Ah, gentle reader, you might have seen some asides in other posts about how we’re having a fireplace replaced, and that it’s not going well. I was going to write a wrap up post after it was done, documenting the stages, but…. it definitely feels like it will never get done.
You remember the fireplace from happier times.
Also, perhaps luckier times.
As you might know, gentle reader, in the autumns and winter, I like to build a fire for aesthetic reasons and to warm at least the lower level. Right after we moved here, an ice storm was predicted, and my mother-in-law told me I needed some fire supplies right away. It was within recent memory of an ice storm that knocked out power to much of Springfield for a week (the same storm took out a lot of power in the St. Louis area, but not our home in Old Trees). But what you could get right away was a couple of bundles of campfire wood and a couple of Duraflame logs. I put a Duraflame log in the fireplace, and it remained there untouched for five or six years until a chilly trunk-or-treat prompted me to light it. I liked it so much that I burned Duraflame logs in it for the most part until sometime a couple of years ago when I started sourcing cords of firewood and burning wood fires.
Which might not have been a good idea.
During one of the chimney cleanings, the chimney cleaner noted a little gap between the firebox and the flue liner. No problem, he said, we can just put a little flue glue on it for now. So he did, and we continued burning wood fires, hot wood fires.
At last year’s chimney cleaning, the chimney cleaner noted that the flue liner had pulled away from the cutout on the firebox significantly, and he could not tug it back into place. So he recommended a flue liner replacement or replacing the firebox, maybe with an insert. So we did not burn fires last winter.
This summer, we got a windfall of which we allocated a portion to home repair. We decided to go with the firebox first before the roof since the fireplace guys would be climbing on the roof. So we contacted our chimney sweepers and a local company (who does not clean chimneys) for bids, and we got only one from the latter. The former did not call us to arrange a visit.
We were going to go with an insert, which is a smaller unit, but: I sometimes like to roll larger logs into the fireplace to burn all night, and, well, look at all that brick. A smaller fireplace would ruin the proportions. Also, I am stupid and profligate. So we went with a firebox of the same size.
Now, our existing firebox had vents on either side, but if it had blowers in it, they were not hooked up. Also, they’d talked about hooking it into the HVAC system, but I did not think that the existing fireplace was (because I did not know how they worked, gentle reader; they are not like in Dickens’ day).
We placed the order, and the initial schedule was released: Masons would take out the current firebox on October 8, and on October 12, the fireplace guys would install it, and on October 13 or 14, the masons would brick it back up.
So, on October 7, I removed the things from the mantel, and I sent a photo to my beautiful wife and said it had a Good Friday vibe.
I say sent a photo because she decamped to one of our fractional ownership’s resorts for a couple of days. She is on the phone a lot for work, and brick demolition would definitely have impeded that. So they came on October 8, spent all day grinding and cutting and whatnot, and worked until 7pm. Afterwards, it looked like this:
On Friday morning, the construction guy (who subcontracts the masonry work to the mason, whose workers might also be subs) and the fireplace guy came in to inspect it. The fireplace guy measured and said he’d need a little more taken off of the top to get the firebox into the cavity. So more demolition was on tap. Although I encountered the masonry crew chief in my driveway later that day, they did not show to do the demolition on Friday.
Ah, gentle reader, here it begins to blur. They did the demolition next week, and they brought the new firebox in the following…. Tuesday? The fireplace guys spent three or four house removing the previous flue liner, which they said was undersized at 9″. The new one, which would fit our current firebox, is 10″. But because they spent so much time removing the old flue liner, they did not have a chance to put the new one in, so they would come back tomorrow to do it.
At the end of the first week, it looked like this:
Narrator voice: They did not, in fact, come back tomorrow. As I mentioned, they decided not to come on account of the rain. Of course, they did not communicate this to me until I reached out, and too late for me to go to St. Louis to see Keiko Matsui. It rained Wednesday and Thursday, and….
Again, blur. Did they come and struggle with the flue liner on Friday? Or was it the following Monday?
But: The fireplace guys needed a little more space to get the box into the cavity, so they called out the masons for another day of demolition. Additionally, when inspecting the HVAC connections, they discovered that the heat from previous fires had scorched, through the drywall apparently, the exterior of the insulation around the duct from the previous firebox. Also, that ducting was touching combustible framing, which is a no-no. Additionally, they’d found that the cinderblocks around the firebox were not sealed–so they had a mason come trowel some mortar to seal it. Was that a separate visit? I don’t know.
But the masons chewed up more of the cinderblocks, added a beam to support the chimney, and the fireplace guys fit the box into the space.
But they were still having trouble getting the flue liner in. They came out on Saturday (October 24) to try to fit it in. They’d knocked out flue liner tiles in hopes that they would be able to maneuver the flue liner down, so they had to wrap it with insulation (which they had to order). So they spent another four hours trying to get it in, and could not. On Monday, they brought in another fireplace company guy to help out, and he cut a hole in the exterior of the chimney so they could reach in and guide the flue liner, and they discovered that the chimney was not properly lined or sealed, and that the interior of the chimney includes framing members of the house.
I joked to the family throughout that rebuilding the chimney was an option, and here we are. I’m awaiting a bid for that or other possible remediation actions. After they discovered the scorching on the duct work, they removed the drop part of the ceiling that housed it and counseled against hooking the firebox into the HVAC system because it would be difficult to work around the existing brick work. Which, of course, spoils much of the benefit of this big firebox. Especially if the blowers are not hooked up because the electric lines to them are not live. Which I am also expecting at this point.
To recount the problems:
- The cinderblocks around the fireplace had gaps which embers could perhaps get through to the wood of the house.
- The dropped ceiling hosting the HVAC ductwork was too low.
- The HVAC ductwork touched flammable things.
- Apparently, the chimney was unlined by concrete/cinderblocks.
- The wood mantel shelf is flammable and too close to the firebox. We’ve looked at non-combustible ones online, but they’re $1500 and would not arrive for two weeks. Which seemed like a long time when the job was going to be complete in a day or two or a couple of visits.
I’m probably missing one or two.
There’s no telling what they were thinking forty years ago when they built this house. However, given the corners cut with this and with the plastic hose dryer vent, I’m suddenly very afraid what other things might lie under the skin of this house. Will the roofers discover all the trusses need replacement? We’re throwing a stack of money onto this fireplace, and something else entirely might total the house.
I have learned a lot about fireplaces. These boxes and inserts actually have a firebox that is sealed except to the chimney and an outer box that allows air to warm and to circulate passively into the heat ducts (I didn’t think it was connected to the HVAC system because it did not have a blower like a furnace attached) or actively (through blowers, which the old box might have had, but never worked for whatever reason). I have a book about building fireplaces that has percolated to the top of the stacks. I might have to read it now, and I might finish it before I have a fireplace.
My lower level has been tented with increasingly porous plastic for three weeks now. I’ve been going under the plastic to lock the door (and to unlock the door). Do contractors expect homeowners to leave their doors unlocked for weeks at a time while the home is a job site? Seemingly so. The cats were afraid to begin with–after following me under the plastic one day, Nico was inside the wire when the masons came, and when he could not find the way out, he ran halfway up the bookshelves and made his own way.
As I said, the cats are not as afraid, so they’ve been crossing the plastic even when the contractors are here–and although I emphasize cierre la puerta, I have had to come around and shoe the boys back in before closing the door. Which means I have to be anxious and vigilant any time someone is here. I loath to think what it might be like with two gapping holes in the family room and the living room when we have no chimney. For however long it takes.
I would like for this to be done. Before Thanksgiving. But I have no idea. Unless I am texting them twice a day for updates to the schedule, I have no idea if someone is coming, even when they’re scheduled to do so. Yesterday, the mason crew chief was going to come to get details for mitigating the chimney issue or rebuilding it. But I did not see him. And the fireplace guy said he would come in the afternoon but did not. Text communications today indicate that the mason crew chief is preparing a bid, but I don’t know if that’s the case.
So I have been bound to Nogglestead for three weeks now waiting for contractors who sometimes come and checking to make sure they cierra la puerta when they do. I’m going nuts over here, and I’m not sure how it will end.
But, to end this post on an upbeat note, some positives:
- Well, my house did not burn down prior to this despite the identified flaws in the existing fireplace.
- The longer it takes, the more I save on firewood. I bought a cord last year before the chimney sweep lowered the boom (and cleaned the flue liner that would never again be used). Which might last me all year at this rate.
- If they take long enough, I can pay for the whole thing on interest I’m earning on the money allocated for it.
And, when they’re done, I can light a fire. Which I might very well not being afraid of what that eventually will lead to.
