
Moderator
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Good ideas on how it ended up that way. begreen, I think most of these mantel surrounds were stock components, pieced together with inserts / custom trim required to finish them off. It may have been coal, I have no experience with that.
Not my house, Lake Girl, although I'd be proud if it were. That's 1870's vintage, which would've matched my last house very nicely. Now we're living in the 1770's.
Not my house, Lake Girl, although I'd be proud if it were. That's 1870's vintage, which would've matched my last house very nicely. Now we're living in the 1770's.
Thanks for all the replies. Joful, I grew up on a dairy farm and lived in a few old farm houses, All had working fireplaces. this house was my grandfather's that I bought from my family after he past. I have plenty of wood already split and stacked. The house has a working cooking fireplace that we use often. I looked and the link you posted, nice project. I think your right about not being complete, it does look like something is missing. The inside of the box was parged and kind lose so I chipped it off to see how the brick looked and I might leave it that way.
Jags, yes I have had the chimney inspected and have an appointment with another installer that's a Jotul dealer.
begreen, thanks for adding my pic.
begreen, lake girl, the mantel is painted stone, The guy that already looked at it thought it was probably marble (dark grey in color).
tekguy, I'm planning on removing some of the floor to make a flush extension. I think the mantel was part of a very old renovation and at the time they added a 6" piece of hearth and they didn't do a very nice job trimming it out anyway.
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Jags, yes I have had the chimney inspected and have an appointment with another installer that's a Jotul dealer.
begreen, thanks for adding my pic.
begreen, lake girl, the mantel is painted stone, The guy that already looked at it thought it was probably marble (dark grey in color).
tekguy, I'm planning on removing some of the floor to make a flush extension. I think the mantel was part of a very old renovation and at the time they added a 6" piece of hearth and they didn't do a very nice job trimming it out anyway.
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Ashful
Minister of Fire
I've seen a sandbox hearth extension support like yours before, but only in a much older house (1750's). It's interesting to see the same type structure in your house.
Do you think that extension is original? By the flooring, I'm guessing it's already been modified / extended once or twice. My fireplaces originally had zero hearth extension / wood running right up to the front of the firebox.
Do you think that extension is original? By the flooring, I'm guessing it's already been modified / extended once or twice. My fireplaces originally had zero hearth extension / wood running right up to the front of the firebox.
Joful, That picture you posted of the marble mantle looks a lot like mine. Where did you get the picture? do you have any more information on that fireplace?
The part of the house where my woodstove is going could very well be from the 1750's. the original part of the house was built in the early 1700's. There has been a few additions and I've been told that the last of these was done around the Civil War era. By the look of the floor framing I'd say that extension is original, it extends to a joist that is larger then the rest of the joist and has mortise and tendon in it. I think the original fireplace had a Jack Arc (I think that's what they call it). The part you see that I dug out was filled with busted up dry stack bricks on top of sand( the whole hearth is filled with sand). The fireplace in the original part of the house also has dry stacked bricks for a hearth, I believe this fireplace also was built this way since I've learned that this part of the house was the first addition after the original. The "new" marble mantle stick out 8" from the wall so the hearth would have had an additional 8" originally.
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The part of the house where my woodstove is going could very well be from the 1750's. the original part of the house was built in the early 1700's. There has been a few additions and I've been told that the last of these was done around the Civil War era. By the look of the floor framing I'd say that extension is original, it extends to a joist that is larger then the rest of the joist and has mortise and tendon in it. I think the original fireplace had a Jack Arc (I think that's what they call it). The part you see that I dug out was filled with busted up dry stack bricks on top of sand( the whole hearth is filled with sand). The fireplace in the original part of the house also has dry stacked bricks for a hearth, I believe this fireplace also was built this way since I've learned that this part of the house was the first addition after the original. The "new" marble mantle stick out 8" from the wall so the hearth would have had an additional 8" originally.
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Here is the fireplace in the original part of the house.
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Great house. I think the white mantel was an add on. Looks like a Victorian era detail. I like the straight-forward colonial look of the original. That looks like a very cozy room.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Is there a wood lintel hiding behind / above the brick work in that large fireplace? It looks to me like the classic "bricking-in" of an old cooking fireplace, done in the days after it was retired from cooking (they bought an iron stove). This was the case in my own house, as detailed in the thread I linked above.
On figuring age, there are always some easy give-aways in the framing. Were the joists sawn with a reciprocating blade (straight kerf marks), circular blade (arched kerf marks), or hand-hewn? Note the differences between shorter and longer framing members, as it was common to run the shorter pieces on a mill, and hand-hew the longer pieces, which may have been too large for the carriage at the local mill.
In my own house (1770's), the shorter joists are all sawn in a reciprocating mill, and the longer joists are all hand-hewn. It appears the local mill could not handle beams longer than 30 feet.
I assume those doors on either side are attic / basement? I often see one or both having been converted into a closet. My great-grandparents house had both stairways still intact, which I thought were the coolest thing on earth, when I was a kid.
On figuring age, there are always some easy give-aways in the framing. Were the joists sawn with a reciprocating blade (straight kerf marks), circular blade (arched kerf marks), or hand-hewn? Note the differences between shorter and longer framing members, as it was common to run the shorter pieces on a mill, and hand-hew the longer pieces, which may have been too large for the carriage at the local mill.
In my own house (1770's), the shorter joists are all sawn in a reciprocating mill, and the longer joists are all hand-hewn. It appears the local mill could not handle beams longer than 30 feet.
I assume those doors on either side are attic / basement? I often see one or both having been converted into a closet. My great-grandparents house had both stairways still intact, which I thought were the coolest thing on earth, when I was a kid.
I don't have any hand hewn beams. The door on the left leads up stars. The original part had one room down stairs and one up stairs. The one on the right is a closet since the fireplace is built inside the walls. There is only a crawl space under that part of the house.
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