The Napoleon NZ3000 Build Thread

Due to a lot of requests, I've decided to dig into my personal archives and put up the build of our Napoleon NZ3000 fireplace.......

So here we go. This time around I'll start from the very beginning......the BEFORE pics, as well....bear with me, I'll be adding to this thread many times over the next couple of days, there's a pile of information and pictures.

It was an epic saga, for sure, one that my wife and I had dreams of doing for many years. But money, time, and life in general just didn't allow it. After many years of planning, saving, and prepping, we finally had the opportunity!

Before I get to the build, I'll walk you through what we did. We saved every penny and dime we could for almost a DECADE so we could overhaul the entire house. My house was built around 1920 by my Great Great Grandfather and my Great Grandfather, before and during the Great Depression. They used what they could afford, and the house was well-built, but decades and decades of use and wear had the house needing a total overhaul. So we did, as well as build an addition.

We lived in the existing house as the addition was being built, after it was ready to finish, we moved out and gutted the existing house. Every single exterior stud (true 2x4" on 24" centers ) was removed and replaced with 2x6" on 16"centers. All the electrical and plumbing was also renewed. The house was insulated using the latest and greatest, so it would be efficient.

We saved the "great room" for last. We comnbined the old living room with the old master bedroom (was an addition added in 1935) together for the great room. Here is a pic of the outside, as we were gutting/reframing the great room.....




All the ceiling joists were removed, and one by one, we turned the rafters into scissor trusses so we could do a strong, vaulted ceiling.....

Here's the room after we gutted it. The window on the left, is right where the fireplace will end up......if you look at the old dutchlap siding, you can see cement residue on them. The used that wood for the foundation forms before using it for the siding!!



here are the scissor trusses, roughed in. I still had to finish gusseting them at the top. more cripples were added, as well as a second sheet of 5/8" plywood on the open side, to give the peak extreme strength....





and here they are with the midway "I" beam gussets, glued and nailed in......we also added steel hurricane ties to the shoe of each truss, where they sat on the top plate of the exterior walls. They are very VERY strong....



all exterior walls were re-studded to 2x6", for strength and also I wanted an R19 insulation in the exterior walls. It was a monumental task, the entire existing house had this work done.....



And a final look at the future fireplace wall, before I took a break on the room for a while. My little girl was a fantastic helper, her helping me with my sons meant that 5 generations of my family have put work into this house!



Okay, okay....hang in there, don't fall asleep on me. I'm getting to the "meat and potatoes", but you gotta eat your veggies first.....lol
So after all that framing, remodeling, and getting it liveable, we had to move back in. But the great room wasn't done, I hadn't even started the fireplace yet. Money was thin, burnout had settled in, and we had to put it on hold. So I partitioned the great room off of the main house and we moved in, using our dining room as our temp. living room. Stay tuned for the next installment!!

 

Being it rained and was ice all day yesterday and today, I had time to compile some stuff. Wow, I forgot how big a project that was!!

 

Ok, now we get to work on the chase. The NZ-3000 is a zero-clearance fireplace....it's designed to be put into a chase, or a sort of "closet". There are strict guidelines and codes that need to be adhered to when installing ANY wood burning appliance, this one is no different. After sitting down and looking at the clearances, talking to my insurance company about those clearances and other details, and drawing up a sketch of what my wife and I wanted, we set about the job.....Our end goal was to have a fireplace that looked and felt like an 18th century stone hearth, right down to the stone tapered flue. It was kinda complex to figure out the math, but not too bad.....

Had to dig a footer for the fireplace first. ...I ended up just pouring a solid concrete footer, at a depth of 41" just to be certain we were below frost line, and I also drilled/fastened rebar into the old poured stone foundation (that was an UGLY job), and I welded all the rebar together for a good strong skeleton......







after we poured the footer and blocked the foundation, it was time to frame.......











It was awesome to get to this point, but by this time it was mid October, I had to hurry up and finish up the exterior before winter!!

 

With that out of the way, I hurried up and got the outside of the flue chase wrapped with 30lb felt paper, got the metal lath on the chase and had a buddy of mine helped me get the scratch coat of cement on the chase before winter......I also finished up the siding and soffit/fascia and all of the flashing on the chase. I had to let the project go over the winter that year.......but it was sealed up for weather, and MAN did we ever get weather that year. Two big Nor'Easters. And my scissor trusses held up to around 5' of snow ON ONE SIDE......









Some pics of the WRECK the inside had become due to frantically working 8 hours every night AFTER WORK on it.....lol....




I had plenty to do inside (electrical, insulating, other framing, etc.) as well as taking a well-earned hiatas away from the project (did a lot of wood hoarding/maple sugaring that winter), picked back up on it late the following spring.

 

Okay, after a winter hiatus on the fireplace, it was time to get back to work. I had to gather a TON of stone. I used natural stone from the mountains around my home, and getting the right ones was time consuming to say the least.......its all around 1 1/2" thick, except for the cornerstones. I cut them out of thicker rocks, with a diamond blade in my Homelite DM20....

I used my driveway as a staging area to spread the stones out, and to clean them. it was nice having them spread out to pick and choose from. This is the same stone I used on my front porch, in my kitchen, on my interior staircase and on the garage and entire foundation of my house......That all took place sporadically, over the summer months, over the course of two summers. The chase, that all happened in a week's time......what a job too.

the stones spread out over the driveway.....





set up the scaffolding and had at it. I learned to do stone veneer starting at the top and working your way DOWN. Keeps from dropping globs of mortar on your nice, clean stone. Makes clean-up a thousand times easier......





I used a darker mortar after the stone had set up several days. I really like the look of the flue. Pic of it when we finished and after it had dried out really good. When the flue was done, I sprayed a silicone based sealer on the entire chase, its called Siloxane. Doesn't look glossy when dry, looks like natural stone but beads up water like wax. Amazing stuff.......




Then, I had a local metal fabrication shop make me a stainless steel custom chase cap. it was all TIG welded, leakproof and permanent.....and it fit perfectly! My buddy Doc gave me a hand with the install, it was over 5' long and 4' wide!



Moving on to the inside next!!!

 

Absolutely insane so far...... keep 'em coming

 

Okay....one more post for the night and I'll continue tomorrow.....

I got to work on the inside next. The NZ-3000 is a very efficient fireplace, with options to run ducting into your existing hot air ducts and/or dedicated runs from the stove itself. I wanted to utilize these options, and I also wanted a raised hearth, so I did some figuring and planning, and designed a good, sturdy, fireproof raised hearth that would allow me to run the ducting underneath the fireplace.....

To get the ducts into the main crawlspace from the new chase, I had to go ABOVE the old poured stone foundation. I accomplished this by building some 2x6" framework (kinda like a studded wall laying down on it's side), lined the inside of each cavity with cement board, and made spacers out of the cement board to give air clearance to each one of the ducts. I used oval 6" metal ducting to make it all work. It took some thought, but in the end worked perfectly. Two of the ducts go to remote registers (downstairs bathroom, kitchen, and dining room), they are on their own thermostatically controlled blower. The third duct pulls air from one end of the house and blows it around the stove into the great room via a remotely mounted blower. It works amazingly......it, too, is controlled via a rheostat switch. I can control how much air it puts out.....

Here's the ducting under the hearth.....notice the little opening to the left on the first pic in the hearth floor? I made a door there, and I can access the chase anytime I want to inspect it. That is total OVERKILL, but it's nice to be able to inspect the chase! I also have a light and switch in there!













Here's the fabbing of the hearth extensions......I wanted a radiused look on both ends of the hearth. This would all be covered with boulders later on......





more to come later!! Stay tuned!!

 

Hey, in my defense, it was requested.....lol

 

ok, now onto the hearth floor. The raised box for the ducts finished, it was time to prep it for the non-combustible floor required. Again, total overkill, but that's how I roll.....I'd rather have 'too much' than 'not enough'.

I wrapped all the wood substrate first, because I'd be using cement on the hearth.



I chose to go with a 2" thick concrete pad (5,000 psi countertop concrete), and I wanted a good mesh to hold it together from cracking. And I wanted that mesh "suspended" in the middle of the concrete. To accomplish this, I put 2" screws in at different locations all over the hearth, and ran them in half-way. So an inch of each screw was exposed. then I cut some concrete wire to fit the hearth perfectly (and tack welded the perimeter of it), and installed the wire on top of the screws with a tack weld at each screw......

I made forms for the exact depth that I wanted the concrete and made sure everything was good and level.....











I deliberately mixed the concrete a little wet, and I vibrated it for around a half hour by hammering on the wood around the hearth to get all the bubbles out........ended up with a VERY heavy duty pad......







I left the forms on for several days and then did a good clean-up in the hearth area.....

 

Next was getting the outside air kit (OAK) plumbed, and all the ducting adapters and flex pipe ready for install.....
The NZ3000 comes with optional knock-outs so you can duct heat away from the stove and into other areas of the house either by blower or convection, as well as the option to hook up a blower. We chose to use all the options being it is a primary heater in the house. There are two separate chambers around the firebox, one for the room blower, the other for the remote ducting.

the fireplace with both remote duct adapters installed. Each duct has a spring actuated flapper that closes shut and keeps convectional heat from escaping when the remote blower isn't running..the flue adapter in the middle. It's a 7" class A pipe. Odd size.....
bottom left you can see the OAK inlet



You can see the flappers closed in both remote ducts. they spring open (like a butterfly) when the blower is running....



The fireplace in it's final trip.....onto the hearth!! Getting closer, day by day.....



Hooking the ducting up to the sub-hearth piping......you can see aluminum non-combustible piping was used, per code.....





A pic of the room blower duct (goes in on the lower right side of unit). Behind it is the 3" OAK piping



And a pic of the OAK which comes around the rear of the unit and goes into the lower left front of the unit...