One of the major problems with the house when we bought it was the fireplace. In fact, our inspector said it was in such bad shape that we should not use it and should even consider ripping it out. We're pretty fond of fires in the winter, so we decided to keep it, and we finally got our fireplace repair guy out this week to fix it.
First off, he replaced the damper, which was rusted through. He added a nice little pull chain so we can open and close it easily. Next, he added a bunch of bricks up behind the firebox - apparently there was nothing but space there before! Definitely a fire hazard. He replaced the chimney cap, and re-mortared all of the bricks on the back of the fire box, which were in pretty bad shape.
New damper chain.
Bricks in the back of the firebox have been repositioned and re-mortared.
We'll actually have to have the fire box rebuilt in a few years most likely - it depends on how long the repairs he did to the brick hold up. However, we may end up turning this into a double-sided gas fireplace when we redo the kitchen - it's really not clear what the long-term plans are for the fireplace. For now, it's functional and safe. All we need is a nice cold snap so that we have an excuse to build a fire!
New damper chain.
Bricks in the back of the firebox have been repositioned and re-mortared.
Do you burn wood? An environmentalist friend was horrified at the thought that I would burn anything except firelogs, and I've never really looked into it - just felt guilty when I burn wood. Not to mention less guilty when I burn fake logs, which I would have thought were bad. It isn't hard to do the right thing - if you can only figure out what the right thing is!
ReplyDeleteWe do burn wood. We save our scrap lumber (untreated, of course) from the various house projects, as well as twigs and limbs that fall from the trees. We also have an unlimited supply of logs from the city's brush and limb recycling, so we don't buy wood to burn.
ReplyDeleteIf we wanted to be super-environmentally-good, we'd get a wood-burning stove, since those tend to be much more efficient for heating. I'd love to have one of those, if I can just figure out where to put it!
Um - what was the title of this post again?
ReplyDeleteBe careful what you wish for (for what you wish...), etc.
Yep, now's your time! And Thanksgiving week looks like an even better candidate.
ReplyDelete