Installing a solid fuel fire back.
Peter Goddard
Hi ,
I have to, at some stage, when I get around to it, put in a
solid fuel fire back into a builders opening ( if you pardon the
expression). Has anyone had any experience of this ? Is it a feasible
DIY task ?
Thanks.
Peter.
Chris Holmes
Depends how much you like playing withsand & cement etc.
My BIL & FIL did mine (Sorry that should read BIL (Brother In Law) i'm
sure the more astute can now work out what FIL means.
We purchased a ready made fire back (Which pleased them greatly as they
were expecting to have to fabricate it) and it was a question of glueing
it it with mortar and filling all cavities with mortar &
hardcore/agregate. I think the final "pointing" at the front might have
been done with fire cement. I think someone round here suggested some
time back (See Dejanews (as you should have already)) that it was easier
if you split the fire back into two on it's join line and put the bottom
in first (oo-err) then the top. Though BIL & FIL put ours in whole
Ben Edgington
Chris Holmes <hol...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk> writes:
> Peter Goddard wrote:
> > I have to, at some stage, when I get around to it, put in a
> > solid fuel fire back into a builders opening ( if you pardon the
> > expression). Has anyone had any experience of this ? Is it a feasible
> > DIY task ?
>
> Depends how much you like playing withsand & cement etc.
>
> We purchased a ready made fire back (Which pleased them greatly as they
> were expecting to have to fabricate it) and it was a question of glueing
> it it with mortar and filling all cavities with mortar &
> hardcore/agregate. I think the final "pointing" at the front might have
> been done with fire cement.
This is how I did it...
First clear out the opening completely. Ours has a nice flat floor of
bricks. Locate the fire-back and put down a layer of fire-cement to bed
it on (I got a tub of this from Wickes). Brick up at the sides with
bricks on end using regular mortar. Fill in behind with rubble and
mortar. As I filled I stuck sheets of corrugated cardboard against the
back of the fire-back and filled behind. This should eventually burn
away and allow some room for expansion. Finally I "flaunched" the top
with a fairly strong mortar - this is a slope down, all round, from the
wall to the fire-back. It's designed to stop soot etc. collecting in
the corners and causing trouble later.
Haven't tried lighting a fire there yet though, so it could all go
horribly wrong.
> I think someone round here suggested some
> time back (See Dejanews (as you should have already)) that it was easier
> if you split the fire back into two on it's join line and put the bottom
> in first (oo-err) then the top. Though BIL & FIL put ours in whole
Yeeees... All the articles/diy books/newsgroup-advice say to do this
(split the fire-back in two). Being an obedient type I very carefully
chiselled away with my bolster until it fell neatly into /four/ pieces.
Ooops. For the time being I've cemented it all together with
fire-cement and crossed my fingers. Next time I shall put it in whole.
Ben
[Lurker for the last two years, whilst renovating a Victorian terrace.
Keep up the good work, I've learnt a great deal here. Now it's time to
let you learn from /my/ mistakes!]
--
Ben Edgington: b...@met.rdg.ac.uk
"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain."
mlv
Chris Holmes <hol...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk> wrote in article
<3587E4...@sedgehill.lewisham.sch.uk>...
><snip>
> My BIL & FIL did mine (Sorry that should read BIL (Brother In Law) I'm
> sure the more astute can now work out what FIL means.
_______________________________________
Thanks Chris - I'm keeping up so far!
--
Michael L Vincent - founder member of AVAUNT
(Acronym Victims Against Unnecessary Name Truncation)
Frank Duffy
In article <35877286...@Cambridge.Simoco.Com>, Peter Goddard
<Peter....@Cambridge.Simoco.Com> writes
>Hi ,
> I have to, at some stage, when I get around to it, put in a
>solid fuel fire back into a builders opening ( if you pardon the
>expression). Has anyone had any experience of this ? Is it a feasible
>DIY task ?
>
>
>Peter.
>
Get in touch with the Solid Fuel Association 0800 600 0000. The have
all sorts of useful FREE guides which will give you detailed help.
They also have a web site which is at (I think)
http:\www.solidfuel.co.uk
One detail that is often missed by people but can avoid future problems
is to make an expansion gap at the back of the fireback by putting a
sheet of corrugated card in before the backfill. When the fire is lit
this will char away and leave a small gap which can stop the fireback
cracking in future.
Frank Duffy
Matthew Marks
In article <tg6g1h4...@nao.met.rdg.ac.uk>,
Ben Edgington <b...@met.rdg.ac.uk> writes:
> "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain."
Well the previous owner of my house, whose parents bought it when it was new,
was a religious nutter, but it didn't prevent all the lintels from cracking.
--
Matthew @rd.bbc.co.uk My opinions, not Auntie's
Ben Edgington
mat...@rd.bbc.co.uk (Matthew Marks) writes:
> In article <tg6g1h4...@nao.met.rdg.ac.uk>,
> Ben Edgington <b...@met.rdg.ac.uk> writes:
>
> > "Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain."
>
> Well the previous owner of my house, whose parents bought it when it was new,
> was a religious nutter, but it didn't prevent all the lintels from cracking.
Ah, he must have been the man who built his house on the sand. (See
Matthew (aptly) chapter 7)
Anyway, I hope you won't hold it against /this/ religious nutter...
ObDIY: Any ideas for neatly attaching a wooden mantel to the wall not
too permanently (in case my four-piece fire-back isn't up to it and I
need to replace it one day - I need to be able to take out the cast-iron
surround which will be behind the mantel)? Perhaps some sort of
recessed hooks on the back and on the wall to hang it on. It's not
particularly heavy. Anyone seen such a thing?
Ben
--
Ben Edgington: b...@met.rdg.ac.uk
"Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labour in vain."
- Psalm 127
Douglas de Lacey
Ben Edgington wrote:
> ObDIY: Any ideas for neatly attaching a wooden mantel to the wall not
> too permanently (in case my four-piece fire-back isn't up to it and I
> need to replace it one day - I need to be able to take out the cast-iron
> surround which will be behind the mantel)? Perhaps some sort of
> recessed hooks on the back and on the wall to hang it on. It's not
> particularly heavy. Anyone seen such a thing?
>
We have a copper one (nherited with the house) which fits surprisingly
loosely and yet securely via friction forces on a a small lip at the
back. For yours I'd recommend mirror fixings: keyholed plates to screw
on the mantel, and round-head screws in the wall.
Douglas de Lacey.
Andy Wade
Frank Duffy wrote ...
> Get in touch with the Solid Fuel Association 0800 600 0000. The have
> all sorts of useful FREE guides which will give you detailed help.
I too have installed a fireplace (with a Baxi Burnall) from scratch. I
found the book detailed below quite helpful. Probably out of print now;
try the library.
A better alternative to rubble for filling in behind the fireback is
vermiculite granules (Micafil - as used to be used for loft insulation).
Mix about 1:6 with OP cement and keep the water to an absolute minimum.
Gives a slightly flexible filling with low thermal conductivity, so the
fireback gets hotter, increasing radiant heat output to the room. It comes
in 4 cu.ft. bags from builders' merchants, and 1 bag is more than enough.
HTH & good luck. It's very satisfying sitting by a fire in a fireplace
that you've built yourself.
Book details:
Title: Home Heating and Fireplaces - a Do-It-Yourself Guide
Author: Robert Tattersall
Publisher / date: Stanley Paul & Co. Ltd., 1977
ISBN: 0 09 128061 3
--
Andy
Joe Tozer
Yes go for it, it's not very difficult.
Buy a fire back of the correct width, n.b. they're pretty heavy, put it
in place in the opening and back fill with a very loose rubble and
mortar mix, if there's not much room to work the fire back probably has
a weak line about half way up so you can split it with a bolster chisel
and club hammer, I did this with some trepidation but it split cleanly
into two parts.
When you put the second bit into the opening you can join the two halves
with special fire reistant cement (pyro cement I think it's called).
It's also recommended to wrap the back of the fire back in corrugated
cardboard before back filling so that it can expand without cracking
when it gets hot.
You can (or maybe that's could ??) also get asbestos rope that seals the
gap between the fire back and the opening, again this allows expansion
and prevents cracking by preventing the back fill getting between the
fire back and the opening.
Once it's all in place mortar up the gap between the flue and the top of
the fire back.
Buy a hearth, large bag of coal, some kindling, box of matches, a bag of
chesnuts and enjoy; I'm looking forward to winter already . . . .
In article <35877286...@Cambridge.Simoco.Com>, Peter Goddard
<Peter....@Cambridge.Simoco.Com> writes
>Hi ,
> I have to, at some stage, when I get around to it, put in a
>solid fuel fire back into a builders opening ( if you pardon the
>expression). Has anyone had any experience of this ? Is it a feasible
>DIY task ?
>
>Thanks.
>
>Peter.
>
>
>
>
--
Joe Tozer http://www.tozer.demon.co.uk
"Numbers will account for a great
deal of the sufferings of humanity" . . . . . Myles na Gopaleen
Paul C. Dickie
In article <tg6btrp...@nao.met.rdg.ac.uk>, Ben Edgington
<b...@met.rdg.ac.uk> wrote:
>ObDIY: Any ideas for neatly attaching a wooden mantel to the wall not
>too permanently (in case my four-piece fire-back isn't up to it and I
>need to replace it one day - I need to be able to take out the cast-iron
>surround which will be behind the mantel)? Perhaps some sort of
>recessed hooks on the back and on the wall to hang it on. It's not
>particularly heavy. Anyone seen such a thing?
Mirror plates, screwed to the back of the fire surround/mantelpiece and
with recesses cut into the wood to allow the screw heads to slide in
place; six or eight should be more than adequate. The alternative
method would be to use the non-concealed mirror fixings, screwed to the
wooden mantel, then screwed into the wall and papered over.
--
< Paul >